Ambitious, though flawed...

Rating: 6/10 (7 June 2012)

...this feature-length debut from storyboard-artist-turned-writer/director, Vincenzo "Splice" Natali, remains a notable late-90s cult classic, presaging the Grand Guignol machinations of the "Saw" franchise while drawing on a raft of cinematic and literary predecessors as diverse as Kafka, "The Outer Limits," "Waiting for Godot" and "Lord of the Flies." The concept is simple: a handful of characters imprisoned in what turns out to be a matrix of cubes (that periodically shift position within a larger cube) who must find their way out before dying of starvation/dehydration. The whys and wherefores are only vaguely explained (one character apparently helped design this fantastical apparatus), and it doesn't help that many of the cubes feature deadly traps that aren't easy to detect in advance, but it's the clash of personalities that gives "Cube" its raison d'être, elevating it above the herd of low-fi wannabees into the realm of cult status.
The acting is mostly hammy, the plot has a tendency to derail itself in favor of melodramatic excess, and there are numerous flaws in the story itself (a math geek who doesn't instantly recognize obvious non-prime numbers, or how long it takes these folks to realize the cubes are shifting position), but in its totality, "Cube" still manages to hold the viewer. Ably lensed by Derek "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" Rogers, suitably scored by Mark "The Border" Korven, and featuring some early fx work from C.O.R.E. "The Tudors" Digital Pictures, "Cube" achieves a good deal with its low budget, and certainly more than enough to justify a viewing by various genre fans. It's over-rated on this site for reasons I can't even begin to understand, but still worth the time spent with it.