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Quickie Review - Cube

When this first came out, I had heard it was terrible. Then Internet posts and especially twitter started making this sound like it was the most complex movie ever made. Well, last night I finally saw it and I must admit, I was sorely disappointed. The movie is neither clever, not is it at all claustrophobic. The acting is so poor, especially that of Quentin and Holloway, that the movie is impossible to take seriously. If not for the acting of the Leaven character, it would have been a complete bomb. The real problem isn't in it's ambiguity, it's in it's painfully obvious premise and conclusion.

Assuming everyone has seen this by now, I'm not giving anything away, but by giving each character the name of a prison that defines their personality, we understand that the entire movie is about being trapped inside the life you've chosen. That there is no way out without the help of others. So why not make the movie about that? Why hammer home the point over and over? Why add good and bad? Why throw in the character who didn't chose their path? To me the movie suffers by painfully obvious symbolism and mindless metaphors. The dialogue isn't only simplistic, but tells us early on what the symbols and metaphors mean. I also was distracted by the colors of the boxes and thought a dark, drab, industrial look would have been much more interesting.

I will add this one final thought. I think the comments I read about this movie are proof enough that the movie's greatest asset is thinning the herd. I had heard over and over how this movie stole its idea from Saw. The movie that came out seven years later. As we say in the Cube called social media #smh

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