Gamer (2009) 5/10

Starring : Gerard Butler, Michael C Hall, Amber Valletta, Logan Lerman, Terry Crews, John Leguizamo, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Kyra Sedgwick
Director : Neveldine / Taylor
Running Time : 98 mins

Computer programmer Ken Castle (Hall) has designed the ultimate role playing game called Society, in which people can either pay to be other people or be paid to allow other people to be them. In the next stage of the games development, Castle comes up with Slayers, a game in which criminals on death row have the opportunity to be let off in return for allowing people to use them in a game of life and death, but the star of this game, a man named Kable (Butler), wants nothing more than to take down the game designer and put a stop to the gaming culture once and for all.

This was an interesting concept that for some reason doesn’t quite work. Whereas movies like Surrogates managed to make the concept believable without going to over the top, this makes the concept unbelievable while going completely over the top. This feels more like an episode of The Outer Limits than an actual movie, and the acting combined with lack of in-depth study into how the game actually works make this a lacklustre effort.

You’ll like this if you liked : Crank : High Voltage