Thankfully not a biopic of fat rapper Ice Cube

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 1999)

Engage pretentious mode:
With its aspirations to originality and clever exploitation of a low budget, Cube is the sort of film that you feel obliged to like at a base level. Shame, then, that there's not more to like above and beyond that. The whole package is better than most films with a hundred times the budget these days, granted, but lack of funds is no excuse for uniformly dismal acting, unconvincing characters and the distinct impression that several people went off and wrote big chunks of dialogue on their own then threw it all together with no attempt at editing for consistency.
That said, there are plenty of memorable moments (feel those buttocks clench during the deathly quiet trip through the sound-trapped room), and the few big effects scenes pack plenty of punch (the very first fatality is a cracker). But the overall premise of the film just seems like too much for the cast and crew to handle, and as a result far too much of the running time - particularly towards the end - reeks of wasted potential. Certainly worth seeing, then, but it should have been a lot better.