Skip to main content

Cube (1997)

Six strangers are put in a Cube within another larger cube and all these cubes are filled with traps. Without knowing how they got there or who put them there, they all try to escape using...math.

From the director of Splice, Vincenzo Natali, takes a step in a weird direction with this film. It was almost as if the producers at the time were just going with whatever. It's hard to get performances out of anyone in a single location film. The cubes are interesting enough with the shapes and whatnot, as well as the traps that appear in rooms with prime numbers. For whatever reason.

Nicole de Boer plays the main character, Leaven, but you don't know that she's the main character till later. She's good at math, pretty, and in school. I think the director challenged her to become the next Sigourney Weaver, but I doubt there was an intention for a sequel to the film. You might recognize her from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Lieutenant Ezri Dax. Her character claims in the movie that finding out if three digit numbers are prime is astronomical in terms of the amount of math you'd have to do. This is false.

Maurice Dean Wint plays what would best be described as the antagonist of the film if you don't consider the cube itself an antagonist. He does a pretty convincing accent but his performance is best described as overacting. He hasn't been in any major film since, at least so far as I know.

The film has an unsatisfying ending and doesn't leave you wanting more, but instead leaves you disappointed that the answer that the film begged you to ask was never answered.

Result: C- (Some of the characters are poorly written, and both the film and the character actions are predictable.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Runner (2026)

The Runner is directed by Kevin Macdonald and written by Mark Gibson , and it starts off incredibly cringe. Considering Gibson's past work, that isn't exactly surprising, but the camera work and directing choices are all over the place as well. The premise itself is already pretty unrealistic, and the movie does very little to make it believable. It also doesn't help that the pacing makes the whole thing feel much longer than it actually is. Gal Gadot's portrayal of a mother is so awful that I started wondering if she's ever actually interacted with her own children. There are moments where she runs with decent form, but then there are other times when she's running all limp-wristed, exactly as you'd expect someone who clearly isn't a runner to run. More importantly, her character is incredibly difficult to take seriously. Even though she has a kidnapped child, she still acts like she should be bossing the kidnapper around. It doesn't feel like a...

Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Coyote vs. Acme is directed by Dave Green , and this is easily his best work to date. Some of that credit belongs to Samy Burch , the Oscar-nominated writer whose screenplay gives the film enough personality to keep it entertaining. All that praise aside, Coyote vs. Acme is fun but ultimately nothing particularly special. The film is appropriately silly for a Looney Tunes movie, but the pacing is its biggest problem. At 103 minutes, it feels noticeably longer than it needs to be, and cutting it down to around 90 to 95 minutes would have made the movie considerably tighter. Will Forte is easily the best casting choice in the film. He fits the comedic tone perfectly and brings the right amount of energy to a movie that depends heavily on its absurdity. John Cena , on the other hand, is easily the worst casting choice. His performance is so wooden that it feels like he's barely trying, and he seems to be phoning it in throughout most of the movie. It's especially noticeable wh...

Idiots (2026)

Idiots is written and directed by Macon Blair , who also has a small role in the film. The movie feels like Pineapple Express with more character development but worse pacing. There are some genuinely funny scenes that made me laugh out loud, and for a comedy, that's ultimately what it should be aiming for. Blair clearly understands how to write absurd situations and characters, but the film has several pacing problems, with scenes that could have been cut without hurting the overall story. When it works, though, the comedy lands and the character development gives the film more substance than expected. Dave Franco , known for Now You See Me and Neighbors , plays the drugged-out, lazy, down-on-his-luck type of character he has played before. He is entertaining in the role, but his character has very little development or arc throughout the story. O'Shea Jackson Jr. , known for Straight Outta Compton and Den of Thieves , gets the stronger character arc between the two and ma...