Gamer

*****
Three Stars Out of Five

"Gamer" is the new Neveldine/Taylor flick. These are the guys that brought us "Crank" and "Crank 2: High Voltage"(which I have yet to see). I really liked "Crank," as it was an offensively over-the-top action movie which had an incredibly unbelievable premise, yet remained fun for it's short duration. Neveldine/Taylor are visual filmmakers first and foremost, and they are more concerned with burning your retinas with ungodly amounts of images and bright lights than they are with telling a spectacular story that leaves you scratching your head. Which is kind of why "Gamer" left me scratching my head.

The movie opens with Kable (Gerard Butler) on death row, some years in the future. This isn't the death row we know of, rather it's a death row in which the inmates have been injected with some self-replicating cells that essentially turns that person into an avatar for video gamers. Screw high-def visuals and audio, screw Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. These guys are the real deal, and when they die, it's flesh, bone, and brain matter being sprayed across the screen. The inmates are by and large operated by snot-nosed teenagers and the public is addicted to each episode of "Slayers." In addition to "Slayers" there is another game entitled "Society," which is just like Playstation Home, but with real people. These people aren't prisoners; instead these avatars are employees who get paid to be taken control of by consumers - from what we see, fat, slobby consumers. "Society" is basically a virtual (yet not virtual) Gomorrah where people take control of avatars and have them fuck, drink, and commit acts of violence for their pleasure. It's deeply disturbing, yet eerily similar to some of the shit you will see on Playstation Home at any given time. "Slayers" and "Society" are the brain-children of Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall, from "Dexter"), a bonafide genius who is obviously a little twisted upstairs.

So, Kable is in the midst of his 26th "Slayers" outing when the movie opens. If he gets to 30, he gets set free. The notion of freedom is the only thing that keeps Kable going, and he keeps his head down when he's not fighting. He just wants to serve his time and get back to his wife and kid. The kid controlling him, Simon, is a pretty big douche who just so happens to be famous for his ability to kill living people by controlling another living person. His scenes are generally funny, and are a nice way to not only break up the action and give us glimpses into this dystopian future.

Unfortunately, the plot isn't quite that simple. Turns out that there's an underground movement entitled Humanz, which hacks into the live feeds of television shows to warn the people that they're dangerously close to giving up their free will in order to be entertained. It's not a bad subplot, but it also slows down the pace of the movie quite a bit. In addition to this, there's another over-arching conspiracy at work here, one I won't spoil, even though it is abundantly clear within 15 minutes of the movie's start.

The action is incredibly visceral - there's a lot of bloody deaths in each and every battle scene, and the stunt-work is top-notch. There is a really cool chase sequence about halfway through the movie in which two dumptrucks are upended. The action sequences are shot from a third-person viewpoint, which is pretty reminiscent of video games. There are some really sweet kills, and you'll see detached limbs quite often. Aside from the shoot-outs and car chases, there's some pretty awesome hand-to-hand combat as well, and Butler makes a believable badass. There is also a ridiculously funny, too-stupid-for-reality scene in which Kable has to gas up a truck that involves urine and vomit. Stupid, yet silly. In Neveldine/Taylor's world, anything is possible.

The acting is all around decent, with the exception of Michael C. Hall, who is obviously enjoying himself here. Hall is fucking brilliant on "Dexter," one of the best shows on TV, but he's an entirely different animal in "Gamer." The key to his success as Dexter is his ability to blend into his environment, to remain subdued on the surface yet always on the brink of exploding. In "Gamer," he's a scenery-chewing, B-movie villainous machine. He's a caricature of movie villains, but he's also pretty likable. He's definitely the highlight of the movie. Gerard Butler is exactly what you would expect of him - he's a firm character who kicks ass. Ludacris plays the leader of the Humanz, and he's a pretty shitty rapper-turned-actor. He's not Common-in-"Terminator: Salvation"-bad, but he's not any fucking good, either. Some rap icons, most notably Ice Cube (in "Boyz In the Hood," and "Three Kings") can transition into acting, while others, like the above-mentioned Common, 50 Cent, and others, should stick to their music careers. I'd say the same for Ludacris, but I don't think he should be doing any rapping, either.

The plot itself was a bit of a misstep. I would have preferred to have Kable remain a prisoner who is just trying to earn his freedom as opposed to the savior of humanity. Instead, the movie switches gears about halfway through to turn into standard action fare, complete with a Bond villain-esque diatribe explaining the devious intentions of the Big Bad. The only thing missing is a mustache-twirling scene. Neveldine/Taylor had the opportunity to really make an interesting argument for our need to have realistic gaming, and the deviance many people will take part in as long as they can stay anonymous. Furthermore, there is an interesting idea floating underneath the surface of the movie about our ability to crave violence - watching it, that is, not necessarily partaking in it. Above all of these interesting threads is yet another intelligent nod to marketing and advertising. Kable, who is a murderer on death row, has become a celebrity and media-darling. Kable is not actually a "murderer," yet the general public is ignorant to this. There are great plot devices in this movie, they're just generally under-cooked or ignored. Instead, they took the easy way out and settled for a typical "bad man wants to take over the world" angle instead. It's a half-baked story, but the part that is baked is pretty fucking cool. If only they would have focused on that part more intently than the latter.

For a disposable action movie, "Gamer" really succeeds. It reminds me of many of the action movies of the 80's, where there is no moral ambiguity, no grey areas. Just bad guys who need killing by the good guy. That's all fine and dandy, but the filmmakers set up a great premise which could have really dug into an interesting issue and threw it out the window at the expense of an easy fix. I'd recommend the movie to anyone who wants some disposable entertainment, and especially to anyone who plays a lot of video games. These guys know their gaming culture, and there are a lot of great sight-gags for people who know it as well. Check it out, but don't expect anything too special.