Posted by Mike Pampinella | Posted in | Posted on 11:35 AM
Originally posted by Veer-Naveen Toor
I really wanted to like this film; after all I personally feel that Michael C. Hall (Showtime's Dexter) and Kyra Sedgwick (TNT's The Closer) are on top of their respective games in their current incarnations on television. I wanted to see how Gerard Butler (300) would grow as an actor after leading us against a force of thousands in his last movie. I even wanted to even see if Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor could outgrow the Crank franshise. In the end Gamer for the lack of a better phrase, has no game.
Unfortunately, (you now that by starting a sentence with unfortunately that nothing good is coming up), Neveldine and Taylor prove that they can only give us action; there is no plot exploration or use of the actor's strengths. Even the concept of having inmates who are on death-row, "preform" for entertainment is tired and uninspired. It is as if what they were going for was Deathrace meets The Running Man which meets The Matrix. I can see that this film is targeted towards the Halo crowd and if that is your primary entertainment outlet you may find it more interesting than I did (Now here's an idea...make the movie a game).
I really wanted to like this film; after all I personally feel that Michael C. Hall (Showtime's Dexter) and Kyra Sedgwick (TNT's The Closer) are on top of their respective games in their current incarnations on television. I wanted to see how Gerard Butler (300) would grow as an actor after leading us against a force of thousands in his last movie. I even wanted to even see if Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor could outgrow the Crank franshise. In the end Gamer for the lack of a better phrase, has no game.
Gerard Butler preformance leaves us wondering if he has the ability to act outside the action genre. Now there is nothing wrong with being type cast into a genre but I feel there are moments in both Gamer and 300 that he gives us glimpses of better things to come and it's frustrating to not see that being utilized. The biggest disappointment for myself and the audience will be to see Michael C. Hall in this role as Ken Castle. I remember a few years ago when he was nominated for an emmy for Dexter, many people where scratching their heads on who was this actor. I encourage everyone, that if this is your first exposure to Michael C. Hall, rent Dexter or Six Feet Under, because as Ken Castle he seems constricted by the plot.
This movie gets 0 pitchforks. On second thought, because there is a scene where Ken Castle does a song and dance number and I am Indian and we love that kind of stuff (hooray for Bollywood) I'll give it 1 out of 5 pitchforks.
I really liked Gamer. There were some weak scenes, and a couple that I found outright annoying, specifically every time they showed the 2nd Life parody, but overall I thought it was a solid mindless action film. It was better than Crank 2, not as fun as Crank.
Johathan: Thanks for the comment and I do agree that "Gamer" was a better film than "Crank 2." I just found it to "underperform" especially when you look at the talent that was available on hand. Butler for example showed us in "Law Abiding Citizen" he can be more that just a grunt. We all know what Michael C. Hall is capable of along with Kyra Sedgwick. It seems to myself, that the plot/writting and directing did not allow room to have these actors incorporte their strenghts into the film. Instead they are regulated to play the characters as is.