Gamer (2009)
Directed by Brian Taylor
Mind-control technology has taken society by a storm, a multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows players to control human prisoners in mass-scale. Simon controls Kable, the online champion of the game. Kable's ultimate challenge becomes regaining his identity and independence by defeating the game's mastermind.
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What critics compared Gamer to
The rough-and-tumble cyborg mayhem recalls John Hyams’ Universal Soldier pictures, the final fight of hundreds of indistinguishable robot cronies is inevitably similar to a recent Paul W.S. Anderson film, and — even if not capturing their pure energy — there’s song-and-dance number featuring multiple robot clones that can’t help but make one think of a similar sequence from Neveldine/Taylor’s excellent 2009 feature Gamer .
Writer-director Ilya Naishuller is clearly most inspired by “Crank” crazies Neveldine/Taylor, so much that he even airlifts an entire musical sequence from their film “Gamer,” including the same song.
Naishuller, who developed his camera-as-mask rig while shooting music videos for his Russian alt-rock act Biting Elbows, has advanced and perfected the work of pioneers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, whose 2009 feature Gamer starred Gerard Butler as a man whose body is controlled by a guy playing a video game.
“Hardcore Henry” is a jolt to the system and a post-modern pastiche of influences from video games (“Better Off Dead,” “Doom”) and action movies (“Gamer,” “The Raid”) that is sure to prove seminal in its own right for the way it makes its audience a plaything.
Kyra Sedgwick's news reporter provides trace elements of Verhoeven/ Death Race satire while Ludacris and a ludicrously dreadlocked Alison Lohman help foment the story's central anti-Big Brother fervor.
1987's "The Running Man," 2007's " The Condemned ," 2008's " Death Race ," take your pick"Gamer" adds a little twist to the machinations by rendering the competitors mere drones controlled by technology, but it is at this very conceptual level where trouble starts.
Now, I’ve told you up-front that Gamer is like the Crank pictures, so when you find out that it’s not the clone of last year’s Death Race (as Gamer’s trailer tries to make it look like), don’t complain to me.
Anyone who saw The Running Man or Death Race knows victory is an unattainable myth.
Anyone who’s seen Death Race, The Running Man or, God forbid, The Condemned knows a conspiracy is afoot.
But it says a lot about Gamer that it pales in comparison to a Jason Statham schlockfest like Death Race, especially since it's directed by Neveldine and Taylor, the duo who made Jason Statham an unlikely geek icon with the Crank movies.
Earlier films such as The Hunger Games (and its precursor, 2000’s Battle Royale), 2009’s Gamer, 1987’s The Running Man and 1975’s Rollerball reverberate – but here, the puppet master pulling the strings isn’t some overarching corporate villain.
Logan Lerman (2009's " Gamer ") is unable to consistently sell his role as Percy Jackson and personify the character's issues and conflicts.
More on Logan Lerman, Cougar Bait: I’ve had my eye on the teen actor since he starred on the WB show “Jack & Bobby,” and in films like The Butterfly Effect, 3:10 to Yuma, and last year’s Gamer.
This is certainly a decent setup for a new fantasy series, but Logan Lerman (Gamer) plays Percy as the most generic young adult since the Narnia kids.