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.

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 these games, people can either pay to be a user or get paid to be an 'actor' in a system of mind-control. In the ultimate version, Slayers, death row convicts act as gladiators in a desperate dim bid for survival, which no one has achieved yet. The champion, John 'Kable' Tillman, is scheduled to die just before he'd gain release, but he persuades his teenage 'handler' to hand over the reins so he can fully use his talents and experience. Kable escapes to freedom, but Castle's men chase him. Kable has to fight his way back to Castle's headquarters to challenge his hidden evil plans.

---

Plot Keywords:

convict | mind control | flashing breasts | political exploitation | bubble | 

---

Taglines:

Who's playing you?

---

Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Certificate:

18A

Did You Know?

Trivia

(at around 19 mins) The news anchors are played by Psych (2006) co-stars James Roday Rodriguez and Maggie Lawson, who, as of the film's release, were also in their third year of a relationship.

---

Goofs

(at around 43 mins) In the scene where it reads "Kables Last Stand" on three separate buildings, the furthest left building has the original banner reflection of the middle building in place of the word "Last", including an NBC logo at the bottom.

---

Quotes

Simon: Gibs.
Kable: What?
Simon: Like giblets. Kibbles 'n Bits. Chunks. Pieces. Everywhere.
Kable: These are real humans fucker!
Simon: Death row psychos, so what? They had it coming anyway, right?
Kable: I guess that goes for me too.
Simon: Yeah, but you're different.
Kable: Different. How?
Simon: I don't know, because you're *my* psycho.

---

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.

---

Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Fictional Video Games in Movies (2015)

---

Soundtracks

The Bad Touch
Written by Jimmy Pop (as James M. Franks)
Performed by Bloodhound Gang (as The Bloodhound Gang)
Courtesy of Republic/Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Controlled Iris

The story is that insipid kind made fun of even by Robert Rodriguez. The characters are not worthy of the concept. But never mind that.

What interests me in these projects is how the cinematic vocabulary is pushed, and how we adapt our ways of building narrative structure through what we see. Now I readily concede that most elements of this vocabulary are economically driven: the transition frequency is high because it allows the producers to get by with less expensive effects. And these techniques exist because there is a market for thrilling violence rather than introspective nourishment.

But that doesn't take away from the effectiveness of what these guys are doing. These are the 'Crank' guys, where the story was an even more incidental parade of stereotypes. What I perceive here is an editing technique that I did not see in the Transformers movies. In those films — especially the first — small incomprehensible snippets of action were unified by the motion across the snippets. That's why you had a lot of horizontal destructive actions. The editor clearly used reversed right for left frames when it helped with these assemblies.

But here the composition is more noisy in terms of the images. The structures instead are compositions of phrases with rhythmic signature. I presume these rhythmic tropes really do come from the game industry and have evolved over time to fill the gap between the action the player makes and the displayed consequence. So it may not be as intelligent a design as I suppose, merely a splice.

Nonetheless, though it doesn't directly nourish, it does expand and stretch, and that makes it partially worthwhile.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 September 2009 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Gamer

Filming Locations:

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, Lakeshore Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1