Gamer (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Sci-Fi Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of Audio Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	90:52
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:35)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mark Neveldine Brian Taylor
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Gerard Butler Amber Valletta Michael C. Hall Kyra Sedgwick Logan Lerman Alison Lohman
Case	?
RPI	$35.95	Music	Robb Williamson Geoff Zanelli

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

In the not too distant future exploiting prison inmates for entertainment is a national pastime. Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) is the mastermind behind a series of games that allow players to control other people’s bodies within a restricted environment. After the colossal success of his first game Society, which lets everyday folks indulge in all manner of perverted excess by taking control of a real person as their avatar (a bit like Second Life or The Sims with real people), Castle quickly follows with Slayers, a shoot-em-up game that lets players control a death-row inmate in a real life Quake style free for all. The games are broadcast live on TV, complete with running commentary and instant replays of all the (very) gooey kills, virtually making them a national sport. The trade-off for inmates is that if their player wins enough games they will go free.

Kable (Gerard Butler) is an inmate who is about to become the first to reach the point where he has won enough games to be set free. He believes that he was framed so he could be forced to compete in the game and is desperate to get out to see his wife (Amber Valetta) and child. With the aid of a group of political activist hackers, Kable convinces his controller (up and comer Logan Lerman) to help him fight the system to clear his name and, of course, to kill brutally arch-baddy Castle.

Gamer is conceptually Death Race or The Running Man meets Avatar. It shares a lot of the black humour and schlock values of the former two, essentially updating the B-grade sci-fi action format for a modern audience; a modern audience with a strong stomach. Gamer offers big guns, big explosions, cheesy one liners and absurd levels of bravado. Anyone looking for deep characters or pensive storytelling best look elsewhere, but if you can look past the buckets of blood there is a fairly poignant dig at Gen-Y consumerism and the modern media's tendency towards shallow journalism.

Actual gamers will be fairly happy with the portrayal of first-person-shooter gaming in Gamer. The action scenes do a great job of capturing the frantic nature of battlefield oriented games as well as baddies-in-a-dark-corridor action. It is not exactly what you would expect of a real game (you may as well play one if that's what you want) but it is accurate enough to believe and, despite any licence that has been taken, will still appeal to gamers.

Writing and directing team Neveldine/Taylor are proving themselves to be a unique voice in the film world, this being their third film after Crank and Crank: High Voltage. Their films have a frantic, punk ethos and a subversive, self-deprecating subtext. Alas, all most viewers watch their films for is the absurd over the top action that lies on the surface which is somewhat akin to dismissing Banksy's work as mere graffiti. Gamer has a much straighter tone than Crank and Crank: High Voltage (a masterful fusion of action and psychedelic art-film), but ultimately offers a similar dichotomy to those earlier films.

As well as a great leading man, Gerard Butler, and villain, Michael C. Hall (lapping up all the evil he doesn't get in Dexter), Gamer has an excellent supporting cast. Terry Crews, John Leguizamo and Zoe Bell all feature as fellow inmates, Ludacris and Alison Lohman are leaders of the hacking crew, Milo Ventimiglia and Kyra Sedgewick are media icons while Keith David pops up as the face of the CIA.

Genre films have been short-changed by Australian distributors in recent years. Anyone who grew up on Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme or Seagal B-grade schlock, which you could expect to pop up every few weeks in theatres, is likely to be frustrated as just about anything these days that is not a sure-fire blockbuster skips the big screen, and many that don’t have only a limited release on a handful of screens with little or no promotion. There is no doubt that exorbitant ticket prices, cheap DVDs and short cinema to DVD windows have not helped matters but that doesn't make the situation any better. Gamer is a film that failed to reach Australian cinemas but deserved a guernsey. Thankfully its trip to DVD has not been too long coming. That doesn't change the fact that our screens, and teen minds, are being flooded with nonsense at the expense of genuine excitement. Audiences deserve to revel in all the B-movie glory of Gamer and its ilk. Gamer is definitely a film that deserves cult appreciation.

Video

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

The video looks excellent. The image is sharp and clear with only fine grain present. Shadow detail is very good.

The colours are highly stylised, steely blues and greys in the Slayers segments, garishly bright and vivid during Society segments and reasonably natural during non-game segments.

No film artefacts are present. Mild background macro blocking is present in some parts of the film although most viewers would struggle to notice.

This is a RSDL disc with a layer change occuring at 69:35 which was not noticeable on my equipment.

The film features English subtitles for the visually impaired which seem accurate and well timed based on the few minutes I sampled.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features an English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) audio track, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio track and English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio track.

The audio mix is suitably loud and aggressive. Dialogue is clear and easy to discern. Lip synchronisation is good throughout the film.

The film features a dynamic score from composers Robb Williamson and Geoff Zanelli that veers between modern rock and classical orchestral. The score complements the film superbly and enhances a number of key sequences, particularly the action scenes. The score does particularly well to transition between the wild shifts in pace that occur throughout the movie.

The surround mix is excellent on all fronts. It manages to be loud and aggressive at the right moments and carefully restrained in others. The subwoofer gets a dynamic workout, with plenty of thumps and bangs as well as some deeper environmental tones.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This disc opens with a skippable anti-piracy clip before the animated menu.

Making Of Featurettes

Three making of featurettes are included covering all aspects of production. Each is a mixture of on-set footage interspersed with interviews with cast and crew about their roles. The first, running 25 minutes, is a look at the actors, producers, writers and directors. The second, running 21 minutes, looks at the on-set production work including physical effects, pyrotechnics, sets, makeup and camera work. The third, running 29 minutes, looks at the post production side of things particularly the editing, compositing, score and CGI. Interestingly, and somewhat refreshingly, the film was heavily reliant on physical effects with only moderate CGI dressing to make the town of Albuquerque look a bit more like a metropolis and to enhance the futuristic computer displays. An excellent set of featurettes.

Audio Commentary

An amusing commentary with writer/directors Neveldine/Taylor and stars Amber Valetta and Terry Crews. They offer a lively and honest commentary filled with amusing facts and explanations on how and why many of the film’s outrageous bits came together. Well worth a listen.

    The Region 1 edition features a different edit of the same "making of" footage, offering a bit less than the local version but includes a Theatrical Trailer and Spanish Subtitles that are not included on the Region 4 edition. I would favour the Region 4 release overall although price should be a bigger deciding factor for most viewers as the differences are marginal.

    A brilliant, and bloody, action B-movie for the ADD generation. Gamer works as both a straight hyperactive sci-fi action flick and a subversive, cynical social commentary.

The audio and video quality is excellent. The extras, though limited in number, are meaty and worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall