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Gamer

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Stars: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, John Leguizamo, Ludacris

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Rated: R

Showing: Southside Cinema, times unavailable

Runtime: 95 minutes

Sci-fi/thriller

300 star Gerard Butler dons his action hero mask once again for this thriller - a modern-day Gladiator in which men fight to the death in computer games.

Set in the future, mind control technology is widespread and humans control other humans in large scale, multi-player online games.

One of the most popular is Slayers, in which players can act out their most savage fantasies by controlling real prisoners and making them do bloody battle.

Star of this ultra-violent game is Kable (Butler), who was taken from his family, imprisoned and force to fight (sound familiar?).

He must survive long enough to escape the game to rescue his loved ones and save mankind from the sadistic technology - the brainchild of elusive billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall).

Gamer is like a modern version of Arnold Schwarzenegger's cult 1987 hit The Running Man, in which a wrongly convicted man must survive a public execution in the form of a TV game show.

Like the Arnie movie, it heavily criticises our voyeuristic natures and video game culture.

Gamer's over-the-top, stylized violence makes up for the plot failing, while the great cast also make it watchable.

Watch if you liked: The Running Man, Gladiator[[In-content Ad]]

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