Gamer is written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the energetic team that also wrote and directed Crank and Crank 2, and seem to have too often re-watched movies like Death Race, Rollerball, Surviving the Game, The Running Man, and Memento, to name a few that clearly had a heavy influence on their latest effort. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. Gamer is a highly entertaining thrill ride with a fun, if not exactly unique, sci-fi twist that keeps the proceedings moving along at a fast clip. Gerard Butler, who played a convincing temptation-driven chauvinist in The Ugly Truth, is back to the kind of action- and violence-laden role that seems to suit him best.

The movie explores the parallel worlds between fact and fiction, blurring the line between them and turning a man-made, alternate reality into such a tangible existence that it is literally full of real, living breathing people. Neveldine and Taylor have gone on record describing how the movie is “more Kubrick than Neveldine/Taylor, at times,” and that “It’s about ideas. But it’s also got bigger action set-pieces.”

Yeah, whatever guys. Reminds me of a sign I once saw in front of a seedy motel in Vegas that said “Highly recommended by owner.” Gamer is a fun and well-made action sci-fi film, but I think it might be best not to try too hard to impose too much philosophical depth to it.

Choose your player...

The story – a reclusive billionaire named Ken Castle has taken the gaming world by storm with his virtual reality video games, which have become so globally famous that he became the richest man in the world, passing Bill Gates practically overnight. In his latest game, Slayers, real world people can pay money to control real humans inside the artificial environment known as Society, and other real world people can get paid to be those living in Society and letting others control them.  Death in the game means real life death for the man/woman playing your character, so needless to say, there will be a desire for escape, the possibilities of which will be strenuously explored by our hero, Kable (Gerard Butler).

Now, I won’t go into detail about how the controlling works. Suffice it to say that Castle came up with a way to turn a person’s entire brain into a receiver for radio control signals. You can see the significance of the lyrics of Marilyn Manson’s cover performance of “Sweet Dreams.”

You can see the appeal of Slayers to geeky teenage boys.

But who would take a job that could potentially result in their own deaths in this manner? As fully supported by the U.S. Government, it’s death row inmates that are placed in the game, with the condition that if they survive 30 sessions of the game, they win their freedom. You see now how you can take the plots of Surviving the Game and Death Race and you have this movie. And I love the logic, by the way. Put our most violent criminals in this game with real people, weed out the weak ones who will be killed off, and release the most hardened criminal warriors that survive 30 game sessions back out onto the street. Like 2008’s Death Race, a more interesting sci-fi movie exists in the society around what we see here. Personally, I want to know more about whoever’s President.

Kable's wife, Angie, an unwilling participant in Slayers.

But even though the movie might bear a little too much resemblance to a lengthy list of past films, it also has so much visual style that it is pretty easy to forget about that. There are times in the movie where it literally feels like you’re wandering through some of the deepest and most bizarre areas of the male psyche, and the things that they come up with and throw on screen reminded me of some of the crazy stuff that Tarsem Singh came up with in The Cell.  If nothing else, the movie is a visually arresting piece of eye candy, although it should be noted that it has pretty much exactly the same nearly all-male target audience of the Crank films.

One of my only real complaints about the movie is that I wish they had done something different with the character of Kable, a real life hero framed by the big bad businessmen for a crime he didn’t commit, hence his death sentence. Such a structure is as old as the sci-fi hills, and therein lied one of the movie’s greatest chances to do something new and original.

Flying dumptrucks? Sure, why not?

Nevertheless, the story never slows down and the performances are outstanding, although with the possible except of the horribly miscast Alison Lohman, who was brilliant in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (as well as Sam Raimi’s surprisingly scary Drag Me To Hell earlier this year) but looks ridiculous here in cyber-punk dreadlocks. But Michael C. Hall, on the other hand, who plays the game’s creator, Ken Castle, inhabits his character completely and gives such a unique performance that he steals the show whenever he’s onscreen. He does a show-tune performance near the end of the movie that is one of the entire film’s best scenes. Ludacris also gives a spot-on performance in a key role. This guy is one of our best musicians-turned-actors.

Let the gaming begin...

Most importantly, Neveldine and Taylor understand that pesky things like physics and other reality-based inconveniences don’t apply to video games, and hence do not apply to the world created in Society. In the hands of competent action directors, this makes for endless special effects opportunities, as well as a great excuse for throwing in a lot of gratuitous nudity without coming across as derivative, probably because one of the movie’s central themes is about how modern American media is overflowing with sex and violence. And what better way to comment on that than to make a movie that attempts to reach the saturation point of sex and violence?

Maybe you can see why I doubt the sheer philosophical depth of the film, but it would be unwise to say the movie’s inaccurate, and I think wrong to say it’s not entertaining. It’s action for action’s sake, and at the very least, in that way Neveldine and Taylor have never promised anything different from what they delivered. Game on!

The Bean Meter

4 Beans out of 5.

Whether you are a gamer or not, you’ve probably heard of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3, at the LA Convention Center.  Thousands of people, namely computer and game freaks and geeks, come from all over the world to view hundreds of new games and products.

Besides the occasional Wii and Guitar Hero sessions, I would not call myself a big video game fan, but I had to see what this excitement was all about.

Unlike comic book conventions, this event is a trade show for people working in the industry, so there weren’t swarms of fans dressed in costume, which I was a little disappointed about.  However, there were definitely still some sights to see…

I’m talking about the Booth Babes–hot girls dressed up like sexy video game characters or just wearing revealing outfits to whore out, I mean, “represent” their company.  These guys were seriously beside themselves in excitement.  It’s obvious they are not around girls, let alone HOT girls, very often.  The typical they awkwardly approach the girls, nervously ask for a picture, and when they don’t get rejected, their eyes beam, they happily squeeze in between two racks and display a cheesy smile from ear to ear.  Probably thinking, “Score! I’m totally posting these on my Facebook!”

