darren chapman I watched this film after it being given as a gift, and thought it was great.Being an online gamer myself I really appreciated the film as I believe it was meant to be seen.Spoilers ahoyAfter getting past the blatant wooden acting from the main protagonist the movie really takes off when it introduces the pro- gamers.OK the ending with the whole wife twist was so obvious and unnecessary, and the CGI was way below average. But I had a right blast watching it, identifying all the gaming references and relating to the gamers.All this movie needs is for some big company to take the story and make it more Hollywoodized. Add top of the line CGI and you could be onto a real winner.Don't listen to all the other reviews here slating the film, just give it a go if the idea takes your fancy.

jabrbi If this film had been made in 1978 then it MIGHT be considered prescient. The fact that it was actually made in 2008 shows that the writers, director and producers couldn't even look back at recent history and construct a contemporary film.Plot: A billionaire owner of a games software company finds that his wife has been kidnapped and he has to hire a team of game players to fight their way through a customised version of his best-selling game to rescue his wife. To make things worse, the billionaire is locked in a room whilst playing the game.As a premise there are some intriguing possibilities but the writers clearly have no idea how online gaming works so the whole plot line collapses into absurdities. For example, only certain servers in the world could possibly host the game being played and they could be identified in seconds. (I'd say more but then I'd have to give out spoilers.) And the final plot twist is truly, truly awful. Unbelievably awful. However, the twist does explain why so much that has gone before doesn't make sense.This is clearly a budget production, with shaky camera work, bad actors, and unbelievably bad dialogue. In the 21st Century how do you struggle to find a competent actor to play a CEO character? The guy first appears in a meeting, jet-lagged from a flight from Japan, and then goes through the rest of the film in a similar state. It's like the actor's on tranquillisers and nobody called the doctor to sort him out. Most of the other actors aren't much better, but they at least appear awake most of the time. The one exception is Tank Jones - yes, that's his name. He's by far the best actor on screen.The in-game graphics are very poor, but that might have been state of the art when the film was made. Also, not much happens within the game given that players are playing for 8 hours. And how about the billionaire who's stuck in a room with no food and no toilet? In trying to find a way to sum up this movie, the word that came to mind is SNOOZEFEST. If you manage to stay awake until the end you'll wonder just when you turned into such a masochist. Go have some root canal work done, it's quicker and less painful than watching this film.

mprush12 I watched this movie last night and right away noticed that the animation and acting sucked. I watched about 40 minutes of it hoping the film would get better it didn't. I wanted so much to turn it off however I had already committed myself to 40 minutes of the movie so I watched the rest. This movie was funny only because they tried to make this so real and suspenseful. The actors tried so hard but it was just so obvious there was no real talent here and it made the film horrible. OK, enough about the acting lets talk about the graphics/special effects. Lets just say the graphics of the movie were equivalent to a 1996 Sega game. It's jaw dropping how a movie from 2008 can be so behind the times. I wonder what kind of budget they had and if the movie even made enough to cover it. OK so overall this was a poor movie, but since I suffered through it I want you too also. I have been trying to trick my friends into watching this but after seeing the trailer they just laughed and said "hell no"

chicagorob1 This movie had the quality of a high school production. Some of the actors were terrible, especially the one playing William Bell. Some of the "Armchair Combatants" were pretty good, though. It's hard to believe this was made in 2008. The "animation" for the battle scenes looked like something from the early 90's. There's shareware that can do a better job, when someone knows how to use it. The "twist" ending was obvious in the first 10 minutes. It extremely stupid and unoriginal (think "The Game" with Michael Douglas). Skip the The Controller and instead get TRON, it's special effects were more realistic even though it was 26 years earlier.