Passé virtuel

The Thirteenth Floor

Soooo far ahead of its time, what an amazing film! Sure the Matrix had more money and better FX but I'd be willing to bet my left nut that if this were remade (for modern times with a generous budget), a smarter audience would agree that this film blows that cyber punk hacker crap called The Matrix way out of the water. From beginning to end this movie had my attention and of course I could pick a little at the dialog here or there or this or that, but it was made in the 90's, over a decade and a half ago. I mean, in 5 years, we'll be 20 years ahead of where we are now, so considering that, this has just earned a 9/10 in my book. I have absolutely no reason not to recommend this to anyone. Well, anyone with the ability to see beyond the (very slight) limitations of when this was made. Even then the 1930's was fantastic and so was the future. I'll stop there so that there aren't any spoilers, but if you have any interest in this sort of thing, I can guarantee that you'll at least be able to appreciate the movie and its ideas, if not, actually enjoy it and have a good time as I did. (In order to avoid stone throwing, I have to add this >) There is quite a following for The Matrix and we can never really compare movies side by side as these stories were different and so was the 'feel' (unless its a remake of the very same movie, maybe.) and The Matrix had 4 times! the budget this movie had. So.. anyway: DO NOT SKIP OUT ON THIS MOVIE. You just might regret it. That's Allstate's stand ... are you in good hands? ;)

This is another one of those virtual reality films that came out around the same time as "The Matrix". I wasnt expecting too much from it because its rating was rather low , 6.4. The movie was surprisingly thought provoking and fascinating, perhaps more than "eXistenZ". I could tell that this film was not made on a big budget like "The Matrix", because the high tech action was missing. The cast is not first rate either, you may recognize some faces, Vincent D'Onofrio(Men In Black, The Cell), Gretchen Moll(Rounders), and Armin Mueller Stahl(The Game, X-Files). Overall not a bad movie, ***1/2 out of *****.

"The Thirteenth Floor" is among the best and most thoughtful sci-fi ever made. The plot is intelligent and unfortunately many said "professional critics" did not understand the complex story and wrote bad reviews (Metacritic 3.6?). Yesterday I watched this film for the second time, and it is still impressive and engaging. Disregard the bad reviews and enjoy this underrated gem. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "13º Andar" ("13º Floor")

Here in the States there's a very funny series of TV commercials for a brand a German beer. They show hillarious situations in which German individuals engage in normal activities using a German engineering approach. You hear a voiceover saying "Germans don't do comedy" and you see a very pathetic stand-up comedian telling bad jokes about factory production lines. You see a cold, passionless, avant-garde interpretation of "Romeo and Juliet" and a voiceover saying "Germans don't do romance." Then they prompt you to enjoy what they claim "Germans do best," which is the advertised beer. The series continues with other hillarious jokes of this sort. Well, after watching this cold, passionless, awfully directed flick, I thought they should also add "Germans don't do sci-fi" to the beer commercial. I could type until Kingdom Come the many, many reasons why this dog is a disaster. There's actually so many, that I'm not even going to list them. I will limit myself to listing just the main categories of "suckage": 1- Horrendous direction on the part of Josef Rusnak. "Amateurish direction" doesn't even cut it. 2- The writing by Rusnak and Centeno-Rodriguez is quite laughable at times, and unrealistic from beginning to end. The characters lack life. Nobody talks like they do in this movie. 3- With the exception of Vincent D'Onofrio, who's always great, acting in this movie SUCKS! Craig Bierko could have been replaced with a crash-test dummy, and Gretchen Mol sounds like she's just reading her lines. It's painful at times. 4- Action scenes are so awful they move to laughter! Take a look at the final fight, and it'll remind you of the beer commercial I mentioned above. The character of Jane Fuller should say: I'am being attacked by a psychopathic murdered, so I think I should start running now. At the count of three, start jogging veeeery slowly towards the elevator..." This movie is not even good for rental. Avoid it or wait for it when it appears on network TV. If you want to see better movies on the same subject, check out "The Matrix" and "Dark City."

Spoilers herein. Most movies are at least superficially about real people. `Matrix' (`Truman' and many others) put real people in artificial worlds. `Bladerunner' (and lessor films like `AI') put artificial people in the real world. Now finally we have artificial people in artificial worlds, unknowingly as in `Bladerunner.' A clever beginning, but not enough. The production values are not the problem, nor is the level of acting -- so many successful scifi picts have uninspired acting that it is nearly a prerequisite. The problem is that the film is too safe. It decides to impress on an intellectual level, which is noble but dangerous. Safety: everything is understandable, even predictable. The ending is safe: there IS a reality and creators after all folks. The mechanics are safe: controllable (at least in this story) computers. The notion could have really done a fine number by using a more sophisticated notion of computers (the story seems set in the 60s so far as technology) and by tying the notion of virtual reality for entertainment to film and then the very film WE are watching. Like `My Dinner With Andre.' Like `Draughtsman's Contract.' Even `Sweet and Lowdown' which also had Gretchen.

This movie is clever and fun, and relies on less action and more thought to drive it along than, say, The Matrix. I am not a fan of martial arts films, and while I don't mind action films, I tend to find them to be a bit boring. This is a real thinker, a sci-fi film quite unlike any other I have seen. I've always been fond of this movie, with actors who are not well-known but still manage to shine on their own. With relatively unknown actors in the film, it made it much easier to accept the reality of the story than if there were stars all over this film. Also, there are actions scenes but they do not require unrealistic kung fu moves that go on and on for twenty minutes. Instead, there is a nod to the film noir genre, with its tough-guy characters, shady dames, and guns and fists. If you enjoy detective films, sci fi, or just like to be entertained, this will definitely serve well. If you are looking for some run of the mill sci-fi goof-off, go check out something else.

...that "The Matrix" got released first and had a comprehensible plot. "The Thirteenth Floor", presumably about fake and/or simulated realities, is just plain boring. I spent half the movie trying to figure out what was going on. Gretchen Mol went from the mind-numbing "Rounders"* to this, and Craig Bierko, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio and Dennis Haysbert sure didn't do themselves any favors by starring in this. That's 100 minutes that I'll never get back. Not even a showing on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" could improve this crap. Don't waste your time. *Some idiots actually interpreted that mumble-fest as a "Good Will Hunting" remake!

Don't be misguided by the reviews saying this movie sides with ones like Blade Runner or Matrix. While I must admit it clearly had the potential to do so, in the end, well, it just isn't so. The plot of this film is very interesting. I wonder the book in which it's inspired must be very good. The characterization of the Los Angeles of 1930 is great. But the movie itself is very badly directed and most of the actors are just equally bad. Thi first half of the movie is very rushed what makes the characters seem pretty unreasonable and superficial. So the in the end the result is just an ordinary movie. It's a little enjoyable, but far from memorable. I give it 5/10 for the studio having wasted such a good history.

Movie touches idea about creation and living in the virtual world and how it could impact you, how power makes you ill and crazy and you start to destroy your creation. Yes, someone maybe can claim a movie dull sometimes, but it's really different mood, it's not action-based, but thought and dialog based. And end, altought I guessed it could be like that way, surprised me anyway. In overall, good, very interesting point of view to virtual worlds and playing god theme. Hollywood ending is somehow very oversweet (for me doesn't matter, I like happy endings sometimes, when it involves romance :)), it raises many points to think about. 8 out of 10.