A bunch of people who don't like each other, trapped in a horrible situation from which they can't find an escape, and gradually they turn on each other violently. What could be a more perfect Thanksgiving movie?
I'm kidding, my Thanksgivings are mellow, pleasant affairs (Blogsgiving is another matter. . .) Papafred told me about this movie long ago, when we were roomies in college, but I'd never gotten around to watching it.
So yes, six people, in a gigantic cube, made up of smaller cubes, trying to find their way out before dehydration or the personality clashes kill them. Or all the traps, since several of the cubes are booby-trapped.
The CGI for the traps is as bad as you'd expect for a movie from the late '90s. My favorite shots in the film are the ones that just show one side of a cube, with nothing in the frame to establish a point of reference. You can't tell if you're looking at a wall, ceiling, or floor, which really plays up the sense of it being a maze, the disorientation of trying to find their way out.
I also like the uncertainty about who is behind this thing, and what the point of it is. The movie doesn't come to any definitive answer, although I think it leans to the last theory put forward, that the thing is keep operational on sheer inertia, because someone approved wasting all this money, so they have to do something with it. I know there was a sequel, and possibly a prequel that came out later that may have explained things further, but I don't have any burning need to watch those.
2 comments:
The sequel was strange. Going into quantum stuff. All I remember is that it had the guy from Forever Knight in it, and the very last scene. So, no loss missing that.
The prequel sort of explains the purpose. Some sort of government run program for prisoners, except the government is corrupt and using it on political dissidents. It jumps between a guy who is just there to monitor things from the outside and a group of people on the inside. It does have a cool end where they explain where the survivor from the first movie came fro and why he is so good at solving it all. Again, not a huge loss to miss it but they are fun time wasters.
Thanks for the info. Turns out Netflix still has both of them, so maybe I'll get around to watching them here eventually.
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