This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The first The Gamers film was a 45 minute fun fest, where some young guys in a dorm were role playing and the viewer would simultaneously see them in action. I think the biggest difference from that movie and the sequel is the enthusiasm of the players. In the sequel the players are older, having to deal with real life more, and the feeling has changed.That doesn't mean that it's bad, only different. I certainly appreciated some depth in the characters of the movie. The game master is organizing these games in order to overcome his writer's block. One of the player is always criticizing him because he is more interested in the story than "the rules" and brings frustration and ego into the mix. Things like that were not an issue in the goofy group of young gamers from the first film.The most striking change, of course, is the addition of a female player who changes the "attack, kill and ask questions later" dynamics of usual campaigns. The tension of a possible romantic relationship with the game master also add a little depth to the film.Not all is rosy, though. The girl chooses a character that has few hit points, but which has other attributes, like intelligence in order to negotiate out of conflicts and speed as to get extra hits after criticals, but it only uses the extra hits for comic relief at the beginning and her lack of HPs is not mentioned later in the film. Compare that with the poor bard who dies all the time or with the chaotic neutral wizard female character of a male player that seemed to be there for comic relief and decoration only.I have to say something about the girl gamer. The idea of inclusion in the game of the female perspective and wisdom was welcome, but its role exacerbated to ridiculous levels in the movie. In order to pull that off some of the other characters lost depth and gained a lot of unnecessary silliness. That kind of defeats the idea if the girl seems to only be capable of wisdom if all her male companions are idiots.Bottom line: fun film, but at times too slow and inconsistent. I liked how some actors from the old movie appear as secondary characters, some traumatized from older campaigns (lol Mark). Real life issues (where real life is still goofy, like being a writer for role playing campaigns) creeping in the gamer experience is also a thing that makes the film feel more real than the first. However it cannot capture the wackiness from the original The Gamers. I am looking forward to the Hands of Fate sequel. Wait, didn't they defeat The Shadow (The Shadow? The Shadow! The Shadow.) in the first film?

What's it about? Well, it's a little complicated to explain if you haven't played tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. And yet—it's quite easy to explain if you do play roleplaying games. If my description of the plot comes off to you non-RPGers as alienating, don't be turned away! The humor and cleverness of this film is not so "sub- cultural" that you won't find yourself laughing and perhaps touched.Anyhow. Back to the question at hand. What's it about? It concerns a group of friends who play Dungeons and Dragons together. If you play Dungeons and Dragons, then you know that D&D is a kind of "collaborative storytelling ritual." Thus, the film also relates the story of this group of friends's Dungeons and Dragons "campaign," that is, the story they tell and act out together.And so you have two narratives here: (1) the story of their real lives, sitting around the game table, laughing, drinking soda, arguing, etc., and (2) the story of their D&D campaign, set in a fantasy world plagued by the evil necromancer Mort Kemnon. So, you have two narratives juxtaposed over top of each other here: a realistic one and a fantasy one. This narrative juxtaposition is the source of much of the pleasure of the film—its humor, its insights into human character, etc.. Let me try to explain.An example. There's one character, Gary, who has decided to play a sorcerer in the D&D game. And so he plays another character, a sorcerer. And yet, he can't decide on which gender to make his character. And as he's playing, he sometimes forgets his character is a girl. And so, you have a character in the fantasy world, a sorcerer/sorceress, by the name of Luster, played by two actors: Christian Doyle and Jennifer Page. One scene you have a scantily-clad, sexy sorceress; and the next scene you have a dude in excessively feminine sorceress's clothing. What is the result of these complicated narrative swirlings that I'm having difficulty articulating here? Hilarity.Aside front he plot, you have some very good comedic acting in here. The character of Flynn Fine, the womanizing bard (played by Scott C. Brown), is hilarious. There's a scene where he attempts to use his bard-singing abilities to calm the rage of a marauding band of goblins, and is pin- cushioned with spears. This moved me to tears (tears of laughter, that is). When I watch the film, this scene is a "rewinder-and-play-againer".The stories of other characters--the game master, Kevin Lodge (Nathan Rice), and the "rules lawyer," Cass (Brian Lewis)—are, in addition to being both hilarious and fun, touching stories. Kevin is struggling with writer's block; Cass is struggling with his need to "win," to be the best, the greatest, the one. There's another character, the fighter Daphne (Carol Roscoe), who is perfect at being the opposite of the stereotypical mighty-thewed warrior: intelligent, sweet, noble, and-- nevertheless--deadly. In a fun way her character shines a lot of light on gender stereotypes.For being an independent film company, the production value is also quite impressive. Costuming, computer effects, choreography, props, scenery: all of these suggest that this film is indeed an "independent," low-budget production—and yet, the production elements seem to suggest a characteristic style, a unique flavor that is endearing and impressive rather than cheesy.Anyhow, I love this movie! In juxtaposing "real life" with "fantasy life," it reveals important inter-connections between the two; and it does this difficult work with humor and authenticity in a way only an independent production could.

This film is so wonderful it captures the gaming life. I laughed so hard while watching this. The movie is about a gaming group that have a hard time with a campaign that their dungeon master came up with. The movie switches from the real world and the gaming world as they play the campaign it shows them in the gaming world as their character, and then switches back to the real world when they are not playing. The campaign is the basis for a module that the dungeon master, Lodge, is writing. The problem is Lodge can't finish his module because the characters can't finish the campaign. They are more for killing and looting instead of role playing. Lodge wants them to role play through the campaign something they have never done before. They decide to bring in some extra help so they bring a,wait for it, girl in to play. Lodge also makes a npc, a non player character, a paladin,who can not witness or do wrong, to play. The film is how they do all this and more I don't want to spoil any of the film so I won't say any more. This movie may not be a big budget film the acting may not be Oscar worthy but if you are into gaming or into dungeons and dragons then definitely watch it. They had a lot of fun making this film and it shows I am not going to bash on it for any movie problems such as continuity or any thing it was a low budget film that is just fun. There is some slap stick comedy which I enjoy and some damn good writing in my opinion. So if you want a fun film try it .

I don't play video games at all but my children do.I got a big kick out of this. Would like to see more of this type of film. "very cool" as my youngest would say.Interesting characters and the overall story line was interesting. Like I said I don't play video games but I think that my children would enjoyed this. It was not full of bad language and that is a pleasant change. This visual concept was different which caught my eye. Plus the sound track was pretty good. I might even try out some of the games my sons plays to see because of this film. Who knows maybe I'll be a gamer someday.