Cube, 1997

In the great tradition of independent sci-fi flicks like Hardware and The Terminator comes one of the best movies of 1997, Cube.

The directoral debut of Vincenzo Natali, along with incredible effects from C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures (William Shatner's company) and Caligari Studios, Cube is just a brilliant, claustrophobic movie that Hitchcock would be proud of.

From the opening scene of that poor bastard getting sequenced in a thousand pieces to the production quality of each cube, to the characters themselves... this movie has it all.

First, a note on production. Sure, you can have a film with minimal locations, with good actors and a good plot. This is completely different. This film defines the idea of a good production. Down to the smallest detail, it's obvious that the cast and crew of this film cared about every inch of set design, make-up, stunts... everything.

The film is a self contained (no pun intended, I hate puns) masterpiece. There's no explanations, there's no excuses. You, the viewer, are forced into the world of the 6 characters because the writers and the director have decided not to explain anything to anyone. And they do their job very, very well.

"Produced with the Participation of Telefilm Canada".

Telefilm Canada is one of those brilliant companies that have been helping fledgling filmmakers for decades. Started in 1967, they've been responsible for helping the film industry in Canada, working with such greats as David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan.

The idea behind Cube, written by Andre Bijelic, Vincenzo Natali and Graeme Manson, is brilliant unto itself. What's kind of frightening is that this is the first works of all three gentlemen. The plot is very tight, the dialog is smart and believable. The characters are also believable, in so much as how the actors took to portray them.

The DVD itself has some neat extra features, including a very eye opening commentary, deleted scenes, production designs and storyboards. All of it makes for a well rounded DVD.

It's funny. Cube was on the Sci-Fi channel last week and my wife wanted to sit down and watch it, but I didn't want to watch a pan-and-scan edited film like Cube on TV (even though the Sci-Fi channel is more liberating then some). So I bought it. Well worth the money and the wait (the need to watch it in letterbox by-passed the idea of instant gratification of TV).

Distributed by Trimark Pictures, who has done nothing but pick winners when it comes to the distributions of DVD's, Cube is one for the library. I just passed the 300 mark on DVD's, and I'm wondering what took me so long to buy this gem of a movie.

J.P.

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