Calling all gamers!

Howdy folks :)

Here be my first EVER blog review on Gamer, starring Gerard Butler, which I managed to catch on Sky Movies Premiere last night.

With gaming scenes realistic enough to satisfy any Call of Duty fan, Gamer is a jolly tale about a modern warfare game known as 'Slayers', wherein the players are actually controlling real people through nano-technology. If you hadn't guessed, I was being a wee bit sarky when I said jolly. Gruesome from the outset, the film throws death-row cons into this real-life gaming experience, with promises of an early release if they complete 30 rounds without getting their heads blown off (sound familiar? The Running Man? Death Race?). Kable (Butler), our anti-hero, has been typically wrongly accused and is desperate to get home to his wife and daughter. Surviving 28 games, Kable is the longest standing convict in Slayers and a threat to the game's creator, Castle, in more ways than one.

Kable's wife Angie doesn't fare much better either. Devastated that her daughter has been taken into fostercare, she becomes a voluntary victim in Castle's other game, 'Society'. A take on virtual life-simulation games like The Sims, Society works much in the same way as Slayer; players controlling real people. This enables players to live out their fantasies, however depraved, by seeing real people behave as they want them to without dealing with any consequences. The man controlling Angie is a morbidly obese recluse who likes to dress her in bright PVC colours and force her to come on to half of the Society populus. Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia also pops up as a character in Society called 'Rick the Rapist'. Donning a leather one-piece and harassing all the women, his character really demonstrates that not everyone is as they seem and Society gives the opportunity for any sick and sexual desires to come into the open.

Special guest appearances from the oh-so-creepy Michael C. Hall (TV's Dexter) and rap artist Ludacris add some credit to the film, but unfortunately don't make up for a rather weak plot-line. The feud triangle between Kable, Castle and their other business partner, who Kable supposedly killed in cold blood, is never fully explained. Not only that, but for me, the whole film ended quite abruptly. There was no stereotypical final fight between the good and the bad, just a rather minuscule stand-off. Also worth a mention, Butler's accent. Is he Scottish or is he American? It really is a mystery.

That being said, the gaming scenes really do deliver, offering killer camera-work (pardon the pun), justifiably gory head-shots, and a realistic take on how games are for the gamer in this day and age. For me, the best part was seeing one player teabag his dead team-mate. Classy.

Give this one 2/10. A must-see if you're an avid gamer, otherwise the storyline is a bit thin.