Review of Cube Zero (2004) by Jason J — 11 Jun 2007

I had high hopes for the latest installment of the 'Cube' series entitled 'Cube Zero'. This one took place in a kind of futuristic society and I felt they could have done a lot with that. Well, they didn't do as much as I could have hoped. 'Cube Zero' isn't low by any means on gore and interesting death sequences, but the story is a little jumbled and the ending isn't exactly clear. This installment follows a system programmer for the CUBE which is now a government experiment using death-row inmates as test subjects. The test subjects wander around a giant Rubik cube from room to room (which are booby trapped with deadly traps) and most of the test subjects end up dying in horribly painful and disgusting ways. The systems analyst of the story ends up wondering what outside his office and eventually digs into the conspiracy of the test subjects (he finds out they just pick random people who are innocent most of the time). The systems analyst goes on a mission to stop it, but will he be able to override the system?

The acting in this Canadian made suspense flick is find of so-so. The systems analyst and his friend Dodd are both pretty good, the female lead is decent and the actor who plays the character of Jax is hysterical. The direction and visuals are fun to watch, but the writing is a little unstable, confusing, and has some interesting religious overtones. The death scenes in this installment however take the cake. You see bodies getting torn from limb to limb, skin/tissue melting acid, someone's head explodes, etc. If you are into this sort of bloody Sci-Fi genre, I think you might find 'Cube Zero' not brilliant but at least fun to watch. 'Cube Zero' will make for an OK rental fare. Grade: C+.