At the Movies with Fatwayne

This movie is a disaster from start to finish and one that only the most immature juvenile could appreciate. I am a fan of action movies and this one had a lot of action but it was not believable and bordered on the silly. The story line was ridiculous and completely unpredictable as well as inane. Gratuitous use of the “F” word did not help at all.

The story is about a society in the near future that thrives on gaming as entertainment. The society is rife with mind control technology headed by a megalomaniac, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) who has dreams of controlling everyone’s mind through his nano technology. His newest gaming sensation is “Slayers” where condemned men and women fight battles while their actions are controlled by gamers who can make them do anything or act in any way as a result of the nano cells that have been implanted into their brains. If you can survive thirty battles you are granted your freedom. So far, no one has accomplished this feat. The latest hero is a man named Kable (Gerard Butler) who is a world wide phenom after having survived 28 battles. He has been wrongly imprisoned and his only goal is to survive and get back to his wife and daughter. The problem is that he knows too much about Castle and his evil plans for this to be allowed. Kable is controlled by a seventeen year old gaming guru named Simon (Logan Lerman) who is partly responsible for Kable’s success. As the climatic battle looms, Kable somehow convinces Simon to relinquish control of his actions so the he can operate in real time and without the delay caused by reaction time from the controller to the combatant.

Look, we all know that Kable will eventually free himself from the confines of his prison and pursue the infamous Castle. We have been there and done that a bunch of times so there is no suspense involved here. There is however a surprise that is so out of context with the plot that your jaw will probably drop. As Kable comes face to face with Castle and is about to battle him and his “zombies”, the movie breaks out in a musical dance number with Castle singing and his goons doing a chorus line! Far out dude! 

Rounding out the cast is Kyra Sedgwick as talk show host Gina Parker Smith. She is joined by John Leguizamo as Freek and Ludacris as Humanz Brother. Their efforts in this film are all forgettable!

There are too many good movies being offered now for us to waste our time on this mishmash. I wouldn’t even recommend viewing it when it goes to DVD which shouldn’t be too long from now! You’ve been warned!

Rated – R -

Fatwayne’s Rating  –  -