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Directed by: Matt Vancil Starring: Nathan Rice, Matt Shimkus, Phil M. Price, Justin McGregor, Matt Cameron The Gamers is a cool little film about a group of college buddies that play a Dungeons and Dragons like game, and it cuts between them playing the game in their dorm and footage of their alter-egos adventuring in a fantasy world. It’s barely feature length at just under and hour, but it still tells an interesting story and keeps you entertained, especially if you have any experience playing this type of game. Considering it was made for something like six hundred dollars, the production values aren’t too shabby, and are far above that of a normal fan-film or homemade movie. All of the characters are fitted out with passable costumes and weapons, and the random encounters they run into are similarly well-equipped. The world they adventure in is obviously nothing on the scale of the Lord of the Rings films, but there’s still a strong sense of atmosphere whether they’re trekking through the woods or resting in a tavern. The locations they use are pretty integral to the movie’s success. It’s also really funny. The humor is tailored towards other gamers, but anyone with even the vaguest familiarity with D&D or ren fairs will get a lot of the jokes. The group the plays the gamers/heroes are really great at their parts, hamming it up to the perfect degree. The special effects are deliberately tongue in cheek, which works well with the shoestring budget. The directing was also incredibly proficient for what is essentially an amateur movie. There are a lot of creative camera set ups and movements that work well, and the editing style complements the comedic energy of the characters. Keeping the film relatively short also helps keep it light and engaging, rather than letting it wear thin over full-feature length. The only real flaw I found was the sound quality, especially the scenes where the group is playing the game in their dungeon like dorm room. It sounds as if they only had one directional mic to work with, as some of the character’s voices get garbled or drowned out at times. This actually wouldn’t be as noticeable if their voices were always like that, but in other scenes you can hear them crystal clear. The music and sound effects are top notch however. Unfortunately, the film is only available through the website of the group who made it (who gave it a great DVD package), or at the rare convention screening, so it might be hard to track down. Despite this, it’s been successful enough to spawn a sequel, which is still in the works. If you’re a fan of gamer humor or fan films, or are an aspiring filmmaker yourself, this is the best you’ll find. RATING: 4.0 PROS: funny, original CONS: some bad sound recording ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://gamers.deadgentlemen.com/
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May 26, 2004 21:51
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 12:44 |
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I saw this off some RPG site that was streaming it online for a while as a gaming conference was going on. I laughed. Anyone that has ever been a gaming geek at some point could love this movie I think. Everyone else I could see hating it. I also think it was only around 40 minutes long. Definately had some worthy laughs, though. I'd give it a 4 simply for the wit.
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May 29, 2004 22:14
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