Gamer

Welcome to another episode of The "D" List.

Todays review is Gamer. Written and Directed by Neveldine/Taylor otherwise known and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.

These are the guys that gave us Crank 1 & 2. For what those 2 films lacked in story it made up for in pure adrenaline pumping action and editing. Gamer gives us more of the same which is both good and bad.

Our story takes us into the not so distant future where Ken Castle played by the talented but wasted Michael C. Hall. You may know him as David Fisher from Six Feet Under or Dexter Morgan in the hit Showtime series Dexter. Castle has created a real live version of the virtual reality game Sims called Society. You have the ability to literally control a living person for a "small" fee of course. Castle's latest creation is a game called Slayers. The concept is the same as Society but instead of controlling civilians you are controlling prisoners in a 1st person shooter experience.

Our hero Kable played by Gerard "Leonidas" Butler is the games best player. He has survived all of his games with the help of his "player" in his attempt to reach 30 victories which would earn him his freedom. Kable has become a global sensation while his player in the real world also gains fame from the continuous victories. The rest of the story revolves on Kable's attempt to escape the hold of Castle and his organization so he can be reunited with his family.

This is where Gamer begins to fall apart. The story had a very strong promise but somewhere between acts 2 and 3 the story starts to water down and get an underdeveloped feeling. This was the same problem with Crank. The story while at it's core is original starts to lose steam and just drop off into mediocrity and absurdity.

On the plus side Gamer has really fast and crazy action. This is something that the Neveldine/Taylor duo do very very well. They can shoot the hell out of an action scene and have a knack of making you feel that you are right in the thick of it all. But it's not enough to save what was a potentially interesting and entertaining film.

You can't drown out an audience with noise to mask the reality that the story doesn't have enough behind it to pace us through. The main problem with the story was what I mentioned earlier. It's underdeveloped. You get a taste of a back story then in a cloud of dust "POOF" it's gone. Then as the film reaches it conclusion the final pieces are put together to sum it all up. The problem with that is that you don't stay with the narrative long enough to care about the final resolution.

On the surface, Gamer looked like it had the potential to blow you away. Instead it was another case of smoke and mirrors. Which is unfortunate because the Neveldine/Taylor duo are talented filmmakers with a keen visual style. In my opinion they just need to give their screenplays a little more spit and shine and they will reach the next level.

On the 5 star scale. Gamer gets 2 stars and a "Netflix It" recommendation.

That's all for today.

Up next.....The Informant!. Steven Soderbergh's latest starring Matt Damon.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"