Thursday, September 3

• Who's Controlling the Gamer Girls?

  Some of the most provocative images from the sci-fi action flick Gamer have nothing to do with the combat-to-the-death Gerard Butler is all wrapped up in. It's the Gamer girls in their skimpy outfits and electric colors who have provided some of the most original eye candy from the movie. Most prominent among them is statuesque former model Amber Valletta, who is featured in some sexed-up poses and outlandish clothing in recent batches of publicity stills.

  What you don't see in the pictures, though, is that she is being played by remote control. And it really isn't pretty. The guy making her pose and do things is described as "a morbidly obese (and shirtless!) slug of a man who literally licks his putrid lips in nearly every shot he's given." How's that for contrast? Yikes.

  
  

  Posted 09/03/2009 by Bill

  Related: Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Wednesday, September 2

• Gamer Featurette Highlights the Resistance to Being Used

  Although the trailer for Gamer features Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams," not everyone in the movie is so thrilled with the idea of being used and abused. IGN has put together a bunch of footage (some of it new) and cast interviews in a new Gamer featurette that explores the roots of resistance to this future dystopia in which people are manipulated, abused, and even killed for the pleasure of online game players.

  In one new clip we get Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, who plays the head of the resistance, laying out for Gerard Butler just how much worse things are going to get for everyone if the nefarious people behind the games aren't stopped soon. Discussing another clip, Amber Valletta explains her character's struggle to maintain integrity even as she is exploited in the debaucherous game "Society."

  
  

  Posted 09/02/2009 by Bill

  Related: Chris ``Ludacris'' Bridges | Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Friday, July 24

• Gamer's Future Plays on Sex and Violence

  The main plot line in Gamer involves the use of death row inmates as remote-controlled cyber-gladiators in a battle to the death. But it turns out that there is another game going on here as well. Human avatars are being played like puppets for sex as well as violence.

  In this second game, people are being paid or otherwise coerced to play out other people's most debaucherous fantasies. Sort of like Dollhouse, except that the dolls in this case are controlled by a mental link to the person who is playing with them.

  The two game lines — the sex and the violence — intersect with top cyber-gladiator Kabel (Gerard Butler), whose wife Angie (Amber Valletta) has gotten caught up in the sex-slave game.

  Lots of angles of exploitation here, and it is hardly surprising that those being played have some questions about the maturity of the people playing them. In a pretty funny new clip from the movie, we see Kable explaining to his controller Simon that the game really isn't so cool.

  
  

  Posted 07/24/2009 by Bill

  Related: Amber Valletta | Gerard Butler | Gamer

Sunday, May 31

• Gamer Debuts an Eye-popping Avatar

  Color overload. New pictures from Gamer are up, and they focus in on a whole new side of the dystopian future of online gaming. Here we get a closer look at the more psychedelic and eye-catching aspects of this world that were only fleetingly seen in the gritty action-oriented trailer.

  On display is Amber Valletta as Angie, whose avatar sports some pretty electric hair colors and a minimalist dressing style. Why so colorful? She's appearing in some sort of souped-up cross between the Sims and Second Life called Society.

  
  

  Posted 05/31/2009 by Bill

  Related: Amber Valletta | Gamer