Starring: Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall.

Lame.  Lame, lame, lame, and more lame.  I had high hopes for this one.  I liked the idea and was really excited to see what sort of action and morality tale would result.  Instead, I was treated to a rather bland film with some crappy action sequences (that had the potential to be awesome) and only a notion of moral outrage.

All told, I got the sense that only 15 minutes into the movie, the actors that signed on to do this were sold using a different script.  They all signed a contract and had to oblige, but initially, I'm sure they were expecting something else.  Certainly it could not have been this thing that is only short of being called a travesty.  In case you don't remember (or just don't know) the premise of the movie is this:  In the future, you have soldiers that are controlled by other human beings as if they are playing a video game.  People pay to control their counterpart in battles, which are real and have no "extra life" or "continue" options.

The story focuses on one particular gamer, and his counterpart.  We follow them through a typical mission, and as the film progresses we see deeper into their own lives.  Well, not really.  First, it should be noted that the "icons" that they people are controlling are all death row inmates.  They are offered the chance to play in this game and allow themselves to be controlled for the chance of being free.  If they survive 30 battles, their sentence is ended, and they are free to go.  The thing is, no one has ever survived that long in the game, until now.

I really felt like there was an initial idea of where they wanted this film to go.  Then, as time went on, they came up with other ideas and splintered it off.  Suddenly, they realized they didn't have anything to tie it all together, so they just made stuff up to insert as needed.  It's all really crappy.  The first scene you encounter is an action sequence.  It had the potential of being good, but the camera work was so shoddy and the edits too poorly done, that you felt like you were one of those roller coaster cars that jerk you back and forth and bruise you up real good.  The kind that make you regret waiting in line all that time just to sit there and get the crap knocked out of you.  Just like that.

Overall, I'll just say that there was potential and it was not achieved.  Not even close.  I would suggest avoiding this film no matter what.  So long for now.