ANOTHER FABBY-DO REVIEW, FROM AUSTIN UNDERGROUND FILM!
Andy Gately of the Austin Underground Film Festival saw GAMERZ, dug it, and shares his thoughts:
'The film marks an auspicious debut for director Robbie Fraser, who renders the universality of the gaming subculture's escapism and drama supremely enjoyable. All the actors turn in solid performances, and Ross Finbow is a charm in the lead role... Toss in some beautiful Bakshi-esque "shadowplay" animated sequences, and a soundtrack that includes theremin metal, and what's not to love?'
FULL REVIEW: http://www.austinundergroundfilm.com/index2.htm
AIN'T IT COOL NEWS GIVES GAMERZ SEVERAL THUMBS UP!!!
Following our screenings at Fantastic Fest in Austin, GAMERZ has received a number of highly positive reviews from the staff at the number one genre film site on the planet, Ain't It Cool News!
'GAMERZ GEEK NIRVANA' by Harry Knowles:
'Robbie Fraser really knocked this out of the park. It's a low budget film that stretches it without showing stretch-marks. The visual FX for the shadowplay world of the game seem to reflect the waking dream of the pencil-sketched wanderings that one goes on while playing role-playing dice games. For anyone that's taken a hit and had an asshole dungeonmaster... this film will be hilarity. BTW - Danielle Stewart as Marlyn - the quasi-goth/elf chick was INCREDIBLY geekilicious! Especially with the elf ears on. Rowr!'
FULL REVIEW: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30153
From Darla Hood's Ain't It Cool News review:
'This film is fun, fun, fun. And it's completely accessible to everyone, even non-gamers... The cast is a perfect fit for each of the characters and are each basically unknowns in Scotland. I'm impressed that the producers were able to find such ideal people from unknown young actors AND be able to get the film made AND to be able to make such a perfect gaming film with them. It's wonderful... It's a good ol' feel good movie on a topic that doesn't get used enough in films. Keep your eyes open for this one... You won't be disappointed.'
FULL REVIEW: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30166
Massawyrm's Ain't It Cool News review:
'This was the one that screamed out to be seen. And it didn’t disappoint... GAMERZ does a great job of being funny, without throwing gobs of geek specific jokes and jargon at the audience to alienate them... A good-hearted and well-constructed indie, this is a film that any RPG fan cannot miss and one that those who wouldn’t know a d4 from a d12 (here’s a hint, one of them is almost useless in 3.5) can just as easily fall in love with... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED'
FULL REVIEW: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30155
Augustus Gloop's Ain't It Cool News review:
'I have less gaming experience than many of my friends, but I've enough to know this was written, lovingly, by someone who has directly experienced the role-playing world and the related social dynamics. GAMERZ brings several unknown, but talented actors to the screen. Punctuated with clips of the characters' role-playing alter-egos in silhouette or shadow-form, this is a fun, quirky, at times emotional, trip through what for many of us is solid nostalgia. Very enjoyable, constant laughter keeps the mood light even in tenser scenes.'
FULL REVIEW: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30175
EVERY DAY IS HALLOWE'EN
Live-action role playing: Teetering on the brink of coolness, or last bastion of the dork? In Detroit's hip alternative newspaper The Metro Times, writer Sarah Klein muses about the growing cult of Live Action Roleplayers, and GAMERZ gets a mention as being a timely movie tribute to this weird and wonderful hobby!
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8402
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIBLING RIVALRY?
Actors Johnny Austin (who plays DAVY) and Julie Austin, his sister, talk generously about GAMERZ during an interview on their roles in the fabulous new Citizens' Theatre musical version of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Interview by Mark Fisher, THE SUNDAY TIMES, October 24, 2005. Excerpt:
Later this month you can see [Johnny Austin] in the hotly anticipated Scottish sci-fi comedy Gamerz, being given an early preview screening at UGC cinemas. “It looks fantastic,” he says, describing Robbie Fraser’s film about a fantasy role-playing game that gets out of control. “It’s got a quirky, off-the-wall sense of humour, then on top of that it’s a fantasy film. It’s like a cross between Gregory’s Girl and The Lord of the Rings.”
“It’s so refreshing to see a Scottish film that is not like every other,” adds his sister, who has seen Gamerz, which is in the running for a Bafta Scotland award. “Nobody is getting smacked off their face on drugs. It’s got a light, gentle sense of warmth about it.”
Read more about Johnny in the full article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1825396_1,00.html
GAMERZ IN THE HOOD
Interview with writer-director Robbie Fraser on Channel 4's Ideasfactory.com, by Joanna Clements:
http://scotland.ideasfactory.com/film_tv/features/feature58.htm
MY PERFECT FESTIVAL
A tip of the hat from a friend of the GAMERZ team, internationally acclaimed playwright SHAN KHAN, writing in THE HERALD:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/goingout/45560.html
MEDIEVAL FROLICKING'S A GOOD LARP
Sandra Dick writes in The Edinburgh Evening News about how GAMERZ is shedding light on the strange by-ways of fantasy roleplaying...
http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1763592005
SO, CAN THE GEEKS REALLY INHERIT THE EARTH?
A preview article on the Worldcon screening of GAMERZ from THE HERALD, by Miles Fielder:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/44361.html
INTERVIEW WITH ROBBIE FRASER
An interview with writer-director Robbie Fraser on hot UK film site Futuremovies.co.uk, by Paul Greenwood.
http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/filmmaking.asp?ID=134
INTRODUCING... ROBBIE FRASER
An interview with GAMERZ writer-director Robbie Fraser in SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY, by Sally Raikes:
http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=1701902005
IT’S GAME ON
Dungeons and Dragons is under the candlelight in a new Scots movie...
