Compelling, if flawed

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 1999)

When I sat down to watch this film, I deliberately put my dinner aside for the first scene. I knew what was coming - I'd read about it in the few reviews of Cube that appeared - and didn't particularly want to be snacking on spaghetti pomodoro when it happened.
There were a few more moments like that in the course of the film, where I was so tense I had to peek from behind my fingers. I was surprised it was only rated 15 in Britain, as it scared me more than plenty of 18-rated horror films.
In between the moments of tension we're introduced (in some cases briefly) to a group of people who seem to be on the corporate team-building weekend from hell. The characters are not rounded - that would either require a long introductory segment in the world outside of the cube, or long periods of dialogue which would slow down the film. Whilst this has the effect of making a character's death cause you to wince rather than feel sorrow at their demise, if you try and bear in mind that this is more of an "idea" movie than a character study you can let it pass. The acting is competent, although due to the lack of major characterization the actors tend to be reacting rather than acting. Quentin, the police officer, is occasionally hammy, but his descent into savagery from his initial role as the galvanizing leader of the group is interesting to watch. As for the others, you wonder what the rest of the group would have done if the essential members - the maths student, the autistic savant and the architect - had bought the farm early on in the film; you also wonder what the diced guy at the start did for a living, and how he could have added to the skills of the group if he hadn't had that unfortunately cheese-wire accident.
At the end you do wonder if you're going to get to see on the other side of the final hatch - but then sometimes too much explanation spoils things. I prefer the original version of "Close Encounters" when you *don't* see inside the spaceship, and believe me I was much happier pre-Highlander 2, before I knew Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery were aliens from the planet Zeist.
Cube CAN be viewed just as a horror sci-fi movie, although if you feel like looking for an allegory between the cube as our society and reaching the outside as salvation/heaven, then you'll certainly find a lot here to back you up.