- The slayer himself
Jack Thompson would be proud
It seems that it is a week of gaming predictions and it’s only Monday – so let me make my own prediction. One day, if he hasn’t already, disbarred attorney and self appointed anti-video gaming champion will watch the movie “Gamer” and cackle with delight. If you consider going to the movie with a “pro” video gaming bent then don’t.
Another word of caution is this – if you are looking for the movie equivalent of a “Triple-A game” then you will be in the wrong theater when you take your seat.
All that being said, if you go to the theater because you like Gerard Butler (“300” as King Leonidas), action movies, or B movies like Crank (starring Jason Statham) then this movie will not disappoint. The interesting thing about any movie is that the movies are not made for the reviewers – they are made for the movie goers. In fact, recently Paramount Motion Pictures, fed up with negative reviews for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, refused to let newspaper reviewers have access to an advance showing of “G.I. Joe”. The moral of the story here is that despite reviewers having blasted Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen it was widely attended and made money “hand over fist”.
And yes, I am sure that Jack Thompson would be proud of the anti-video gaming moments in the movie.
But there were many other fun moments as well (and a few creepy ones).
The premise behind the movie is that a media mogul named Ken Castle has become a one man version of the Activision/Blizzard gorilla creating two games played by the entire world: “Slayers” and “Society”. Ken Castle is portrayed by Michael C. Hall (“Dexter” in the television series of the same name) who once again portrays a homicidal maniac. In the movie, human beings have “nanites” (it always seems to be those nasty little nanites who are to blame doesn’t it) implanted in their brain, allowing them to be controlled by gamers who have made the jump from virtual reality to “real” reality.
The best way to describe the game “Society” in the movie is to have you imagine Second Life as if it were created by Larry Flynt instead of Linden Lab. We are guide through the game, as is Angie (Amber Valletta from “Raising Helen” and “Transporter 2”) by the hand of Ramsey Moore as “Gorge”, the gamer that remotely controls Angie. The “Gorge” character at once is both a stereotype of all that is wrong with gaming and an incentive to never over eat again (when you see the actor dip a waffle in a bowl of syrup you will understand exactly what I mean).
Most of the movie centers around a game called “Slayers” – imagine all modern warfare games you have ever played, multiply the violence by 10, and slip in real people instead of avatars and you have the game Slayers. Gerard Butler (“300” as King Leonidas) portrays “Kable” when he is in the game Slayer being controlled. I was simply amazed at how much the actor did with little that was written into the role by the movies directors and writers, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (who brought us the Crank movies starring Jason Statham). Kable is a convict who has been wrongly accused of course – it generates more empathy that way. Either that or the writers simply took the Jason Statham role from the remake of “Death Race” and dropped it into “Gamer” (I think the latter is more the case). Kable, having survived 29 sessions of the game Slayer, must survive one more to win his freedom.
One of the creepier scenes in the movie takes place when Kable confronts Ken Castle. Ken Castle is able to control the convicts with nanites implanted in their brain – and control them he does. In a scene that engendered a laugh at first immediately descends into the creepy as actor Michael C. Hall controls a chorus line of convicts that all dance to Sammy Davis Jr. singing “I’ve got you under my skin.”
Other notable performances (for better or for worse) were turned in by Ludacris (more known for his music than his acting), Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer” as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson) and John de Lancie as “Chief of Staff” (whom Star Trek fans will forever remember as “Q”)
Ludacris portrays a character known as a “Humanz Brother” in a role that is very reminiscent of Ice-T’s “J-Bone” character in Johnny Menemonic – the movie with Keanu Reeves “loosely” based on the story of the same name by William Gibson.
In a role that is easily missed if you happened to be momentarily distracted, John de Lancie plays “Chief of Staff” in what has to be the worst small role ever written for a movie. In the theater there is a saying: “There are no small roles only small actors”. I watched Mr. de Lancie struggle through a few lines where every other word (literally) was an “F-bomb”. At first one might be tempted to say to oneself “has the phone quit ringing?” Keep in mind, however, that when John Wayne was once asked why he kept acting, he replied simply “I need the money.” Money, after all, is money, no matter what the role one is asked to portray.
Instead of faulting actors for being in a b-movie, which some may think is beneath them, I will fault two writers for having creating the need to coin a new phrase where movie making is concerned:
“There are no small roles – only poorly written ones.”
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather