The film is set in a not-too-distant utopian future where the highest advances in nanotechnology have allowed technological genius Ken Castle to fuse a video game with a reality show and simulate the ultra-functional, multiplayer game “The Assassins,” which has become the habitat of local criminals.

John Tillman, sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit, must take part in the Game to gain his freedom. To one wealthy young player, John Tillman is Cable, just a sim, a controllable character in the Game. Because of his fighting ability and physical strength, Cable becomes a national hero and ranks at the top of the game.

Every week, millions of people around the world follow him and the hundreds of other suicide bombers who participate in the game’s battles online. According to the rebel group that opposes Castle, his game is high-tech slavery, and he is the critical element that must be destroyed. Cable/Tillman is caught between two powerful opposing forces who have no interest in seeing him survive. With each step watched by millions, John Tillman fights to gain his freedom, reclaim his identity, and overthrow the system that imprisoned him.

4k movies reviews
I want to warn you at once – the following nonsense is my personal view of the film. That I have such peculiar tastes is the affair’s personal and nobody’s concern. No animals (except me) were harmed in the writing of this article.

As an epigraph one may use a phrase I saw in Alexander Exler’s review of “The Lord of the Rings” – “Good will conquer evil…bring it to its knees and kill it cruelly”, a phrase which may be completed by my words “in the presence of my own child”.

Let us proceed from the postulate of my beloved Schwartz: “If you want to point out errors, first praise. And there is still much to praise.

First, the unusual filming, great camerawork. This chaotic, jagged motion picture fits the film’s stylistics perfectly.

Second, the editing is great, really great! With this way of shooting everything looks coherent, and that’s not easy to achieve.

Third is the soundtrack! The music was chosen with great taste and to the point. And Manson with “Sweet Dreams” fell deep in my heart, I will wait for the official release of OST.

Fourthly – a sophisticated, in some places I would say, perverted, fantasy of the creators. Well, first of all, carefully designed action scenes, all these explosions, people in the cutscene, every time a new angle. Secondly, the game “Society” – it was necessary to invent and prescribe all these freaks. Oh, and everyone remembers the way Cable gassed up the car? О!

Next up, the main villain. Now, that’s a real sweet guy. Not everyone can play 100% badass and still be charming and appealing. Everything in it was great – and grimaces, and jumps, that is, and facial expressions, and plastics. (Just remember the scene where all those closets danced to I’ve got you under my skin – great!) The idiotic phrases given to him as lines for his character I won’t analyze, first of all, the original (even judging by the excerpts in English I watched) is still different from our translation. Secondly, what kind of idiot would analyze the speech of the MAIN Evil Man in an AMERICAN FIGHT (I am, of course, not myself, but not to that extent). Thank him very much, because take him away and we are faced with a stilted American action movie.

Everything happened as usual: the idea was good, but something prevented its realization in full – may be the stars’ location, may be the producer’s lack of budget, or may be his heartburn. God knows.

I’ll start from afar, as usual: WHO told the American producers-directors that the former model could play something there, and at a level? Miss Valetta, in my unprofessional opinion, has a very peculiar appearance and the temperament of a fresh-frozen fish. I apologize if I offended anyone. The twisting of her face in the shot, which was supposed to show me the main character’s mental torment, unfortunately, did not impress me at all. Next, she was supposed to portray her mother (her mother!) in the film, but I didn’t believe her one bit – and don’t call me Stanislavsky.

Further, the daughter I mentioned is the kid from the kefir digestive enhancement commercial. Have any casting directors ever seen a real child? It’s a robot! She’s got her daddy twirling a knife around in front of her, and she’s looking at him in a serious, slow-motion way, like “I’m going to get a squirrel and a whistle”.

Now moving on to my main sore spot – the movie is 200% predictable, I could have predicted their dialogues and actions down to the last penny. I’ll allow myself a small lyrical digression: I prayed the entire movie, but God didn’t hear me. First I prayed that Cable would still kill someone and not his favorite American “he was framed” twist, and it didn’t work. Then I prayed that the scary badass villain wouldn’t come scaring him with “I’m going to get your family” (to kind of provoke him) – didn’t work. Then I prayed that my daughter was not in the hands of the main villain, shob dad with a proud, twisted face did not rush to get her out, and my mother did not escort him and not waving a blue kerchief after – no way. And then we move on to the finale – it’s a complete disaster. If before I still had hope for something, here it became clear that this movie is for the bayou. How many times have the villains mocked the defenseless little superkillers live (match Cable and Castle’s size for yourself) – and had to do it again. And, of course, everyone knows exactly how it ends (well, except the villain, for him it’s, as always, a complete surprise) and in the finale – thank you, everyone is free. Creepy!

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (59.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH, Spanish.