Gamer Review...(minor spoilers)
(x-posted)
I think Gerard Butler has become the next Hugh Jackman. After breaking out in 300 it was a family flick, a few rom-coms and now with the action adventure movie entitled Gamer and the soon to be released Law Abiding Citizen he had become the go-to guy as it were.
Unfortunately, the script for Gamer doesn’t give Butler much to work with and the MTV-Style editing of Gamer does help this ADD-addled movie that somehow managed to misuse the loverly Zoe Bell.
After reading the script I thought it was going to be good, a nice mix of Tron and Death Race but without the cars, basically nothing to write home about but enough video game-type plot to glaze over the bad parts.
The editing is what kills it. Instead of nice long shots or crisp editing we quick cuts and overused postproduction video game-style glitch editing. But, the directing duo behind Crank and Crank 2 manages to screw up a movie about video games. This should come to no surprise since no video game movie with the exception of Tron has ever been good.
The idea put forth is simple: Someone at home controls a convicted inmate called an I-Con through a battleground. First I-Con to get to 30 matches wins his freedom. All of this was brought about by an uber geek Steve Job-knock off played by Michael C. Hall. His creation of nanobots that take over someone’s brain is what makes Slayers and its civilian knock off Society (think Sims for Adults) make loads of money.
At least the idea behind the recent remake of Death Race made sense and wasn’t this bad. I don’t mind mindless blow things up movies, I do mind mindless blowing things up movies that were edited together by a twelve year old.
While there are some moments of intelligence and more than a few homage to other movies like Gladiator and Blade Runner the problem is Butler’s character has no one to act with and the sub-plot regarding his controller, Simon, played by Logan Lerman doesn’t either except for Keith David in a few scenes that try to establish what type of universe we’re in but just ends up being throw away scenes.
There’s basically no Djimon Hounsou or Ralf Moeller to be either Butler or Logan’s posse. And, it a movie called Gamer you’d think there would be a posse, a Guild or a Clan. Instead it’s the lone warrior against everyone and while they may sound nifty theme that worked for Rocky it makes for a boring, blow-em up, rated R movie.
In the end, this movie is like that time you played a video game over your friend’s house and his older, drinking, swearing, brother was backseat gaming. And, instead of throwing him out of the house, they made a movie of it instead.
Overall, wait for it to come out on cable, not even worth the rental.
I think Gerard Butler has become the next Hugh Jackman. After breaking out in 300 it was a family flick, a few rom-coms and now with the action adventure movie entitled Gamer and the soon to be released Law Abiding Citizen he had become the go-to guy as it were.
Unfortunately, the script for Gamer doesn’t give Butler much to work with and the MTV-Style editing of Gamer does help this ADD-addled movie that somehow managed to misuse the loverly Zoe Bell.
After reading the script I thought it was going to be good, a nice mix of Tron and Death Race but without the cars, basically nothing to write home about but enough video game-type plot to glaze over the bad parts.
The editing is what kills it. Instead of nice long shots or crisp editing we quick cuts and overused postproduction video game-style glitch editing. But, the directing duo behind Crank and Crank 2 manages to screw up a movie about video games. This should come to no surprise since no video game movie with the exception of Tron has ever been good.
The idea put forth is simple: Someone at home controls a convicted inmate called an I-Con through a battleground. First I-Con to get to 30 matches wins his freedom. All of this was brought about by an uber geek Steve Job-knock off played by Michael C. Hall. His creation of nanobots that take over someone’s brain is what makes Slayers and its civilian knock off Society (think Sims for Adults) make loads of money.
At least the idea behind the recent remake of Death Race made sense and wasn’t this bad. I don’t mind mindless blow things up movies, I do mind mindless blowing things up movies that were edited together by a twelve year old.
While there are some moments of intelligence and more than a few homage to other movies like Gladiator and Blade Runner the problem is Butler’s character has no one to act with and the sub-plot regarding his controller, Simon, played by Logan Lerman doesn’t either except for Keith David in a few scenes that try to establish what type of universe we’re in but just ends up being throw away scenes.
There’s basically no Djimon Hounsou or Ralf Moeller to be either Butler or Logan’s posse. And, it a movie called Gamer you’d think there would be a posse, a Guild or a Clan. Instead it’s the lone warrior against everyone and while they may sound nifty theme that worked for Rocky it makes for a boring, blow-em up, rated R movie.
In the end, this movie is like that time you played a video game over your friend’s house and his older, drinking, swearing, brother was backseat gaming. And, instead of throwing him out of the house, they made a movie of it instead.
Overall, wait for it to come out on cable, not even worth the rental.