Yet another group of unwilling participants wake up to find themselves in a giant maze full of nasty booby traps that kill them off in wonderfully gruesome, painful ways. This time, however, a man working on the outside, Wynn (Zachary Bennett), decides he no longer wants any part in this "project", so he throws himself into the cube to help the few people still alive get out...well, alive. "Cube" is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's got everything--an imaginative plot, suspense, great acting (Nicole DeBoer being the only exception), superb music, well-developed characters, and a thought-provoking ending that doesn't give us any explanation for WHY the cube exists. I actually enjoyed Hypercube, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, in fact I liked it more than most others did, despite the horrible ending. Cube: Zero, the latest entry in the series, is goodthough unfortunately far from being as good as it could have been.
Spoiler WARNING!!!
Cube: Zero writer/director, Ernie Barbarashwho penned and produced Hypercubemakes his directional debut with "Zero", and he does a very nice job behind the camera. The film looks good and he introduces an entirely new, different mood then either of the two previous cube films, which in my opinion works well. His writing has a flair of creativity to it as wellthe "Food pills" and file cabinets full of previous Cube victims add a nice degree of realism to the film.
The acting is hit or miss. Zachary Bennett, Michael Riley, David Huband, Richard McMillan, and Mike 'Nug' Nahrgang all gave good to excellent performances. The rest of the principal cast members weren't so good.
Like the previous two films, Cube: Zero also showcases lots of visual and make-up effects. The CG ranges from fairly believable to so-so (The external shots of the cube's shell being noticeably unconvincing), though I've seen much worse CG from bigger budget fairs (See anything made Stephen Sommers for proof of that!).
The gore effects are very nasty. The opening death scene in which a man's skin melts right off his skeleton, complete with delightfully unnecessary close-ups of flesh falling to globs to the floor, is worth the price of admission for gore fans alone. There are lots of other gory treats as well, including a sonic weapon causing a man's body to literally burst, a guy cut to piece by razor wire, and more.
Norman Orenstein's score is terribly out of place accordion music. Why? Why accordion music? It sounds more fit for a comedy. His music for Hypercube sounded cool, but needless to say the score in both sequels are only a pale shadows compared to Mark Korven's fantastic music for the original Cube.
"Cube: Zero" has many good qualities but also lots of annoyances that keep me from giving it a higher rating than a 6. Still recommended though.
6/10.
Spoiler WARNING!!!
Cube: Zero writer/director, Ernie Barbarashwho penned and produced Hypercubemakes his directional debut with "Zero", and he does a very nice job behind the camera. The film looks good and he introduces an entirely new, different mood then either of the two previous cube films, which in my opinion works well. His writing has a flair of creativity to it as wellthe "Food pills" and file cabinets full of previous Cube victims add a nice degree of realism to the film.
The acting is hit or miss. Zachary Bennett, Michael Riley, David Huband, Richard McMillan, and Mike 'Nug' Nahrgang all gave good to excellent performances. The rest of the principal cast members weren't so good.
Like the previous two films, Cube: Zero also showcases lots of visual and make-up effects. The CG ranges from fairly believable to so-so (The external shots of the cube's shell being noticeably unconvincing), though I've seen much worse CG from bigger budget fairs (See anything made Stephen Sommers for proof of that!).
The gore effects are very nasty. The opening death scene in which a man's skin melts right off his skeleton, complete with delightfully unnecessary close-ups of flesh falling to globs to the floor, is worth the price of admission for gore fans alone. There are lots of other gory treats as well, including a sonic weapon causing a man's body to literally burst, a guy cut to piece by razor wire, and more.
Norman Orenstein's score is terribly out of place accordion music. Why? Why accordion music? It sounds more fit for a comedy. His music for Hypercube sounded cool, but needless to say the score in both sequels are only a pale shadows compared to Mark Korven's fantastic music for the original Cube.
"Cube: Zero" has many good qualities but also lots of annoyances that keep me from giving it a higher rating than a 6. Still recommended though.
6/10.