Gamer (2001) - film review

Street boy Tony has one dream – to invent a video game that will make him a fortune.   His first obstacle is to raise the capital to get his project off the ground.  When a robbery goes wrong, he ends up in prison.  When he regains his freedom, he is undeterred, and sets about launching his own video game.  However, the experience proves to be far more challenging than any game he could ever imagine…

Here’s a film clearly aimed at the computer game junky – and that pretty well defines the full extent of its target audience.  It’s hard to imagine that anyone else would bother to sit through what seems to be an utterly chaotic juvenile romp.  It’s brash, it’s loud and it’s horribly insipid – a brave, possibly insane, attempt to bring together the worlds of cinema and video game.  Whilst the film does have some artistic strengths (the visual style, whilst jarring, certainly does break new ground), the weak script and some characterless acting performances just about make it unwatchable for anyone with no real interest in the film’s subject.

© James Travers 2007

Write a review for this film...

Great teenage movie! Actually, I’m not especially a videogame fan but I liked the original way the director brought this very light story into something deeper at least. Anyway, I liked the rhythm, the music, the lighting and how Zak Fishman moves the camera... Enjoy! 
© Jeff Long (New York, USA) 2008

What do you think of this film?