Riveting, odd, complex, out of the ordinary!!

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2005)

Cube is perhaps one of the most unique films I have seen in a long time. Part of it's charm is that it has a very amateur film type quality to it. The story is very simple, and the cast very small and the setting so simplistic that to keep this film interesting would be such an enormous challenge and the fact that director and co-writer Vincenzo Natali pulled that off is a representation to how great a director he could be.
Cube is never dull, and never slows down, and keeps you on the edge of your seat despite it's setting and small cast. The entire film takes place in various rooms, all basically the same, but different colors inside a much larger Cube, so they believe. Seven strangers find themselves locked into this maze of rooms and mechanisms and doors for no reason and seemingly no point. Each character discovers they have a different purpose for being there, a fate or destiny. The whole cast does a great job showing a variety of emotions particularly lead actor Maurice Dean Wint who plays the anti-hero/bad guy Quentin. He seems to be the sane reasonable one but by the end is the horribly crazed psychotic killer. It shows his downward spiral into insanity while being trapped in these spaces. The rest of the cast is no less great in their perspective roles. I was disappointed to see brilliant character actor Wayne Robson get killed off so early in the film. He has been around for such a long time and seemed to have such an interesting character but barely lasted any amount of time, although his death was very cool!! In fact the film is quite gory and the enormous variety of traps set in different rooms also gives you a serious sense of suspense and on the edge of your seat. The special effects are quite stunning considering such a low budget film. Cube brings out the fears in the human mind and each character shows a different range of emotions caused by this situation and setting. This makes the film very riveting and impossible not to watch. Unfortunately the film does leave you more than slightly unsatisfied with no real answer to any of the major questions. The plot really never thickens and never has a climax or an end. I hope that perhaps the following sequels to the film tie up some of that but by the sounds of it they really don't. They created something incredibly unique with this film and it's worth seeing just to see something completely out of the norm but still very compelling. I just think there was more story there to tell definitely. Check it out!! 8.5/10