Gamertell

Title: Gamers (aka Gamers: The Movie)
Price: $24.95 (DVD)
Release Date: May 6, 2008
Distributer: Monterey Media, Inc.
Rating: Unrated
Pros: A good mix of both subtle and outrageous humor with engaging characters. Surprisingly well made and funny or an indie film produced in six days.
Cons: Starts a little sluggish and goes a little too far with a couple visual gags.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 90/100; A-; * * * * out of five

Gamers is a comical mockumetary that chronicles three gamers, a kookie latecomer and their dungeon master as they approach a record-breaking round of the tabletop game Demons, Nymphs and Dragons (aka DND). After 23 years of matches, the group of garage gamers is finally going to break the record for most hours of DND played (74,558) and get their picture gloriously reproduced on the world wide interweb. Ooh, ahh, oh.

Don’t worry. Gamers is not 87 minutes of nerds wearing faux fur shirts and talking in Elfspeak while rolling dice. Yes, some dice are rolled during the movie and some comical costumes do get donned, but this film is more about the characters who play the game rather than the playing of the game.

The film, written and directed by Christopher Folino, is semi-autobiographical, with a few bits of absurdity thrown in for comical measure. Although there is a decent dose of bathroom humor, it doesn’t dip nearly as deep into the potty as most gamer-centric movies and has zero pot-y humor a la Superbad. It retains a fair amount of subtlety, maturity and realistic humor.

Each of the main actors does a great job with his character, especially Kevin Sherwood as Kevin the costumed dungeon master and secret kids’ musician, and Scott Allen Rinker as Paul, who is secretly addicted to DND to the point of making scrapbooks and a character quilt for fellow gamers. Both performances are sufficiently subtle enough to keep their characters realistic and just wacky enough to keep the humor rolling.

Kevin Kirkpatrick’s Gordon, who really is the center of the movie, does a decent job feigning uncomfortability in front of a camera. Much of the movie shows him gearing up for the big night, temporarily escaping his pitiful existence as a sub-par cable film operator while slowly realizing that DND ain’t quite as cool as it was 20 years ago.

On the outrageous end is Dave Hanson as Reese, who is a humorously creepy (in that boy-toucher sort of way) 27-year-old virgin who gives all of his game characters women’s names and cannot seem to survive longer than a couple dice rolls. Hanson provides a decent platform for the film’s more comically obnoxious moments (and could easily be dropped into most current TV sitcoms).

Joe Nieves as Fernando may be the most normal of the group with a steady job (jerking horses), an Argentinian who mistakenly used DND to help blend into American culture. Even so, he’s also the blandest member of the bunch.

A few recognizable faces also play small parts in the film for comical credibility: John Heard (Prison Break, Home Alone) and Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation) portray Gordon’s accepting parents, William Katt (Greatest American Hero) is Reese’s boss and Kelly Lebrock (Weird Science) as the local MILF.

In true DVD fashion, there are a few bonus features including commentary tracks, cast interviews, deleted scenes and the trailer. (Be sure to read the small print on the box for a few extra giggles). The cast interviews are too short to be very information or interesting, as are the deleted scenes - really just extended scenes - likely due to the tight filming schedule. The first commentary track, which includes a large group of the filmmakers, is a bit more interesting.

You can hear the residual desperation in the filmmakers’ voices as they explain why they decided to film for only one week, how they roped in the actors and cajoled friends, family and coworkers (including a hot hair dresser) to be in the movie. It’s a worthwhile listen, especially if you enjoyed the movie and expect to bring home a “van full of money” by making your own independent movie.

While the movie seems like it might be perpetuating negative stereotypes, it delicately dances around overt negativity and instead portrays layers of complexity. And horse spooge. OK, so there are some outrageous moments and ridiculousness, but the filmmakers’ loving understanding of gaming and game culture is quite clear. It nicely teeters between an intimate homage to tabletop gamers and therapeutic self-deprecation, coming across as quite a bit more than a movie shot in 6 days. It’s easy to see why this won so many independent film awards after its 2006 theatrical release.

Check out the trailer below (keep in mind that it truly does not do justice to the overall quality or humor of the movie):

Site [Gamers: The DVD]