Review of Gamer (2009) by Jade S — 05 Dec 2010
What a god awful update of Arnie's classic The Running Man (just thought, I wonder where Tarantino really got the idea for Uma Thurman's yellow tracksuit in Kill Bill - he'll always say Bruce Lee but I reckon he was a secret Arnie fan!) this is.
The first 45mins are so fast and completely incoherent it's impossible to know for sure what is going on. The themes of the movie seem to be social commentary in that in the future people will take the likes of Call of Duty and The Sims a step further and actually play these games for real, the catch being other people will control their actions.
Interesting stuff in theory, ham fisted bollocks in actuality. The 'game' itself that Kable (Butler) is playing is never fully explained (only that you escape after 30 games and are given a clean criminal record, oh and kill people) which was strange to watch in that he kills some people but doesn't others.
The characters are cartoonlike and the action is quite frankly so shonkily edited its hard to follow what is going on, never mind make you care. It reminded me of Quantum of Solace which had the same effect on me.
It gets slightly better the last 45 minutes but not even a bonkers Michael C Hall with a strange Texan drawl can make me give this movie more than the one star it deserves. Terrible.
This review of Gamer (2009) was written by Jade S on 05 Dec 2010.
Gamer has generally received mixed reviews.
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