Gamer (2001)
Directed by Patrick Levy

Film Review

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.

Film Synopsis

Tony, 22, is obsessed with video games.  When he is not mixed up in petty trafficking or housebreaking, he divides his time between the games arcades and his Playstation.  He hasn't the time to go chasing after girls, although he has the hots for one girl in his neighbourhood, the seemingly indomitable Nina.  Tony's ambition is to create a video game that will make him ridiculously wealthy.  To raise the funds to get this mad project off the ground, he attempts a robbery, but this goes disastrously wrong.  Caught by the police, he ends up with an eight month stretch in prison.  Tony's enforced confinement gives him time to gather his thoughts and come up with a genuinely original idea for a video game.  When he comes out of prison, he is resolved to give up his old life and devote himself to his dream, undeterred by the enormous challenges that lie ahead...