The Phantom Tollbooth - Movies Reviews Index


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Home Subscribe About Us Features News Album Reviews Movie Reviews Past Movies Movie Resources Concert Reviews Book Reviews Top 10 Contact Us	Gamer Stars: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Alison Lohman, Amber Valletta, Kyra Sedgwick, Ludacris and Terry Crews Directors/Scriptwriters: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor Composers: Robb Williamson and Geoff Zanelli Lionsgate Rating: R for intense violence, sexuality, nudity and language Running Length: 105 minutes In-between a rockin’ soundtrack, special effects, flashing lights on screen (be aware of this if it makes you dizzy) and stop-action cinematography, is probably 15 minutes of storyline. Other than that, you see Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall with buff bodies and they can’t wait to take their shirts off. Plenty of action and it’s based on the idea of video games. Think a bit of Blade Runner combined with Matrix combined with any other movie with something implanted in the head and you have Gamer. There is commentary on controlling society through violent games, but the message is really lost amid the glitz of the side effects. Basically, Kable (Gerard Butler) was imprisoned for murder and in order to be free, must win 30 war games. In this new world, people pay to be the controllers and they ones controlled have an implant in their head so they have to obey when the switch is turned on. People are really killed in “Slayers” and the guy who dreamed all of this up, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), is getting richer and richer. Kable is close to the 30 mark, but will he actually get his freedom? A side story has a group of revolutionists trying to break Castle’s hold on society. Kable’s wife, Angie (Amber Valletta) has her own problems to cope with, and Kable’s handler, Simon (Logan Lerman) is also in trouble. You see the angst of men trapped with something in their head compelling them to fight, and you also see other people, such as beautiful women, with brain implants forced to do degrading things to someone else’s whim. One thing for sure, when 15 guys come up against Kable, you just know who is going to win any fight. Gerard Butler is a good hero-figure and has the strong/melancholy look as in “300.” Gamer is just what it says. A giant video game for the audience. It is dark, wet (always water dripping somewhere), dirty, grimy and plenty of clanging noises. Plus, the soundtrack is running at full speed so that when someone actually has dialogue, you say, “Huh? What was that again?” This is a sexually-toned movie and an adult film, so be aware of that. Halfway through the film, I finally figured out the story through flashbacks and thought of the irony of the bad guy here being named “Castle,” when Frank Castle was the good guy in Punisher. Copyright 2009 Marie Asner