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Cube

Cube

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Cube
Review: I love the movie and own the dvd. I see it as an allegory of the human condition, though the film is also interesting as a scifi movie in and of itself. The character archetypes are really good: the student, the cop/fascist, hardworking loser, existential doctor, autistic/outcast, prison escape artist (just to add to the theme of escape). There is also the one character we never learn about, the man who gets killed early in the film. We can't read much into him; he is either ignorant or indefatigably unlucky. I really like how Levin is right. They never should have left the initial room. Had they just waited there for a little bit, all the rooms would have rotated. The Cube would be "unlocked" and the bridge room was directly adjacent to the initial room. This suggests happiness for the human condition. We feel compelled to drudge ourselves through often meaningless activity, yet if we follow the advice of Levin, we should merely be content with where we are. This is ultimately the most helpful and pragmatic (at least insofar as the film is concerned). I am also looking forward to Hypercube, though I'm sure it won't be as good. It doesn't even have the same director, for God's sake! The film runs like a play with character development being the main function and a carrier of the plot. As such aspects like the location of the Cube, what's outside, and who built it never really matter. I do think it's a little odd, though, that no one ever asks where the others are from. Maybe they all assume they're from the same unnamed city.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I live in a cube
Review: I find this movie to be insulting to those of us that live in cubes. My home is not a trap and the rooms around it do not contain potential death devices. If you like that sort of thing along with feeling frusterated, bored, and annoyed then this movie could be good for you. I recommend it if you like sci fi, and if you like to feel like you're trapped.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great premise, horrendous execution
Review: The fascinating plot kernel this movie centers around--a group of strangers suddenly awake to find themselves in a maze of rooms full of deathtraps--doesn't begin to make up for the awful way that idea is developed. First, there's the miserable acting. Then, there's the self-consciously cerebral non-attempt at justifying the Cube's existence. There's the mathematical aspect, which many reviewers paradoxically cite as one of the finer points of the film--when, in reality, most of the math-speak in this movie makes little or no sense. Finally, there's the absurd ending, replete with every cliche in the book (which I won't mention specifically here so as not to ruin the movie for anyone). Basically, my advice is: stay away. There are too many other, better ways to spend two hours of your life than watching this tripe.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Testament to Good SciFi!
Review: When you want to see what independent film, particularly SciFi should look like, buy CUBE. Simple, straightfoward plot, believeable performances, and capable directing all unite around one hell of a great premise to delieve a frightening, though provoking and down right awesome film! Get it....you will not be disappointed![.]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing....
Review: This is one of the best movie I ever seen.
Great story, a tense atmosphere all along.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bizarre film that will have you thinking for days
Review: "Cube" is one of those films that forces you to think about it for days afterward. An independent film shot on what I would imagine was a smallish budget, the special effects and acting is all top notch. There aren't any real names in this film, though you may recognize a few of the faces.

The premise is not unlike an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits," but its full length provides for some in depth looks at the people involved. A group of people, with no relation to each other, are whisked away in the middle of the night and left in a largish bizarre looking room - a cube. They don't know why they are there or how they got there. They just know they want out. They soon discover that there is no simple way out. They are in a single cube that is one of many other cubes all part of a single large cube. In order to escape they must move from cube to cube. The only problem is that some of the cubes are boobytrapped - in a deadly way. They must work together as a team and trust each other in order to escape.

Personal stregnths and problems become helps and hinderances as they proceed with their mission. The nature of life and living becomes an issue.

The end is unnerving and disturbing and makes you wonder about yourself.

I recommend this film and suggest that you pay close attention to detail - because the filmmakers did.

Really neat film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not existentialism, more like a study in postmodern ethics
Review: This is one of those movies which does make you think, and I'm not sure if most people really understand why. Perhaps it has a different meaning to a lot of people.

Many reviewers of this film...describd this film as a "existentialist breakfast club". It definately is in one sense one of those genre films where different archetypes are put together to interract in an artificial environment. But in this case, what kind of environment and why?

