Gamer (2009)

In Gamer bored Americans can control real life humans in online games invented by Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). He’s the proud creator of two games Society very Sims but more depraved and Slayer where death row inmates ‘participate’ in a war games for the entertainment of millions. In Slayer Gerard Butler is John Tillman or Kable a prisoner on death row who is controlled by a 17 year old trust fund gamer Simon (Logan Lerman) together they have made Kable the highest ranked warrior in the game. In Society bored fat people control others, most notably Kable’s wife – super thin model Amber Valletta. Very ‘do you want to date my avatar if you ask me’*. Online you don’t just date a supermodel you can control her. The fat guy in the wheelchair was super gross and it was always a relief to cut from any scene he was in not matter how disoriented you got.

The film is visually aggressive and got a lot of complaints and bad reviews about this. I think the film was excellent, it was visually arresting, it was like watching a game at some points but like… what would you expect its called ‘Gamer’ duh! It has one of the best beginning sequences i’ve seen in a film in a long time, I was really sucked in.

Kyra Sedgwick also pops in as an irritating talk show host and Ludacris attempts to rubs some swagger on it as the leader of Humanz an underground group against Society, Slayer and general programming of humans to do dumb stuff. Warning there are some disturbingly gross scenes here, wouldn’t recommend it for watching with your girlfriend. Its rated R and its rating is well deserved due to graphic violence and twisted sex between supermodels and gross obese people, freaky.

The fight scene at the end is one for the books, it was very Jack Nicholson as the Joker and just plain odd to watch people. Even once you knew what was happening it was still weird to sit through. A good flick for guys who love their violence, gaming and supermodels. In that order.

*The Guild – Date my Avatar clip on you tube

Avalon

A very clever piece by a very ambitious director.

Mamoiru Oshii (Director of ‘Ghost in The Shell’) loved watching Polish thrillers so much he decided to do this film in Poland.  So with a crew of 10, he flew to Poland to make his film with Polish actors speaking in fluent Polish – a language he doesn’t speak!

The CG effects are first class Japanese pedigree and I loved the style.  The ‘real’ scenes in Poland use the dark, gloomy areas of the city to enhance the heaviness and loneliness of the characters and the world they inhabit.  The games that have influenced Oshii are worn on his sleeve, and are easily recognized by gamers – we had two in our group who pointed them out like excited teens at a rock concert.

The plot:  People log onto a virtual reality style game and complete missions to earn money as individuals or in teams.  Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak) is brilliant as the female protagonist, using the game to make a living, leaving other players watch her missions in awe and nerd admiration.  She is excellent as the main character cutting out an existence in a bleak world.  The other standout in this film was…
the dog! It was by far the most soulful dog actor I’ve ever seen giving the dog in ‘The Mexican’ a run for its money, proving that its all in the eyes.

It’s a typical Japanese story giving 90% and leaving it to you to make up the rest, the ending is open and never fully explained.  In our group of four movie buffs, we had three different theories.  I liked the film but I wanted more of an ending.  Even if the ending or deeper meaning was explained by the director in the extras rather then in the film itself, sadly watching Oshii speaking about it doesn’t shed more light.

Even cooler is the weapons and tanks used were real!!!  What other country could you wander in to their military base and say, “Hey man can we borrow a tank for a couple hours and hey that gun you’re holding can we use that too?” and get a YES as a reply!

Odd fact:  Oshii grew so attached to the dog that when its owners picked it up after its 3 days of filming, he was very sad.  I think he has the potential to be a person who leaves everything to a dog shelter in his will.

Hitman

Its hard to get over the film not casting obvious choice Jason Statham but now that he’s evolved from action guy to serious actor, he doesn’t want to move backwards. Hitman is impressive and establishes itself as a film and not a ‘game movie’ eg Doom. Borrowing heavily from the score of The Bourne Identity (Supremacy and Ultimatum) and while it lends weight to the film, it’s a cheap move, cashing in on the solid spy base of those films. This movie isn’t original but it is fun to watch. Having never played the game I think the film may have had better success if they tried to sell it as a action movie to action fans rather then expecting the game to sell the film for them. Hitman offers audiences a good solid action film.