Thomas Quinn, Daily Record, 19th March 2005
Hollywood, New York, Cannes… and a cold, rainy Clydebank in March. If you thought the movie industry was all glamour, premiere parties and big money deals, then think again.
Compared to even the most modest output from American studios, Gamerz is a micro-budgeted Scottish film costing little more than what the average Beverly Hills wife would spend on Botox.
Which explains why this week the film’s cast were huddled in a freezing, damp cellar under Clydebank’s disused Victorian swimming baths.
Paint peels off the walls, dust fills the air, and there is no natural light. Yet it is here that five young stars are working away on what they hope will be one of the surprise movie hits of 2005.
James Young, Ross Finbow, Danielle Stewart, Ross Sutherland and Johnny Austin are all huddled round a table lit by candlelight.
Their characters have sought out this dank venue to play a form of Dungeons and Dragons, a role-playing game, in which their bizarre fantasies of wizards and goblin wars are played out.
This scene is crucial to the film’s plot, involving a love triangle between geeky Ralph ‘the gamekeeper’, played by Ross, his neddish friend Lenny, played by James, and a beautiful Goth girl, Marlyn, played by Danielle.
Making up the rest of the fantasy game group is Hank, a tough ‘metalhead’ who communicates mainly by belching, and davy, aka Wilbur the Wily, a gangly youth who is prone to bumping his head.
James, 24, is probably the most experienced of the group, fresh from playing Michelle’s ned boyfriend in Scottish soap River City. And he reckons Gamerz is just the ticket.
He said: “The script is really good. It’s still making me laugh. Apparently these games are quite huge – we all played one together and it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I could see how people get into it.”
According to the film’s first time writer-director, Glasgow-based Robbie Fraser, 32, Gamerz will be like ”Adrian Mole meets Frodo Baggins with American Pie smeared over the top”.
And he is confident it will appeal.
He said: “Dungeons and Dragons has spawned a movement that is seriously global. It’s beyond Tolkein, though a lot of it is inspired by Lord of the Rings, so we don’t feel we are making a film that is aimed at a small narrow audience – though we are making a film about a very small group of complete freaks.”
Robbie admits he was once a ‘gamer’ himself and that there is an element of autobiography in his movie.
He said: “I played in my teens – a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, Tunnels and Trolls and The Call of Cthulhu.
“ So this film is based on years of my childhood. But while it’s a comedy, it’s not meant to be a cruel send-up of people who play role-playing games.
“ It’s meant to be affectionate. In fact, it’s an out-and-out comedy, a feelgood movie, and while there are a few dark moments it is full of humour – and flatulence.”
Because the film is funded by Scottish Screen and SMG’s New Found Films scheme, Robbie and his producer, Paul Gavin, had only £300,000 to spend.
And while they are guaranteed a screening at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, they will have to fight for a distribution deal after that.
Some may think it’s a gamble they didn’t go for an established star in the cast. But, for Robbie, that’s part of the point.
“ The lead actors are all unknowns, but that goes with the territory because it is a young, fresh story and all the main parts in it are people aged 19-22,” he said.
“ We couldn’t cast big stars even if we’d wanted to because we needed young Scots. This is a very Scottish movie.”
Bearded and huddled in a coat to keep out the Clydebank cold, Robbie returned to his native Glasgow only recently after spells in London and in New York, where he studied screenwriting at Columbia University.
And he wanted to do a different type of Scottish film to the usual gritty flicks.
Robbie and Paul, who has recently worked on River City, shared an inspiration to make Gamerz because they were fed up seeing so many grim films made in Scotland.
Paul said: “I remember seeing Sweet Sixteen and thinking how embarrassing it was. It was all effing this, and effing that.
“ Why do Scottish films have to be about overdoses and tower blocks? They don’t.”
Robbie added: “There’s a danger that Scottish films become a genre in itself and that means serious, grim films.
“ Comedy is hard to do, but we’ve decided to go for that because we want to make a film with broad appeal.”
He said: “The idea is to make a really upbeat Scottish story which is at once very Glaswegian and very universal. So there are no drug overdoses or deaths.
“ Mind you,” he laughed, “Danielle does get brutalised by a gang of Orcs…”
Robbie is full of praise for the young actors who are bringing his vision to life. The main geek, played by Ross, is a portrait of a long-suffering genius, while Danielle is an elf-like Goth chick.
Robie said “She is beautiful and really funny as well. She can act out a whole scene just with her eyes.”
Double-act Hank and Davy are “uber-geeks who struggle through life” and temporarily find a happy home in the group while Lenny, played by James, was a minor drug dealer.
Robbie said: “He watched Lord of the Rings on acid, however, and had a vision of a fantasy world and is now desperate to get involved in it.
“ James is brilliant, he’s the most experienced of the lot of them, having done Chewin’ The Fat and River City, and he’s coming into his own on this movie.”
So are the actors feeling the pressure?
Ross said: “Everyone is very much supporting each other, so if there is pressure on all of us, it’s shared out.
“ We’ve got to know each other quite well – it’s a bit like Scooby Doo actually. Only I don’t think I’m Fred.
“ But no-one is thinking about this making us all famous – because being on set isn’t pretty. Fame and glamour is well at the back of your mind – I just want to get the lines right.”
James added: “It’s great to film this here, but I’m not thinking beyond seeing the premiere. You just have to move on and do the next job.
“ I’m just trying to take it all in and learn from it and have fun,” said Danielle.
“ I’ve hardly done anything before this, so I feel very lucky”.
