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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.)
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