(Review originally written at 16 September 2007)
This movie obviously doesn't take itself very serious, which is the reason why this movie still remains an entertaining one to watch. The movie is filled with some extreme stereotype characters (you know, the kind that's so over-the-top that it misses its mark and looses its effect) bad dialog and an of course silly concept and bad written story to begin with.
It's especially hilarious to see how more important the game, rather then their lives is to all of the characters involved. Even real freaks aren't that freaky! That's a serious and gruesome computer-monster that is killing them one by one in a horrible way but who cares when a game its development and a million dollar bonus is at stake...They just hide the bodies and go on with their work for as long as they can.
But to be honest, the ridicules concept isn't as poorly developed or handled as you would expect from a movie like this (even though of course the movie is obviously filled with some highly unlikely and ridicules events.) I liked how well the game-world translated into the real world. Yes, that really is how PC games looked like in 2001. Guess people will have a good laugh at it in 10 years from now. The in-game effects are certainly better looking than most movies ever normally try to bother to.Seems like they seriously did some research and were advised correctly and spend some real money on it. It's certainly refreshing and good to see after so many failed and just plain bad attempts from Hollywood to let video-games- and the computer world in general play key parts of the movie.
However big problem with the movie remains that's not scary or serious enough for a horror, not science-fiction/fantasy-full/original enough for a science-fiction movie and not bad and/or campy enough for successful cult-classic. It is also hard to tell what the movie actually tried to achieve and in which category it wanted to be put under. Because of that all, the gore also doesn't work out. I mean, the movie is pretty gory in parts, since it features more than 1 cut of limb or head but yet the movie just never strikes as a gross or gruesome one. For these reasons alone you just can't regard this movie as a successful- or great one.
Still amazing to see how many great actors are in the movie. It's however an uneven balance of actors who knew that they were cast for the B-movie value of the movie and actors who try to make the movie look as authentic and realistic as possible. Tyler Mane and Jason Marsden are great as the stereotype characters but it was quite sad to see Clea DuVall. I mean, I see this as an actress who will most likely win an Oscar within the next 7 years. Same goes to some extend also for Steven Culp. He's the guy who played Robert F. Kennedy in "Thirteen Days" for goodness sake!
The movie is definitely not a great one but nevertheless it remains an entertaining one to watch, since it obviously also didn't took itself very serious to begin with in the first place.
4/10
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