You won't be disappointed!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Director Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor brought the thrills and impressive visuals in the film Crank (2006) and its sequels. Here in this sci-fi action thriller, not so much. Set in the near-future when humans are able to control others through mind control, Michael C. Hall (Dexter) plays Ken Castle, a technological genius who runs a live-action online third-person shooter game known as "Slayers", where prisoners are pulled out of death row and forced to battle in a gun-blazing fight to the death; on live television. The last man left alive at the end of the game wins his freedom. Gerard Butler plays Kable, a prisoner who must fight to the end and make it out alive to get back to his wife and daughter. Logan Lerman plays Simon, a cocky, but expert gamer who controls Kable in the game. While this film follows an undoubtedly interesting premise and boasts some great action sequences, it suffers from an extreme lack of substance and execution; here is why. The plot development is very clumsy and goes in many directions it doesn't need to go. As it follows Gerard Butler's character Kable trying to make to the last round of the game, he learn that Michael C. Hall's character (the bad guy) is plotting to kill him. We are never given the motive as to why he doing it or what he wants from Kable exactly. Towards the climax, the plot transcends into this ridiculous convoluted mess where nothing makes sense anymore. As a case in point, the characters feel one- dimensional and hard to care about. Secondly, throughout the film while we are being treated with these unflinching bloody and violent shootouts, there is an unnecessary amount of sexual intercourse and nudity. Basically whats goes on in these scenes, is men and women who are sort of like avatars in the game world, flashing their breasts, flashing their bottoms, or engaging in sexual activity and what not; and it is just so unnecessary. These scenes are very misogynistic (especially with Amber Valleta's character) and are designed to just make the audiences uncomfortable. Then there are these other scenes that are just straight up perverted. It makes the movie look more like a porno. And the worst part is, the players on the outside controlling them. This film seems to aim to be more exploitative than realistic. Don't get wrong, I am have seen movies like this, but this is one just makes it unpleasant. Overall, Gamer is a bit of a mess. This film not only runs on a horrifically bad script, but is very crude, loathsome, and tries it hardest to make viewers uncomfortable. Basically, if you have a problem with extreme violence, sex, and nudity; you are definitely gonna hate this movie. Even if you are a big video game addict, you still have very little chance of enjoying this.

"Gamer" is a mean-spirited, misogynist, poorly edited and poorly shot action film. The characters are cliché and the world the story is set in so vaguely defined that it's impossible to understand what is going on. I'm not usually one to criticize a film for feeling familiar because if you look deeply enough, a lot of people take inspiration from myths or common story elements, but when your movie brings in nothing new and doesn't even feel like it's trying, I call foul.The film is set in 2024. The gaming industry has been revolutionized because now, instead of playing regular video games people can command prisoners to fight to the death in a "real life" video game called Slayers. If you don't feel like having convicts fight each other to the death? Well that's OK because you can also have other human beings dance around, perform dangerous stunts, have gratuitous sex or embarrass each other in a tamer game called "Society" where poor people get paid to have their bodies controlled by others. Our hero is John "Kable" Tillman (Gerard Butler), the most popular pawn in the game of Slayers. There's something sinister about this futuristic society, and if the probably evil Castle (Michael C. Hall) is to be taken down, Kable will have to take control of his own body! What irritated me about this picture is that the story just feels like an excuse to have stuff happen. Really important elements of this world are never explained, they're just there and you have to take for granted that it works the way it does. I don't mean in the same way that a far-out premise like say... "The Running Man" either. I'm talking about stuff that could plausibly happen but is presented in a way that makes no sense. For example, the rules or goals of the Slayers game are never established. What is the objective of the game? Do the slayers have to run to a shelter before they are killed? Do you have to murder a certain amount of people? Is there a time limit? You never find out. How has Slayers revolutionized video games anyways? It's not like the players can feel what their convicts can feel, and games can't be started at any time of the day (they're televised) so how is a video game that you can pick up for cheaper, play at any time not strictly better? This is a tale that doesn't care about explaining anything or developing the world it's set in so it's really hard to care about anything that's going on. Stuff just happens so that we can have people kill each other.I'll give the movie this: if the objective was to make a game that feels like a deplorable video game, mission accomplished! The characters actually feel like video game personalities because your immediate impression of them is everything that defines them. The villain is very obviously evil (even though it's supposed to be a mystery) for example and he does that typical thing that every bad villain does in a bad action movie. I'm just saying that you would never see Mr. Glass from "Unbreakable" pick a fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger because one is a brainy villain, the other is an action hero... but that doesn't stop our Machiavellian sociopath! Kable isn't any better. He's set up as a killer but anyone with half a brain can see that this is once again, one of these movies where our anti-hero isn't an actual anti hero, he's just a good guy that's been misunderstood. Nearly every other character is totally disposable, and not the least bit memorable. Unless they're a woman because those are all killed or sexually exploited by the time the credits roll. Females in "Gamer" are more like props than actual people. I was actually really disturbed by some of the events in the film. Want a hint of some of the distasteful developments? How about I give you an easy one: there's a character called "Rick Rape" in the "tamer" Society game! There are a few scenes that have good action segments and there are a couple of laughs here and there but there's no real audience for this movie. You would think that this action film would be made to cater to video game enthusiasts, but they're all portrayed as unlikeable sexual deviants that would willingly sexually assault or murder human beings for kicks. "Gamer" goes out of its way to show how horrible it is to get entertainment out of seeing human beings being killed, so people who revel in violence and gore (fans of action or horror movies) won't get much entertainment out of this lecture either. There's no need to see this when there are actual good movies based on the same concept easily available. I came to thoroughly hate "Gamer". (Dvd, July 14, 2012)

Gamer is a movie best enjoyed by those 13 and older, primarily those who have high testosterone or enjoy fast paced blood and action movies. This is a good movie for a group of guys to enjoy together. Women who love lots of action will also enjoy this movie. Those adults who play action video games should also enjoy this flick. Gamer moves too quickly to enjoy much of any refreshments. It is a prime time movie and deserves your constant attention. The premise of the movie can lead to much debate; but the movie/story plot is not for me to judge, only the presentation and enjoyment value. I personally enjoy movies that are slow enough for me to enjoy what is going on. The movie moves a bit too fast for me. I do like the scifi aspect of the movie.

This film mixes Running Man with Death Race to come up with a fast paced entertaining flick. The director makes some solid statements about the world we live by using color contrast of black and white in the real world and bright colors for that of the gaming world to signify our perspectives on different subject matters. Some may fine some of the aspects of the plot hard to accept. What is nice, is the movie acknowledges this point and only brings it up in a few places. Other than that the focus is completely on the characters as they make their way through the movie.The acting is spot on. While it would be easy to focus on the high end tech of this future world, this movie maintains the importance of the humans and their interaction with each other. When Simon is on his computer we are all wowed by his layout, but during those interactions our focus is on Simon and not the fancy toys he has.This is a great first movie for a man's movie night. Throw the pizza box on the table, crack open a soda, and put some chips,dip, and popcorn at hands length and enjoy.