Rating: 
Summary: Porsche class sci-fi!!
Review: It's very stylised film that works well at maintaining an illusion of moving from a real present day world to a cyber world circa 1937 to the future 2024. The photography is exquisite, with an emphasis on subtle tones rather than brash technicolor. The casting is spot on, every actor perfectly suited to his or her role. The acting is first rate and credit must go to the Director for keeping the balance between the characters, and not letting any one character over dramatize a script that does not call for heavy drama! Gretchen Mol is the mysterious female and she is delicious - sort of reminds me of Ingrid Bergman. Craig Bierko is the central character - Douglas Hall - is he a "bot", or is he real?, He drives a Porsche. He's the sort of guy you'd expect to drive a Porsche! Dennis Haysbert is the LA detective and very convincing. Amin Mueller-Stahl is the elderly, gentlemany, scientist, and I doubt he is faking the accent! A steller performance by all other part players as well. The sound track is excellent with the right amount of music (including some great flash backs at the big band era), and sound effects. It's all together a very polished performance. The plot is light and not cluttered with interminable explanations of what is happening and why - this way the Director keeps the story moving and lets you figure out what's taking place. But,I must say I got lost on more than one occassion. Also, I was never quite sure who was a "bot" and when, and who was not! Like Blade Runner this movie bears seeing more than once, and worth buying - especially DVD format.
Rating:
Summary: Is there a movie more underrated than this one???
Review: The Thirteenth Floor is a film that deserves far more praise than it has received so far. Sure, acting could've been better by certain actors, script had flaws, but the film's film-noir mystery atmosphere is so good that you won't notice the deficiencies; unless, of course, you are already convinced about how bad TTF is and are going to look only for the mistakes. This is not a rehash of The Matrix! The only part borrowed from The Matrix was the love story. The Matrix was a mind-altering film, but its world was far less tangible. And it sure as hell wasn't film-noir!TTF has a very good storyline. Many people say it is confusing; that means that they haven't understood it fully (is it really so hard to understand the idea of a simulation inside a simulation?). At no point in the movie I had the what-the-hell-is-going-on feeling. On the contrary: the story kept me more and more interested as it unfolded. I had goosebumps while watching Douglas realizing the terrifying truth in the supermarket. The story got even more involved at the end. I don't agree with those saying that the ending was bad, either. Actually, it was pretty nice to see the film end like that. The love story was a great enrichment of the story. I like film-noir style. Unfortunately, it is one of the most difficult styles to implement into filmmaking so that audiences don't fall asleep while watching. No matter what everyone else says, I think that TTF has an excellent film-noir atmosphere. I knew this from the first moments when I saw Fuller writing the letter, having a drink, looking at his watch..., all made the film-noir way. Inherently, film-noir movies are somewhat slow and that is probably the main reason why people thought of it as a boring film. The idea of creating new worlds is of course very thought-provoking. The same idea was explored in The Matrix, but from a very different perspective. First, we never see the actual computer hardware that holds the system (I found that a little annoying). Second, the minds of the people inside the system belonged to people in the real world; that is, people in the real world were dreaming inside the matrix. In TTF, the virtual people are created from scratch (sure, they are more or less copies of the people who made them but they live separate lives). That whole thing about memory loss and changing identities is similar to Dark City, but in Dark City both the aliens and people lived in the same world, whereas in TTF they live in separate dimensions. The 13th Floor is a very involved movie. People who liked The Matrix will not necessarily like this one. I admit it could have been better: cinematography is pretty standard, characters should probably have been a little more worked on and the script made more cohesive. Acting by the lead characters, music, sound and visual effects are pretty good, however. Having said that, I get to the last and most troubling topic: why was this film such a disaster at the box office, huh? I guess most people had still video clips of Reeves and Moss jumping on the walls and slaughtering guards (no offense to The Matrix) replaying in their heads, so they really didn't have a desire to see something else. My point is, TTF release date was unfortunate (and I don't agree that it tried to capitalize on the success on The Matrix). It was poorly promoted, too, but given that most of the people associated with making of it were rookies, that is not surprising. But I am still puzzled as to why only 700 people voted for this movie. Man, there are really so few people who have seen it? I hope that, with its release on VHS and DVD, more people will see it and rate it, so its rating will be more representative of the film's qualities. And if you are discouraged by some of the very negative reviews it got, give it a try. TTF appears to be a love-or-hate thing and with movies like that, you cannot rely on what other people are saying. If you let yourself into the film's atmosphere, you might just enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating: 
Summary: A GOOD IF SOMEWHAT SLOW FILM
Review: I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It reminds me of a Kubrik-style theme: dehumanization by technology. What the script lacks is made up for by the direction. The director's style fit the noir-theme of the film perfectly, but left a little to be desired on the other parts. It might have been a bigger success if not for The Phantom Menace. In fact I think they were released the same week, because I remember thinking they were crazy.
