The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

• All Lodge wants is for his gaming group to finish their adventure. Unfortunately, they're more interested in seducing barmaids, mooning their enemies, and setting random villagers on fire. Desperate to rein in his players, Lodge injects two newbies into the distrust: a non-player character controlled by Lodge, who the power gamers immediately distrust, and the rarest gamer of all -- a girl. Can th

Gerard Butler stars as Kable, condemned criminal and globally famous super-soldier in the ultimate multiplayer game, "Slayers.” Human controllers direct each thought and move of real-life prison inmates battling in hyper-intense environments â€" where the goal is freedom and the penalty is death. But when Kable suddenly decides he wants out, his rebellion threatens the twisted plans of game creator Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall, TV’s "Dexter”), who will stop at nothing to crush the renegade comm! ando in this taut, adrenaline-packed action-thriller.Frenzied and relentlessly aggressive, Gamer seeks to translate the sensory barrage of violent video games into movie form--and does a pretty successful job. In a dystopic future, prisoners on death row are given a slim chance of survival as flesh-and-blood avatars for shoot-'em-up game players who control their very brains. The mastermind behind this game (played by Michael C. Hall, Dexter) has secret ambitions worthy of a James Bond villain, but his schemes are threatened by John Tillman (Gerard Butler, 300), the only living avatar who's survived more than a few games--so Tillman's already dangerous life turns even more deadly. Gamer revels in overkill: visual tricks abound as the action speeds up or slows down, skittering to and fro with jump cuts and flashes of light. The dialogue is a catalog of macho posturing or melodramatic exposition. The performances--from a surprising cast that includ! es Alison Lohman (Drag Me to Hell), Kyra Sedgwick (T! he Close r), Chris "Ludacris" Bridges (Crash), and supermodel Amber Valletta--play cartoonish characters with exuberant gusto and commitment. By conventional standards, Gamer is a terrible movie… but the movie's creators don't care, because they aspire to step beyond conventional standards. As with their previous adrenaline-driven flick Crank, the writer-director team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor want viewers to plug in, turn off their rational minds, and immerse themselves in sheer sensation. --Bret Fetzer

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 01/19/2010 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: RGerard Butler stars as Kable, condemned criminal and globally famous super-soldier in the ultimate multiplayer game, "Slayers.” Human controllers direct each thought and move of real-life prison inmates battling in hyper-intense environments â€" where the goal is freedom and the penalty is death. But when Kable suddenly decides he wants out, his rebellion threatens the twisted plans of game creator Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall, TV’s "Dexter”), who will stop at nothing to crush the renegade comm! ando in this taut, adrenaline-packed action-thriller.!

All Lodge wants is for his gaming group to finish their adventure. Unfortunately, they're more interested in seducing barmaids, mooning their enemies, and ! setting random villagers on fire. Desperate to rein in his players, Lodge injects two newbies into the distrust: a non-player character controlled by Lodge, who the power gamers immediately distrust, and the rarest gamer of all -- a girl. Can the group overcome their bickering to save the kingdom, or will the evil necromancer Mort Kemnon triumph unopposed? A parody of fantasy films and the adventure gaming community, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is a hilarious romp through the world of sword and sorcery -- in this case, a world of exploding peasants, giant house cats, and undead roast turkeys. Game on!