I stood back though, afraid the camera flash would bounce off the beads of sweat on their foreheads and blind me.

So, check out the other major reasons dudes come to E3:

E3 is equal opportunity…

This is where I reveal my status as a gamer-nerd: I enjoy videogame movies.  I play videogames, and then, when a movie of said game is made, I’ll watch it, mostly because it will either A) Be awesome, or, B) Be so hilariously bad, it will be awesome.  So I’ve seen quite a few bad video game movies.  The dark and surreal Super Mario Bros. Movie with John Leguizamo in 1993, the Street Fighter movie from 1994 that starred Raul Julia and Jean-Cleaude Van Damme, and even newer ones that could have been cool, but failed miserably, like Max Payne in 2008 with Mark Wahlberg, but let’s get to the point.  Tomb Raider.  The game franchise in which a scantily-clad archeologist, Lara Croft, grabs history by the nuts and throws it off a cliff.

Why aren't all archeologists this awesome?

Arguably more famous than the games, though, are the movies, which starred actress-turned-humanitarian Angelina Jolie, and mostly had her running around shooting things and being as naked as humanly possible without having the films be rated “X” and, thus, introducing the character of Lara Croft to the world.  Not only that, but the Tomb Raider films showed how easy it is for a bad movie to make tons of money if Angelina Jolie is in it wearing a tank top and tiny shorts.

"Hey, guys, I know this script sucks, but if we can get Angelina Jolie to wear tiny shorts..."

And given the recent success of science fiction movies, such as Terminator: Salvation, Star Trek, and other nerd fare, it is only natural that video game movies get a share of this delicious blockbuster pie.

Man, now I really want some pie.

Funnily enough, Dan Lim, who was a producer for Terminator: Salvation, is one of the guys behind the re-boot of the Tomb Raider film franchise.  According to this video, there are plans to tell a Lara Croft origin story, only there are rumors that Angelina Jolie will NOT be playing the titular heroine.  Who the role will go to is uncertain, but the point is that, as the movie is intended to be an origin story, Angelina may not play the role, unless she is able to go back in time to when she was fifteen.

Her eyes would steal our souls.

Hopefully, this movie will be good, but video game films have the habit of being absolutely terrible.  If anything, the film may end up being a vehicle for some hot, as-of-yet unknown starlet to become a nerd icon by portraying Lara Croft on the silver screen.  As for me, I’m just wondering when they’re going to make a freaking Halo movie.

Seriously, that would be so awesome!

Hey guys… and girls!

Sorry, it’s been a while–I’ve been so busy recording, performing and doing other scramdom stuff.  I got to check out the launch of the new Nintendo DSi at Universal Citywalk and get my hands on one before they were available!  Sweet!  I also answered a new question from a fan… this one was kinda personal.  Check it out :)

-AA

Check out Austin’s Myspace

Last night was a blast!  Combine Hollywood hot spot, Boulevard 3, with snowboarding icon, Shaun White, and that makes for one awesome party.

The Olympic Gold Medalist and 8-time X Games Gold Medalist worked closely with Ubisoft to develop a snowboarding game that “captures snowboarding like no game has done before.”
This game has been approximately 2 years in the making, as far as I can tell, because the first announcement of their partnership to make the game came out in February 2006.  So, no doubt, this creation team was ready to party alongside Shaun last night!  Check out the pics–we had a blast trying out the new game.

The game will be in U.S. stores this Sunday, November 16th!  For more details on the game and the technology it employs, click here.

Shaun playing his new video game

Me and Shaun

Me and the Iron Shiek

Shaun playing his new video game

Shaun White and Tila Tequila

Tila Tequila on the red carpet

Tila Tequila posing

Video Game

Kelly Osbourne

Kat Von D from Miami Ink

Shaun White

Bam Margera

Nintendo.  Yeah, really–a source told OK! Magazine that the tad-too-slim actress that she stays fit with video games.

Angie’s eldest son Maddox, 7, was showing Angelina – who also has her hands full with Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, Shiloh, 2, and 4-month-old twins, Knox and Vivienne – the games for their Nintendo DS online when they discovered Let’s Pilates!.

I’m sure her kids help her with keeping her slim figure more than Nintendo Pilates.  Oh, and having a personal trainer kinda helps, too.  Read more about Angelina’s fitness regimen at The Blemish.

GameFly’s holding a ‘Super Fan Casting Call‘ in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York for an upcoming TV commercial.  Contestants will compete by submitting a video of themselves dressed up as their favorite video game character.  Much like the wild costumes you’d see at comic book convention, Gamefly’s commercial casting call will spotlight the passion and creativity of the video game community.  The winner will be determined by the gaming community who will vote online for its favorite video.

The live events will take place on:

* September 9: Los Angeles, Hollywood and Highland Center, 12-6 p.m. PST
* September 16: Chicago, ESPN Zone, 12-6 p.m. CST
* September 23: New York, Hawaiian Tropic Zone, 12-6 p.m. EST

No worries if you can’t make it to one of the in-person casting call events; you can also submit videos online at www.gamefly.com/superfan. All entries must be made by September 30th.

Voting will start on October 1st and end on October 31st.  The person with the greatest number of votes will be announced on November 6, 2008.  For official rules and additional details, please visit www.gamefly.com/superfan.