Why would someone build this sinister cube? Is it just a plot device as many reviewers seem to assume? The dialogue in the movie gives a clue. The characters debate the purpose and origin of the cube. The "liberal nurse" speculates it is some kind of military or military-corporate weapon. The "aggro cop" assumes it's the plaything of a wealthy villian out of some James Bond movie. But it's the "cynical guy" who seems to have the answers, and in my opinion really the most interesting thing to say in the movie.

He angrily confronts the arguing cop and nurse, and bitterly contends, that while yes, there is a conspiracy of sorts, a conspiracy which all present participate in by playing their social roles with tunnel vision and not caring about "the big picture"... but it's not a conspiracy that any one person or group is in charge of. "Big brother is NOT watching you" he yells.

It is, he seems to be saying, rather a conspiracy where the system itself has gained total control, and none of the people who have surrendered thier individuality and personal responsibility to this system, including the designers, are safe from it. This echoes sentiments some very perspecacious social critics have voiced about the US and it's "military-industrial complex" including Gore Vidal and William S. Burroughs.

I believe the cube is an allegory to modern life in a world increasingly controlled by large institutions, and increasingly dangerous and predatory toward individual humans. Many people increasingly view the large institutions which we serve or obey in one manner or many, are up to dangerous, unethical, irresponsible activities, but we depend on them nevertheless as our shelter, our source of income, to provide our safety. The cube - maze the characters are trapped in is a kind of allegory for this system, mindless, mechanical, intermittently lethal.

Even more creepy, the architect, the cynic, goes on to describe the cube specifically as being a project which took on a life of it's own, he completes the image described by the nurse, of atomized workers, firms, bureaus, working on something ... with the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing... and with no brain guiding either of them. Something just building itself. THis is reminiscent of the subtly creepy Stanislaw Lem book "Eden".

I'm not certain what the ultimate conclusion is meant to be, especially the significance of the ending, but I believe the movie was made to examine these ideas. As a Canadian film it's especially relevant. Canadians often feel themselves to be living in the shadow of a not always so benign United States.

Of course I could be wrong. One reviewer described the nurse as a paranoid who 'brought everyone down' and felt that the cop...provided leadership and encouragement. Perhaps this film is a Rosarch test of sorts, and you can derive many meanings from it. I'm sticking with mine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beyond mainstream...
Review: There are very different views about the acting, then ending and the film in general. It is abstract, intelligent (probably too much mathematics for most of the audience) and it leaves open a lot of essential questions. Therefor it is not suitable for the broad masses but very interesting for all the others, who are not looking for Hollywood cinema.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The existentialism hurts my head...
Review: Blah blah blah allegory of life blah blah blah existentialist ranting blah blah blah notice the significance of their names blah blah blah...

Psychology is not the name of the game in Cube but philosophy and sociology. Existentialism, leftism, tyranny, science vs. religion are all quickly dissected and tossed away in a mad rush to create some meaning, but ultimately becomes a melange of ideas with no central meaning, other than "We're all prisoners of life." (Check some Nietzsche for more on that).

All in all, a sci-fi existentialist Breakfast Club. Or something. Check this movie, and if it intrigues you at all, move on to Pi and Memento and really get your mind blown.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise...
Review: ....we'll get to that in a minute.

First - the movie "Cube":

Somewhat disappointing to me, it started out great though. The special effects were excellent, and the traps were extremely scary. But the problem is that it only showed a few traps being set off, and all those were in the first half of the movie. The rest of the movie focused more on the paranoia, fear, and desperation of the remaining characters. And shows what each character has to offer to help the others escape.

Not a bad movie at all, I'd give it 3 or 4 stars. The reason I gave this DVD 5 stars? That's the pleasant surprise.

On the second side of this DVD it had ANOTHER movie - "Love and a .45"
I would have bought it separately if I had seen it earlier. But as luck would have it I got it for free. Look it up here or at imdb.com for more info on that movie, I'm not going to do a review for it here, sorry.

So this was definitely worth buying for me. 2 good movies for the price of 1 !!


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