Rating:
Summary: Competition for the psyche of Dark City!
Review: When Dark City came out in 1998, it wasn't very popular because of its dark themes and plot that was confusing and lacked the luster of regular Hollywood thrillers. Nevertheless, it is a brilliant psychological movie that blows away Bladerunner by comparison. I first encountered Craig Bierko (Douglas Hall) in The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996. I had no idea that his role in that movie was his film premiere, but I said to myself that this guy was a great actor. Sure enough, I was right. The Thirteenth Floor is a complicated story about a software executive named Hannon Fuller, who is murdered because of a secret he mistakenly uncovered. But he left a note to his right hand man, Hall, telling him the information. But Hall has to find the letter in the computer dreamworld created by Fuller, and he has to find it fast because the police have named him the prime suspect in Fuller's murder. With a dazzling storyline, and acting that far exceeds the Long Kiss Goodnight, Bierko, Gretchen Mol, and Vincent D'onofrio light up the screen as they each have to play multiple roles (Bierko plays three different personalities!). After watching this movie, you will appreciate good acting, along-side a solid story in front of a good director.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining, but it's been done before.
Review: If you've seen the matrix or Dark City then you've seen this movie. The story is slow and predictable. The film seems to rely on special effects which it has very little of. Character development is kept to a minumum. There isn't even a villain until the last 20 minutes and you learn little about him. This was supposed to be a straight to video release which apparently tried to capitalize on the success of The Matrix
Rating:
Summary: A Good Alternitive To The Matrix
Review: When i saw The Matrix i was aw struck but when i saw the The 13th Floor i was surprised how much this resembled the matrix. First of all what makes this movie different is that it uses an old fashioned Murder/Mystery plot as its story line. The cast has Craig Bierko,Gretchen Mole,Armin-Muller Sthall and Vincent D'Onofrio in it. Despite a spotty performance by Bierko all the cast holds up their own. This is The matrix with a emphsis on character development more then action it does have action. The F/X or the f/x that there are. They are well done and the production design is easier on the eyes then The Matrix. And also the Music from newcomer harold kloser which is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Predictable...
Review: I am a huge fan of Sci-Fi, but this was a little weak. The movie was beautifully done, and fairly well acted. But it was damn slow. Ther only good thing was the plot twist, in the middle of the movie, that I didn't see coming. But the ending was SO predictable a child could have seen it coming.
Rating:
Summary: A quiet cyber-mystery in the land of the Matrix.
Review: Not an action movie as the trailers might suggest. More a cyber-mystery with a surpprise turn and an upbeat ending. A quiet Matrix-like movie combined with Murder, She Wrote. If you think there are internal inconsistencies it probably means you were not paying close attention to details and the theoretical construct, which you just have to accept. A new movie genre really. Seemingly predictable but not. Don't watch the trailers before the movie. DVD extras are weak compared to others, however.
Rating:
Summary: A good book brought up to the nineties
Review: Daniel Galouye, in "Simulacron-3" invented what we call "virtual reality" today. This movie, despite a somewhat spotty performance by Craig Bierko, brings the original concept to vivid life, mostly because the screenwriters clearly understood what Galouye was trying to say, the director implemented the original vision as cleanly as possible, within usual movie limitation of having to squeeze a novel into a short story because of time, and Gretchen Mol and Vincent D'onofrio created people, not just words and images. The *ONLY* reason I don't give this one a full five stars is that I feel the ending was rather "slam-bang" and it was over, instead of using the jaw-dropping twist Galouye put into his novel. Even so, I intend to watch this one again.
Rating:
Summary: This film was very good
Review: Since this film had no big stars, and because it was also released around the same time as the Matrix, it was not a very high revenue generating film. Also, there was very little promotion surrounding this film. However, I think this film is great. Second only to The Sixth Sense in twist endings that are only able to be figured out in the end, this film left the viewer wondering what truths will finally unfold. Unfortunately, this film does require some thought in order to be fully appreciated. It does include such things as Imagery, symbolism, and story. You know, the things you learned about in high school and have since been a distant memory. In closing, I think anyone with an IQ over 100 will be able to somewhat appreciate this film for what it is.
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