Cube Review

Written by: alex1176   

The 1997 cult classic "Cube" from director Vincenzo Natali was an inspiration on the original "Saw". It is a very low-budget movie that could've easily been a play since it takes place in one location and has a cast of only seven actors. The movie is about a group of unrelated people who wake up trapped in a cube. Their dilemma is simple: find away out of the cube. Or cubes. The premise is that the cube-shaped room they occupy is one of thousands. All the cubes fit within one major big one and they shift from time to time. Some contain booby traps that are quite nasty.

The acting is quite good for such a low-budget movie and the dialogue is quite believeable. Even the gore effects are effective. The most memorable being the first kill scene in the movie where a man is literally sliced into tiny cubes. The film itself is a bit slow-paced with plenty of fade-outs, but it's worth a viewing. The only thing I didn't like was what I thought was a cop out at the conclusion. It's from the school of "Friday the 13th"; where a character that was six feet under wasn't really dead. It didn't set well with me, but that's really the only misstep. As much as it was an inspiration for "Saw", you'll see perhaps even more reflections of its screenplay in "Saw II". The crazy big dude who slams a spiked bat into a person's head in that movie is right out of this one.

The most intriguing aspect of "Cube" is watching the characters feed off each other with their backgrounds and ideas. They band together (sort of) as a group to figure out where they are, but most importantly, how to get out. None of them like each other very much, but all are important to the screenplay. For fans of "The Twilight Zone", it might recall a certain episode in which a group of people try to escape a giant room. At the end, one does only to realize they are all dolls who were thrown in a trash bin. Pretty spooky. "Cube" is in the tradition of that ep and if you're a fan of the genre, then it's worth watching.