So here’s what’s up. Gamer is not that bad; in fact I kind of liked it.
Kind of.
If I really picked out all of the flaws in this movie I would never shut up. I tend to get annoyed at a movie that fails to do one or more of the following: make logical sense, contain a well-thought out story, subtly inserts themes, ideas, or plot devices.
Gamer does all of these things but I guess I cared so little about this movie it made me capable of turning off my critical mind. Sometimes that’s okay.
Sometimes.
Set some 30 years into the future, Gamer stars Gerard Butler(300, The Ugly Truth) and depicts a world where an injection allows your mind and thus your actions to be controlled by a “gamer” (now you see why it's such a clever title). This injection, initially used in a real life depiction of a “Sims” game called “Society” has now been developed into a real life war game called “Slayer”. Kable (Butler) is a convict who’s won 27 Slayer matches. Win 30 and they set you free. (Think “The Running Man, 1987). In my opinion if they spent more time raising the stakes and building some suspense on the way to the 30th match the movie would have worked better, but who cares about my opinion?
The problem with a movie like Gamer is that it tries to be funny at the wrong time. It winks at the camera when they are trying to set up a believable dramatic scene. I’m sure we could argue that this was the intention of the filmmaker and all that gibberish, but come on, when it doesn’t work it doesn’t matter.
Gamer does this all too often, however, what Gamer does do well is set up the funny outside of the drama. The depiction of the “Society” game is a bright spot in the movie. Successfully reminding me of a bad music video set in the future, “Society” is comical. Along with the “society” scene(s) there is a musical sequence containing the song “I’ve got you under my skin” that is especially entertaining.
Gamer is obviously a rip off of several other films, all of which manage to have better action sequences, characters we care about, and on the whole are gonna be better movies. Howard Hawks, a respected director of several different genres said “a good movie is three good scenes and no bad one’s”. Following this logic Gamer is definitely less than good, but it does have at least 3 good scenes that make it worth the effort to watch it.
My Vote: A rental for sure. (and maybe a bunch of friends and tall cans of beer too.)
A Side Note:
I’m not a gamer. My video game dominance begins and ends with Super Mario Bros. I think that this helped me relax a little bit during Gamer. I’m not usually a big fan of this type of movie. It took me a few years and multiple viewings of the Matrix to agree that it was a significant movie…perhaps because when put up against other movies of the same ideas it stood out, but that’s another review.
