Gamer (2009)

In a future mind-controlling game, death row convicts are forced to battle in a 'Doom'-type environment. Convict Kable, controlled by Simon, a skilled teenage gamer, must survive thirty sessions in order to be set free. Or won't he?

Directors:

Mark Neveldine (as Neveldine), Brian Taylor (as Taylor)

Writers:

Mark Neveldine (as Neveldine), Brian Taylor (as Taylor)

Stars:

Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Ludacris

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gerard Butler	...	Kable
Amber Valletta	...	Angie
Michael C. Hall	...	Ken Castle
Kyra Sedgwick	...	Gina Parker Smith
Logan Lerman	...	Simon
Alison Lohman	...	Trace
Terry Crews	...	Hackman
Ramsey Moore	...	Gorge
Ludacris	...	Humanz Brother (as Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges)
Aaron Yoo	...	Humanz Dude
Jonathan Chase	...	Geek Leader
Dan Callahan	...	Backup Geek
Brighid Fleming	...	Delia
Johnny Whitworth	...	Scotch
Keith Jardine	...	Mean Slayer

Storyline

Ken Castle is extremely rich, popular and powerful since he invented and started exploiting the virtual online parallel reality games, in which people can either pay as user or be paid as 'actor' in a system of mind-control. The ultimate version, Slayers, fields death row convicts as gladiators in a desperate dim bid for survival, which no-one made yet. The champion, John 'Kable' Tillman, was scheduled to die just before he'ld gain release, but he persuades his teenage 'handler' to hand over the reins so he can fully use his talents and experience. Thus Kable escapes to freedom, only to be chased illegally by Castle's men, yet fights back all the way to his HQ and challenges his evil hidden plans.

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Plot Keywords:

convict | 3 dimensional | breasts | flashing breasts | political exploitation | 

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Taglines:

the game is real

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for frenetic sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 September 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Game

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque Studios - 5650 University Boulevard SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,156,057, 6 September 2009

Gross USA:

$20,534,907

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$40,828,540

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening montage of time-lapse shots and other scenes of the world where we see ads for Kable and/or graffiti of Ken Castle overlaid on buildings or walls are mostly taken from Ron Fricke's wordless film Baraka (1992), for example, the shots of the Giza Pyramids, India, homeless man sleeping under a bridge among others.

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Goofs

(at around 23 mins) In one scene, John gets some kind of brain bits in his face after a head gets blown off in front of him. A couple shots later, the bits are gone.

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Quotes

Kable: [to Hackman] You know your head ain't on straight?

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Alternate Versions

German theatrical version was cut by ca. 1 minute to secure a "Not under 18" rating. This was done by distributor Universum before submitting the film to the FSK. The cut version was also released on Blu-ray/DVD. Another DVD version was created for retail chains, this version lacks ca. 11 minutes and is rated "Not under 16". A few weeks after the release of these versions, the uncut version was submitted to the FSK which rated it "Not under 18", too. Since the rating scale for home video is higher than for theatrical releases, the uncut version would have gotten that rating for theatrical release as well, thus it was completely unnecessary to create a cut version in the first place.

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Connections

Features 1942 (1984)

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Soundtracks

I've Got No Strings
Written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline

User Reviews

an abstract view of how users interact with their avatars

The movie was fairly good. Even though slayers should have been more defined, it did explain the basics of it (make it to the save point alive). The movie being "abstract" worked very well for everything besides the slayers sequences, but those were surprisingly short. Something that I thought they did very well though is showing how the user interacts with their character. In MMO's today, you have a-holes who will screw up other people's fun and during one of the society scenes, there is an example of this with the roller blading. Its made even more powerful by people laughing at other people 's injuries, disgracing of dead bodies, etc. because its the icons (avatars) getting abused, not the users.

From an academic standpoint, this movie is great since it shows off how sick and uncaring people can be when its not their bodies being abused or shot at.

Anyways, if you want to see this movie, I warn you that there it is rated R for good reasons. It made me think that they should separate the R-rating into R1 and R2 or R and RR. This is because many R movies are lite-R's (some swearing, some nudity, some blood, but nothing out-of-control so to speak) and many other R movies are heavy-R's (i.e. saw, many cheesy horror flicks, and this movie)