Level Up

In London, the gamer Matt spends most of his time on the couch playing videogame while his wife Anna is working, generating friction between them. One morning, Anna has breakfast and goes to the work and a moment after, three masked thieves break in the apartment and dress a vest with a package in Matt and give a cell phone to him. He is informed that Anna has been kidnapped and receives instructions to go to a mall and deliver the package to a man named Dmitri. The man also tells that if he seeks help, Anna will be killed. But Matt fails and is hunted down while receives new bizarre instructions along the day.

"Level Up" is a predictable thriller inspired in "The Game" and fast-paced as "Run Lola Run". However the stupid story is annoying and never exciting. The Brazilian title is a spoiler. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Jogo" ("The Game")

Yes this is a low budget British film, but it manages to take a familiar genre and stamp personality on it despite, or maybe because of its constraints.

It's tense and scary at times, funny and absurd at others - it throws a lot at you, doesn't always hit but I was thoroughly entertained by it. It looks beautiful, got an amazing score, and its own unique feel. You can feel the lack of money at times, and there are elements that feel familiar from other films, but it's a British film that clearly tries to steer away from the usual £$%%@%@ that comes out of this country.

and the scene in the tower block is amazing, my favourite bit - deserves at least a few stars just for that

Matt the protagonist is shifted off his couch video gaming to the next level. In leveling up, his motivation and morals are challenged as gaming and reality intertwine but who ultimately determines progression through the level?

The gamer references run a lot beyond the title. And for a while we're prompted to toy with the idea that Matt was recruited due to his online prowess (think The Last Starfighter's Robert Preston recruiting for ISIS instead of the Star League). Although the story is very predictable, Director Adam Randall keeps the action very tightly paced and the dialogue to a refreshing minimum, helping to heighten Matt's growing isolation. That's enough to earn Level Up a decent review .

Or is it? Some would argue, life is a game, so I guess it's up to you to decide that. This is a low budget movie, so take that in to account. If not you will be very disappointed. It's not a very good movie overall, but it does have suspension and it is intriguing in its own way, if you like that sort of thing.

I wouldn't want to judge the acting, since this is really fast paced and does not really rely on that. There have been other movies with similar themes, that one could argue are better of course, but this is a nice little movie. You can see it as a snack, as something different. If you can see it that way, with low expectations, you may have some entertaining ahead of you ...