Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This may not have been the highest budget or most well written story, but it was very entertaining and had great acting. I would recommend this movie for anyone looking to watch an entertaining, fast-paced movie.

Imagine a version of THE RUNNING MAN, updated to the 21st century, and cross it with the popularity of modern-day video games (mainly Second Life and Call of Duty) and you have GAMER, an action film just as cheesy as the Schwarzenegger "epic". GAMER is the latest hyperventilation from the directing duo who brought us the two CRANK films, and its similarly outlandish, with a no-holds-barred approach to sex and violence. Sad to say, it's also pretty awful, one of those films which is going to date quickly and which has a dull-witted script keen to go through the usual clichés and gross-out moments.From the beginning, your mind is assailed by all manner of outrageousness: stripping teenagers, sexual scenarios, bloody 'gib' hits in a video shooter played in 'real life'; all depicted via a frenetic medium that never stays on a single shot longer than a second and which makes for headache-inducing viewing in all but the most casual viewer. Yes, this is another of those films squarely aimed at the teenage male market, and even though I'm not 30 yet, I had the distinct impression that I was "too old for this".High art it ain't: the dialogue is extremely lowbrow, the on-screen action frequently ludicrous. Gerard Butler seems to accept any old film that comes his way, and GAMER is another in a strong of disappointments for the Scottish star. He grunts and frowns his way through a one-dimensional character arc and the best you can say about him is that he's fairly believable. The supporting cast is made up of tired stereotypes: Michael C. Hall is the worst thing here as the utterly irritating 'nerd' super-villain, and Kyra Sedgwick (Kevin Bacon's squeeze) fairly appalling as a TV journalist. Logan Lerman, so good in 3:10 TO YUMA, is distinctly bland, and Ludicrous leads a band of utterly clichéd hacker geeks. The genuinely interesting actors, John Leguizamo and Keith David, are tucked away in nothing roles. The only character of distinction is Terry Crews' hulking brute of a villain, a man whose body mass rivals that of Aussie wrestler Nathan Jones, but apart from a single menacing scene, he's also wasted. Worst of all is the script's attitude to women, who are treated as victims (dying quickly and brutally) or as sex objects. Amber Valletta (TRANSPORTER 2) has a particularly demeaning role, forced to bend about in her underwater for endlessly repulsive scenes.So, apart from crude sex references and a predictable script, what are we left with? A handful of action sequences is the answer, and these would be good – if it wasn't for the dumb editing. The whole 'fight for your life' theme was done better in the DEATH RACE remake with Jason Statham, but there are some mildly entertaining moments here too, mostly involving Butler blowing away countless enemies and breaking one particularly loathsome character's back over his knee. The extended climax offers some one-vs-many fun too, even if the homage to WARRIOR KING is a little too obvious for my liking.

Neveldine/Taylor's Gamer is a grim, hedonistic blast of skullcrushing action and stinging social commentary that ruthlessly indicts the technological era with tongue in cheek precision. The duo are also responsible for the Crank films, which are similarly painted in broad strokes of brash, bratty attitude and kinetic, spare no limbs violence, but are pure fun. This one keeps that vibe, darkens it just a touch, and holds up a mirror that shows a sad but all too true vision of ourselves. What's scary is that it isn't even all that exaggerated. In the near future the prison systems have been privatized by corporations, including one led by the ambitious, evil Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall, even more unhinged than on Dexter). His program uses prisoners as virtual puppets, controlled by gamers out in the real world, and stages brutal all out warfare between them, observed, bet on and obsessed over the world over, like the NFL but with lethal firepower and exploding heads. The reigning champion, Kable (Gerard Butler proves again what a wicked action leading man he is), longs for freedom, and attempts to contact his controller, a stuck up rich brat (Logan Lerman is a little ball of sleaze), in order to plan his exodus from this most extreme of sports. On the outside, Kable's wife (Amber Valetta) and young daughter appeal for his release. She ends up getting entangled in a vile, R rated version of The Sims in a delightfully repulsive sequence. Kyra Sedgwick plays a morally bankrupt reporter, Ludicrous and Alison Lohman are freedom fighters raging against the powers that be, and Zoe Bell, Terry Crews, Milo Ventimiglia (playing, I kid you not, a spandex clad video game avatar named Rick Rape), Noel Gugliuemi and John Leguizamo all make memorable appearances as well. The movie, despite being ultra fast paced and often very funny, is not lighthearted fare. The action has a jarring, repellent quality that induces cringes, but is still a ton of fun to anyone who can stomach it. The irreverent tone helps as well, with rude, unmannered character interactions and smutty dialogue reflecting the filmmakers view on our spoilt, often sickening generation. Songs like Bloodhound Gang's Bad Touch and Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams inject additional, welcome atmosphere into the skeezy veins running through the film. Brutal. Kinetic. Sarcastic. A whole lot of fun. And you haven't lived until you've seen Butler slam a mickey of vodka and take a leak into a vehicle's gas tank, thus furthering his escape.

