BY MIKEY MIGO
With not being a gamer, this movie really didn't have much appeal to me outside of the fact that I'm a fan of Gerard Butler and that Michael C. Hall is the best actor on television. The plot seemed kind of hokey and lame and nothing about this movie really spoke to me. None the less, I gave this Neveldine/Taylor(the pimps behind Crank and Crank 2) movie a chance this past weekend. It's about a "not too far away" future where gaming has become even more elaborate. With a real life version of "The Sims", called "Society" in the movie, people can control living humans from the comfort of their own home. Basically, it's gross and loser people at home living their fantasies through paid participants of this game. This concept evolved into a new game called "Slayers". In this game, they take criminals and put them in typical war/first person shooter game settings with their every movement controlled by a player at home. When a criminal makes it past 30 game sessions, they are set free. Gerard Butler is a few games away from freedom and is a huge celebrity because of it. The evil genius behind this brain altering technology is "Ken Castle" played awesomely by Michael C. Hall. Hall doesn't want Butler to survive so he sends an "uncontrolled" criminal in the great Terry MF'N Crews to take him out. Along with Crews, we get Kyra Sedgwick, Ludacris, Alison Lohman, John Lequizamo, and a handful of people that I had no idea were in this. This kind of movie is in fact a little cheesy, but I ended up loving it. It really reminded me of a modern take on "Death Race 2000". If you enjoyed that classic then you should very well appreciate this movie. It's not a perfect movie. You're not going to have a life changing experience, but you'll enjoy the ride. If anything, see this so you can see Michael C. Hall dance to "I Got You Under My Skin" in one of the most surreal scenes I've seen in a while. This movie is the definition of "guilty pleasure" and I not only recommend it, but plan on watching it multiple times in the "not too far away" future.
|
