First of all, I am so SICK of all the comparisons to SAW???!!! I totally get the comparisons to RESERVOIR DOGS, MEMENTO, and THE USUAL SUSPECTS but come on, SAW is a horror movie with a bunch of gore and mindless torture. This movie is NOT anywhere near that realm, so STOP already!!! I never saw CUBE so I have no idea about that comparison.
Some of the dialogues can come across as a bit hokey at first glance, especially when Pepper's character is trying to keep Caviezel's character encouraged. Some of the editing and writing are a wee bit choppy and shaky, but after my second viewing of the movie, things made more sense and seemed smoother.
It doesn't necessarily unfold in reverse quite the same way as MEMENTO did, but there are lots of flashbacks, and all the answers lie within those flashbacks. There is a "whodunit" element like in THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and a crime-caper gone terribly opposite of what was planned, and lot of arguing and bickering in a claustrophobic warehouse setting like DOGS. I'd like to add that there is a certain plot twist in this story that struck me as similar to SUICIDE KINGS, but I won't give it away, except that the whole thing was one surprise after another and that you never know who is the true mastermind of an evil plot.
Barry Pepper, Jim Caviezel, Joe Pantoliano, Jeremy Sisto, Greg Kinnear and Peter Stormare all give nice performances. The story is intriguing and definitely impossible to predict outcome wise.
At first some might wonder why 5 guys would suffer memory loss to such an extreme. I thought the idea was far-fetched when I first heard about the film, but it's believable here being that the memory loss doesn't last thru the whole movie, and that it was caused by some inhaled toxin.
All in all a very good film. Forget the idiotic comparisons to SAW and just give it a try. It's a solid 9 out of 10 at least.
Some of the dialogues can come across as a bit hokey at first glance, especially when Pepper's character is trying to keep Caviezel's character encouraged. Some of the editing and writing are a wee bit choppy and shaky, but after my second viewing of the movie, things made more sense and seemed smoother.
It doesn't necessarily unfold in reverse quite the same way as MEMENTO did, but there are lots of flashbacks, and all the answers lie within those flashbacks. There is a "whodunit" element like in THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and a crime-caper gone terribly opposite of what was planned, and lot of arguing and bickering in a claustrophobic warehouse setting like DOGS. I'd like to add that there is a certain plot twist in this story that struck me as similar to SUICIDE KINGS, but I won't give it away, except that the whole thing was one surprise after another and that you never know who is the true mastermind of an evil plot.
Barry Pepper, Jim Caviezel, Joe Pantoliano, Jeremy Sisto, Greg Kinnear and Peter Stormare all give nice performances. The story is intriguing and definitely impossible to predict outcome wise.
At first some might wonder why 5 guys would suffer memory loss to such an extreme. I thought the idea was far-fetched when I first heard about the film, but it's believable here being that the memory loss doesn't last thru the whole movie, and that it was caused by some inhaled toxin.
All in all a very good film. Forget the idiotic comparisons to SAW and just give it a try. It's a solid 9 out of 10 at least.