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Cube 2: Hypercube
2002
Lions Gate Films Inc.
Rated R
Runtime: 95 min

Directed by:
Andrzej Sekula
Starring:
Kari Matchett,
Geraint Wyn Davies,
Grace Lynn Kung,
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[ Review ] [ Visit the Official Website ]
Cube 2: Hypercube

Cube 2: Hypercube is the sequel to the cult classic Cube. However you need not have seen the first one to follow Cube 2. The movie is related to the first by concept; otherwise everything is pretty much new, including the cast of actors. Andrzej Sekula, who has previously been the cinematographer for movies such as American Psycho, Hackers, Pulp Fiction, and Reservoir Dogs, makes his debut as director for this film.

Hypercube takes on a whole new twist to the original in that the group is not stuck in a regular cube. The hypercube is actually a cube that exists in a four dimensional environment, which means that there are parallel universes all within a touching distance of each other. You can just throw out everything you learned in physics, as time, gravity, and other factors no longer exist under the conditions that are known to our group. As if that wasn't enough - did I mention the rooms occasionally shift positions? And, that due to temporal and dimensional obstacles, some of the rooms can be deadly.

Hypercube is about a small group of people who each wake up inside different rooms. Every room has one door on each surface. Each door leads to another room seemingly like the last. Early on they run into each other as they try to figure a way out. They realize that if they want a chance to get out that they must work together. The problem is they have no memory as to how they ended up in the hypercube and at first don’t seem to have any connection to each other.

Most of the actors in this movie are unknown and it shows. The acting in this movie is nothing special and at times gets down-right annoying, especially in respect to the senile old-lady Mrs. Paley (Barbara Gordon) and Sasha, (Grace Lynn Kung) the blind girl. In respect to Mrs. Paley, the acting is sometimes over the top, which becomes especially apparent during one scene where in the end you just wish that the knife crazy Simon (Geraint Wyn Davies) would just stab her until she died. The script doesn’t help this movie either. There is one scene where one of the obstacles has been set off in one of the rooms and while everyone is making their escape Sasha is left behind. Kate (Kari Matchett), who is another member of the group, goes back to try and help Sasha. However Sasha just acts like a sniveling retard. I use this word because in the beginning of the movie when Kate first meets Sasha, she states that she’s “just blind, not retarded.”

Another problem with the movie is there are a few things that don’t really seem to make sense. One thing is in the beginning we see a woman in one of the rooms in the hypercube. We don’t see her again until the end of the movie and only for a brief moment. She doesn’t really seem to have any point except to help one of the main characters have a connection to the whole cube.

On the flip side there are some positives. The camera work is done well. It’s able to mask the fact that movie only takes place in one room. While this may not seem like a big deal, since all the rooms are supposed to look like each other, it really is an accomplishment since you don’t get bored with looking at all these seemingly similar rooms. Split screens, unusual camera angles, and a load of CGI effects help in creating different environments.

Score

Excellence in Cinema 3.0
Nice camerawork, some decent effects, and an interesting storyline.
Entertainment Value 4.0
There are a few cool scenes in the movie, and at times can be fun to watch.
Recommended Viewing 5.0
If you’re renting, pick up Cube. If Hypercube is on TV, then stop and check it out for a bit.
OVERALL SCORE (NOT AVG) 4.0
If you’ve seen Cube, then you probably won’t enjoy this flick too much, though it does shed a bit of light as to what the cube is about.

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