`CUBE' TOYS WITH HUMAN PSYCHE IN DIRE STRAITS.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic Half a dozen Canadians wake up inside a bizarre, high-tech cell. Not knowing one another nor how or why they got there, all they can see is that the square enclosure's four walls, floor and ceiling look like giant, ominous computer chips. Each surface has a doorway that leads to a similar, different colored space. Choose to go through the wrong one, however, and booby traps deliver swift, awful death. This is ``Cube,'' the sorta sci fi-ish, slightly existential, super-claustrophobic feature directing debut of Toronto-based Vincenzo Natali. A limited-concept movie if there ever was one, it increasingly tries one's patience the longer it goes on past the ``Twilight Zone'' episode length its story and design elements could naturally sustain. But having backed himself into a formal corner, Natali at least tries, with varying success, to dramatically trick up the gimmick. He looses violent, if rather pat, personality conflicts among the human rats in his maze, especially between the dominant male, a cop named Quentin (Maurice Dean Wint Maurice Dean Wint (born Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom) is a Canadian actor. His roles include:
n. 1. Philosophy a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence. b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. 2. engineer Worth (David Hewlett David Hewlett (born April 18, 1968) is an English-born Canadian actor best known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay on the science fiction television show Stargate Atlantis. ), who knows more about the Cube than he wants to admit. With the addition of math genius Leaven leaven (lĕv`ən), agent used to raise bread or other flour foods. Physical leavens include water vapor, which is released as steam at high temperatures (as in popovers), and air, which is incorporated by beating. (Nicole de Boer Nicole de Boer (born December 20, 1970 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Ezri Dax on . De Boer currently appears on the television series The Dead Zone. ), autistic savant An autistic savant (historically described as idiot savant) is a person with both autism and Savant Syndrome. Savant Syndrome describes a person having both a severe developmental or mental handicap but with extraordinary mental abilities not found in most people. Kazan (Andrew Miller Andrew Miller is the name of:
The most intriguing and intense aspect of ``Cube'' is the way it evolves into a geometrical thriller - it would make a good double feature with another of this summer's low-budget indies, ``Pi.'' That film, however, used its numbers-crunching theme as the jumping-off point for a deeper, specific examination of paranoia, megalomania megalomania /meg·a·lo·ma·nia/ (-ma´ne-ah) unreasonable conviction of one's own extreme greatness, goodness, or power.megaloma´niac meg·a·lo·ma·ni·a n. 1. and the nature of existence. And it hardly needs mentioning, yet must be noted, that ``Pi'' did not have the burden of practically every shot looking like the last one and the next one, either. ``Cube'' does differentiate a few scenes with some expertly disgusting special effects. One guy gets sliced into geometric chunks by an invisible mesh of wires; you've gotta love the obsessive design consciousness that went into that one, even if it does make you nauseous nauseous /nau·seous/ (naw´shus) pertaining to or producing nausea. nau·seous adj. 1. Causing nausea. 2. Affected with nausea. . THE FACTS The film: ``Cube'' (R; violence, language). The stars: Maurice Dean Wint, Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings. Behind the scenes: Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Written by Natali, Andre Bijelic and Graeme Manson. Produced by Mehra Meh and Betty Orr. Released by Trimark Pictures. Running time: One hour, 32 minutes. Playing: Selected theaters. Our rating: Two and One Half Stars. |
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