Mysterious but intriguing thriller

Rating: 6/10 (4 July 2008)

"Cube" is an odd little movie which you could describe as a "high concept" film. In other words, it was probably made on the strength of a pitch which went something like this: "Seven people awaken and find themselves inexplicably trapped inside of a giant cube. They have to navigate there way to the outside, but find many compartments to be death traps. Who will make it out, alive, from THE CUBE?!". Sound interesting? Perhaps you could view this thriller as an inverse scenario to the classic horror movie "Hellraiser" which I've also reviewed at this site.
Anyway, this movie fortunately gives a wide berth to any humbug about the nature of the cube these seven people find themselves in. If it had gone down that direction, I'm sure it would have been laughable, but you can imagine your own scenariossomething of a scenario like in the "Saw" franchise of splatter movies? Another possibility is hinted at when the film ends, which I won't go into, to let you come to your own conclusions. All very mysterious, which is as it should be for this kind of stuff.
Since I've given this film a score of around 6/10 (and I'm going on memory to rate this film), why should you see it? Well, it has the most aesthetically pleasing scene of human butchery I've ever seen. Hmmmsounds badwell, it's not really that bad. Right at the start of the movie, there is a scene which is sort of realistic and sort of cartoony, which provides the "Wow!!" factor. And if Windows' "Vista" made you say "Wow!", you really should get out more! So, 6/10 for a wondrous death scene that will have you reaching for the "freeze frame", "frame by frame" or "slow motion" buttons on your remote! Intriguing movie.