Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx team up for some credibility ruining violent nonsense.

While we try to give balanced reviews here at STS, fuck me this is nasty. While a bit of the old ultra-violence is to be expected in a revenge thriller, it needs to be handled carefully if you want to avoid your anti-hero becoming the villain. Here, Butler’s general blandness makes him difficult to root for, meaning he’s on thin ice from the get go, and his subsequent actions end up confusing who exactly your supposed to back.

Playing opposite Jamie Foxx’s odious ADA, things begin fairly black and white. While not the most Oscar-attracting actor in the world Butler does have the ability to imbue his habitual B-Movie roles with enough cod-gravitas to keep him afloat. Gamer and 300 cemented his action status, and his general beigeness actually works well playing an average Joe. One quick wife and baby murder later however, and all that’s out the window, Gerard’s Clyde Sheldon (Who thinks up these names?) spending the next decade amassing the resources to destroy the killers, Foxx and seemingly the entire city of Philadelphia.

While the story – such as it is – initially provides Sheldon with plenty of audience empathy, as his actions become more extreme things degenerate into an excuse to chop people up in a variety of Fianl Destination style murders that lack even surprise value, each large-print signposted for the exceptionally stupid viewer, and while the direction is efficient if workmanlike, the glee taken in slow-mo pans across the victims ultimately leaves you feeling in need of a shower.

Foxx provides effective backup, but his character is so irredeemably unlikeable that you have to wonder how he picks roles. For every Ray there’s a Stealth, and for every Soloist there’s this crap. Faced with multiple killings, his character takes it as an affront to his dignity rather than a threat to the citizenry, coming across as a right ratbag in the process. As the situation escalates things head downhill quickly, with lingering bone crunching and blood splattering that would make Punisher: WarZone crap it’s pants, such is the level of viscosity. Unfortunately these set pieces do little to advance the lot.

If we were feeling charitable this could be viewed as a subversion of the typical Hollywood Hero figure, but charity – along with mercy and believability – are in short supply throughout, leaving us with an overly nasty, grubby little thriller appealing to the lowest common denominator.

The latest from the team behind the insanely ludicrous Crank franchise gets lost up its own adrenalin rush.

With Crank, writers Neveldine and Taylor proved themselves as the new stars of brain-in-neutral hyperkinetic action, and Gamer certainly doesn’t lack in the crazed action stakes. Whip pans and super fast MTV edits are di rigueur here, and while it may upset viewers with motion sickness, there’s no denying it’s a hellava ride.

In among the epilepsy inducing visuals, there’s a paper thin plot with some grunting in place of thespianism, but to be honest, that isn’t really what we’re here for is it? Plot hole you could fly a MiG through mean this is never going to be a great movie –or even a really competent one, but it’s willingness to mess about with high concepts scores it bonus points.

It’s the bog standard future, and humanity is mainly occupied with playing two huge MMPORGS –‘Society’ a Sims-like experience with added S&M, and “Slayers” – Doom meets Halo. The twist on this being that actual people sign up to be avatars, controlled by online gamers who seem mainly interested in making all vaguely attractive women in the movie make out with each other.

By way of narrative, we’ve got Gerard Butler, hulking about as the improbably named Kable, a death row inmate plunged into the shoot ‘em up. Survive 30 games, and he’s a free man. When exactly the government agreed that training convicted killers to be even more effective before then releasing them back into society was a good idea is never touched on.

In between browsing through the music video edit kama sutra there are some nice stylistic touches here. The grim world of Slayers is matched to Death Row, all washed-out blue grays against a rusty, grimy post apocalypse background, while the Society game in particular is all scanty bikinis and overly loud psychedelia, giving it a weird, Saturday morning cartoon appeal. It’s actually a bit of a shame, because there’s production design on display that would go down a treat in a more rounded film.

Likewise, characterisation is notably absent, Butler et al gurning and shouting over explosions while somehow managing to avoid any and all emotional heft. A special nod does go to Michael C Hall though, who pulls off deliciously odious villainy with aplomb, and is seriously wasted as a result.

Were this an adaptation of an actual game, then it would work fine, it’s at least as good/bad as any Uwe Boll dross out there and as such should be treated as inoffensive SDVD trash. Unfortunately, the writing team has decided to shoehorn in a half thought out moral. Something or other to do with society’s over-reliance on technology I’m sure, but it’s a muddled mess that deflates what otherwise could have been a full-on ‘don’t-give-a-shit’ fun fest like Crank before it, but because of its pretensions to commentary, it simply highlights the offensive sexism and dull as dishwater leads.

Kitchen-sink filmmaking that falls short of target, if you must, wait for the DVD and consume 15 pints before opening.