
2016 · adventure · action · sci-fi
Directed by Charles Barker1h 30m2016
When a group of elite online gamers each receive a mysterious invitation to trial a state-of-the-art virtual reality video game, it’s a dream come true and impossible to resist. Arriving at the test site, the group step into hi-tech gear and prepare for a revolutionary, next-level gaming experience that brings modern warfare to life with frightening realism. At first it’s a unique and exhilarating experience. But what starts out like a dream encounter with cutting edge technology quickly takes a turn for the sinister. Once the group are attacked by enemy combatants, they soon realize this is no game after all. Make a mistake here and you pay with your life. Now these masters of the shoot ‘em up will have to fight for survival within a game gone bad, but this time it’s for real.
Our read: The Call Up (2016) reads as a sombre, breathless, inventive adventure · action · sci-fi entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Sombre, breathless, measured adventure / action, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold.
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“You want gamers trapped in deadly VR war simulation fighting for real.”
Skip it tonight — You want thoughtful sci-fi or hate video game movie tropes.
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