Gamer
Gamer is a fresh take on the fantasy of a brutal, hedonistic future. Gerard Butler plays Kable, one of many human participants in an interactive on line shooting gallery called Slayers. With brain cells altered via nano technology their every move is controlled by a gamer and in Kable’s case it’s Simon (Logan Lerman), a 16 year old video whiz and pay-per-view superstar. So why would Kable or anyone else volunteer for this kind of dangerous subjugation? Because as convicted murderers they can earn freedom by surviving the requisite amount of sojourns into lead filled mayhem. We find out that Kable has a history with Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) the game’s inventor whose fortune has easily surpassed that of Bill Gates thanks to Slayers and its less dangerous predecessor - in which by the way Kable’s wife Angie (Amber Valletta) is an economic slave performing all manner of debaucher at the behest of Gorge (Ramsey Moore) a gamer as repulsive as he is obese. Also featured are John Leguizamo who is effective in a throw away role, Kyra Sedgwick as Gina Parker Smith a sympathetic reporter from a vacuous TV magazine show and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges as a helpful revolutionary hacker. Considering how far we we’ve come since Pong not to mention advances in nano technology and the current escalation of available TV violence on demand, this scenario is eerily plausible. That along with the texture of the cinematography make this a better than average action movie which is topped off with and ending that has a wicked twist, both figuratively and literally.