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Serviceable sci-fi fix or brain-reboot.

hernalt | 10/26/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"For the individual who has exhausted their selection of sci-fi from their in-home resources, but who still needs a sci-fi fix, this title does a serviceable job of exploring a well-trod trope. While watching it I assessed it as 'Jacob's Ladder in Moscow'. Not quite Jacob's Ladder, of course. But watch it to compare with other hereafter texts. (Check out Jim Henson's short film "The Cube"; also read William Golding's "Pincher Martin".) Visually annoying documentary camerawork, tropish horror camerawork, a few over-saturated 'hazy recollection' scenes. One or two decent chills. The somewhat questionable choice of rupture in the de-rezzing effect of bodies is thematically in keeping with the main character's inability to live without a video camera in hand. His friends literally die into interlaced lines of video (echoes of TRON, possibly). (While I'm at it, Videodrome and Brain Scan work on the trope of life imitating digital art / motion picture.) There are far more stultifyingly insulting movies out there."

Does for urban exploration what Blair Witch did for camping.

Margaux A. Schaffer | Autonomous Free-Zone | 01/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After seeing what the hollywood treatment did for hacker culture, I reluctantly gave this film a shot. One word, INTENSE. This movie delivers some outstanding glimpses of what urban exploration is all about without over-glamorizing it. I had no real expectations and that said, this film took me places, many of them far darker than lost catacombs and crawspaces. Urban exploration provided the ideal backdrop for a psychological thriller. If you are expecting a dumbed-down gollywood version of this "underground" subculture, you will be detoured to innnerspace. This is not a cineplex popcorn movie, this is what independent films are all about. The POV of this film is an experimental form of non-linear storytelling where your own interpretations augment the experience. I like a film that takes these risks. At the very minimum this film takes you places that you might never want to go while looking for something else. I think the previous reviewer might have been looking for a T&A snipehunt (we have enough of those!) but if you want escapism that does not insult your intelligence then I would highly recommend this."

Dissapointment

Daniel J. Clark | Las Vegas, NV | 01/08/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I gave this movie a chance, hoping that the reviews I'd seen were wrong and that they were just missing the point. Turns out: I should trust people more often.



The acting was unconvincing, and the Blair Witch style camera effects dealt the movie a bad blow. A more effective cinematography style could have granted this movie at least a "watch it for the pretty places" review, but no. The places they explore in this movie would have been so much prettier could I have had more than a split second to look at where they were.



As for this being an effective portrayal of urban exploration: it isn't. It got some things right and some things so incredibly wrong.



The movie was linear till about the mid point, then decided it wanted to be something else entirely, and when it finally wrapped up I felt dissapointment I rarely feel with cinema."

AFTER ALL, IT IS A "B" MOVIE!!!

hjtras | Horseheads, N.Y. | 10/13/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was not expecting much when I sat down to watch this movie, and that is exactly what I got...not much. I do not want to say anything to spoil the movie in case you have not watched it yet. I will say that it was hard to follow until the end when it all comes together. Unfortunately, by that time, it was too late. The whole time you are watching this movie, you are scratching your head just trying to figure it out and when you do figure it out, it just leaves you with an unsatisfied feeling. Who knows, you might enjoy it. As for me, it just didn't cut it."