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WHY'D I WATCH IT?
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Similar to Crawl or Die, Cube is all about one thing: A bunch of people trapped in a cube surrounded by cubes and trying to escape.
The premise is straightforward enough. How'd they get in the cubes? Where'd the cubes come from? What purpose do they serve?
The answers to these and similar questions are explored over the course of the movie in the form of characters accusing each other of paranoia. Some are answered, most are not. And you know, mystery can work and as far as Cube is concerned, I think it does.
As proven by it's far inferior sequels, knowing the circumstances of the cube or seeing it from the outside looking in really just ruins the deceit.
It's like a magic trick. It's spoiled if you know the secret and sometimes you'll be ****ing horrified by how it's accomplished.
Ultimately while it's better not knowing the secrets surrounding the Cube, I feel the movie suffers from lack of apparent point. It exercises unique themes and elements not explored in other movies, but it never really does anything with them by trying to be about anything.
Considering that, the movie has to fall back on it's plot which I'm inclined to criticize on two major fronts besides.
Firstly, the graphic death scenes. I get that we want to get an idea of the gruesome stakes at play if the characters screw up and go the wrong way, but even in Kung Fury I don't like seeing crossections of people after they've been suddenly bisected. That's just gross and does nothing for a squeamish audience.
At least in Kung Fury it was immediately played off in a joke about being able to tell whether the guy was dead or not, but here it seems like we get this stuff just because it's a movie only horror fans would watch and horror fans won't be satisfied unless they see guts spilled. This movie came out just a month after Event Horizon, did you know?
Secondly, Quentin. Agghhh Quentin.
Quentin's character is frustrating to watch since we share his perspective for a large chunk of the movie where he can be both personable while throwing out a great line or two ("Kazan, my man!"), but the problem is his sudden heelfaceturn into a psychopath.
Okay, let's be fair, it's well foreshadowed but the approach the movie takes to portray him as increasingly mad pushes cheesy without ever diving into full-on NUTJOB.
GRANTED, I'd have preferred a more realistic twist to the movie in the form of Quentin appearing totally reasonable for the vast majority of it until we, as the audience, are forced to step back and reassess (a la 'the big picture', a theme that would have been perfect to echo one final time in this way), but alas, Quentin just seems to go off the deep end immediately, crosses the line into antagonist by the halfway point, and the movie never really takes a chance to turn him into a memorable villain which it feels pretty empty without.
Perhaps Quentin could have represented human ignorance, or narrow-mindedness? If that was the goal here though I think it failed to convey those ideas effectively.
It seems equal parts concerned about WHY the cube as well as WHY the characters, and it may be noteworthy to consider that the one police officer, the one guy who's job it is to maintain order, is the only one to lose his ****, but he's also the one guy with dark skin in the entire cast.
To exploit a sour metaphor, it feels like the movie's fishing with the concept of "purpose", but not catching anything with it. It's just there. Driving dialog, but arriving nowhere.
I could attempt to derive about as much meaning from the fact that condiments are mentioned no less than three times in the movie.
Sour Cream, Butter, and Honey.
What purpose do these serve other than to irritate me? It's a conspiracy, that's what.
The characters constantly speak of a 'they', but there's no 'they', just as they speak of food when there's no food to be seen.
It's just a bunch of rooms.
But it's not even a bunch of rooms it's just one room shot from different angles and lit in different ways. You're just here. Because you know something and what you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Cube
Psychological Thriller / English / 1997
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Another minimalist concept thriller I've been meaning to rewatch.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Similar to Crawl or Die, Cube is all about one thing: A bunch of people trapped in a cube surrounded by cubes and trying to escape.
The premise is straightforward enough. How'd they get in the cubes? Where'd the cubes come from? What purpose do they serve?
The answers to these and similar questions are explored over the course of the movie in the form of characters accusing each other of paranoia. Some are answered, most are not. And you know, mystery can work and as far as Cube is concerned, I think it does.
As proven by it's far inferior sequels, knowing the circumstances of the cube or seeing it from the outside looking in really just ruins the deceit.
It's like a magic trick. It's spoiled if you know the secret and sometimes you'll be ****ing horrified by how it's accomplished.
Ultimately while it's better not knowing the secrets surrounding the Cube, I feel the movie suffers from lack of apparent point. It exercises unique themes and elements not explored in other movies, but it never really does anything with them by trying to be about anything.
Considering that, the movie has to fall back on it's plot which I'm inclined to criticize on two major fronts besides.
Firstly, the graphic death scenes. I get that we want to get an idea of the gruesome stakes at play if the characters screw up and go the wrong way, but even in Kung Fury I don't like seeing crossections of people after they've been suddenly bisected. That's just gross and does nothing for a squeamish audience.
At least in Kung Fury it was immediately played off in a joke about being able to tell whether the guy was dead or not, but here it seems like we get this stuff just because it's a movie only horror fans would watch and horror fans won't be satisfied unless they see guts spilled. This movie came out just a month after Event Horizon, did you know?
Secondly, Quentin. Agghhh Quentin.
Quentin's character is frustrating to watch since we share his perspective for a large chunk of the movie where he can be both personable while throwing out a great line or two ("Kazan, my man!"), but the problem is his sudden heelfaceturn into a psychopath.
Okay, let's be fair, it's well foreshadowed but the approach the movie takes to portray him as increasingly mad pushes cheesy without ever diving into full-on NUTJOB.
GRANTED, I'd have preferred a more realistic twist to the movie in the form of Quentin appearing totally reasonable for the vast majority of it until we, as the audience, are forced to step back and reassess (a la 'the big picture', a theme that would have been perfect to echo one final time in this way), but alas, Quentin just seems to go off the deep end immediately, crosses the line into antagonist by the halfway point, and the movie never really takes a chance to turn him into a memorable villain which it feels pretty empty without.
Perhaps Quentin could have represented human ignorance, or narrow-mindedness? If that was the goal here though I think it failed to convey those ideas effectively.
It seems equal parts concerned about WHY the cube as well as WHY the characters, and it may be noteworthy to consider that the one police officer, the one guy who's job it is to maintain order, is the only one to lose his ****, but he's also the one guy with dark skin in the entire cast.
To exploit a sour metaphor, it feels like the movie's fishing with the concept of "purpose", but not catching anything with it. It's just there. Driving dialog, but arriving nowhere.
I could attempt to derive about as much meaning from the fact that condiments are mentioned no less than three times in the movie.
Sour Cream, Butter, and Honey.
What purpose do these serve other than to irritate me? It's a conspiracy, that's what.
The characters constantly speak of a 'they', but there's no 'they', just as they speak of food when there's no food to be seen.
It's just a bunch of rooms.
But it's not even a bunch of rooms it's just one room shot from different angles and lit in different ways. You're just here. Because you know something and what you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]