"Gamer" is a mean-spirited, misogynist, poorly edited and poorly shot action film. The characters are cliché and the world the story is set in so vaguely defined that it's impossible to understand what is going on. I'm not usually one to criticize a film for feeling familiar because if you look deeply enough, a lot of people take inspiration from myths or common story elements, but when your movie brings in nothing new and doesn't even feel like it's trying, I call foul.The film is set in 2024. The gaming industry has been revolutionized because now, instead of playing regular video games people can command prisoners to fight to the death in a "real life" video game called Slayers. If you don't feel like having convicts fight each other to the death? Well that's OK because you can also have other human beings dance around, perform dangerous stunts, have gratuitous sex or embarrass each other in a tamer game called "Society" where poor people get paid to have their bodies controlled by others. Our hero is John "Kable" Tillman (Gerard Butler), the most popular pawn in the game of Slayers. There's something sinister about this futuristic society, and if the probably evil Castle (Michael C. Hall) is to be taken down, Kable will have to take control of his own body! What irritated me about this picture is that the story just feels like an excuse to have stuff happen. Really important elements of this world are never explained, they're just there and you have to take for granted that it works the way it does. I don't mean in the same way that a far-out premise like say... "The Running Man" either. I'm talking about stuff that could plausibly happen but is presented in a way that makes no sense. For example, the rules or goals of the Slayers game are never established. What is the objective of the game? Do the slayers have to run to a shelter before they are killed? Do you have to murder a certain amount of people? Is there a time limit? You never find out. How has Slayers revolutionized video games anyways? It's not like the players can feel what their convicts can feel, and games can't be started at any time of the day (they're televised) so how is a video game that you can pick up for cheaper, play at any time not strictly better? This is a tale that doesn't care about explaining anything or developing the world it's set in so it's really hard to care about anything that's going on. Stuff just happens so that we can have people kill each other.I'll give the movie this: if the objective was to make a game that feels like a deplorable video game, mission accomplished! The characters actually feel like video game personalities because your immediate impression of them is everything that defines them. The villain is very obviously evil (even though it's supposed to be a mystery) for example and he does that typical thing that every bad villain does in a bad action movie. I'm just saying that you would never see Mr. Glass from "Unbreakable" pick a fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger because one is a brainy villain, the other is an action hero... but that doesn't stop our Machiavellian sociopath! Kable isn't any better. He's set up as a killer but anyone with half a brain can see that this is once again, one of these movies where our anti-hero isn't an actual anti hero, he's just a good guy that's been misunderstood. Nearly every other character is totally disposable, and not the least bit memorable. Unless they're a woman because those are all killed or sexually exploited by the time the credits roll. Females in "Gamer" are more like props than actual people. I was actually really disturbed by some of the events in the film. Want a hint of some of the distasteful developments? How about I give you an easy one: there's a character called "Rick Rape" in the "tamer" Society game! There are a few scenes that have good action segments and there are a couple of laughs here and there but there's no real audience for this movie. You would think that this action film would be made to cater to video game enthusiasts, but they're all portrayed as unlikeable sexual deviants that would willingly sexually assault or murder human beings for kicks. "Gamer" goes out of its way to show how horrible it is to get entertainment out of seeing human beings being killed, so people who revel in violence and gore (fans of action or horror movies) won't get much entertainment out of this lecture either. There's no need to see this when there are actual good movies based on the same concept easily available. I came to thoroughly hate "Gamer". (Dvd, July 14, 2012)