Well folks here's the second review from Roland and Dean's world of Centropolis films. A movie called 13TH FLOOR. The first test screening review was pretty positive, this one is a bit more mixed, though mixed to the positive side of things. This does seem to be a mystery/sci fi type of film, so you may not want to read the plot stuff (which is basically the whole review). The nitpicks include a similarity to that Moriarty Star Trek episode and TRON, but he did seem to enjoy the film a bit. So read on if you feel like it.
Roland and Dean are back in action, but not with Aliens or a Big Green Guy. This time they produced what I refer to as the 90's version of TRON. I just saw the test screening for 'The 13th Floor.' It looked pretty much done to me. Even the effects, most of which were done in Centropolis' Germany fx house were all in.
Craig Bierko plays Doug Hall, a man whose company is making virtual worlds that can run by itself. Each character in this virtual world has a life and has the ability to carry on as a normal human being. Co-created by Hammond Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl), it was to be a model to study the human condition, a way to understand human nature better. Fuller is found brutally murdered and it's up to Hall to find out why, as he becomes the key suspect.
We learn thru Fuller's assistant, Winnet (sp?) (Vincent D'Onofrio), that Fuller has been 'jacking' into the virtual world, taking his essence into the 1930's model they have created. Hall decides he should go in to find out if there have been any clues left to him. As in TRON, the main virtual characters look like their users, and Hall meets up with a man that looks and acts as Fuller and one that looks like Winnet. After some initial snooping, he comes back to reality with a couple leads. Meanwhile, Fuller's daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol) comes by. Weird thing is that Fuller doesn't have any family. No one knows who she is, but they all take her word as to her identity.
Hall can't stop 'jacking' into the 1930's sim. He confronts the virtual Fuller again and finds that there have been lapses in his memory . He soon realizes that when a user 'jacks' in, the virtual person's program is taken over by the user's conscience. With that knowledge, virtual Fuller tells Hall that there is a message waiting there for him, but the virtual Winnet has it and has read it. Seems that the message was that the 1930's world isn't real and only the virtual Winnet and Hall now know. VR Winnet is upset now that his life is a lie. Hall escapes him and gets back into the real world.
Now here comes the punchline. [As my friend pointed out, it seems like the episode of ST:TNG "Ship in a Bottle". Y'know, the one where the Moriarity character comes to life outside of the holodeck and the only way to trap him was to create a VR Enterprise making him think it's the real Enterprise, thereby trapping him back in the holodeck?] Well, suspicion leads Hall to investigate his own life. Which world is really real? He takes a look around and finds out HIS WORLD ISN'T REAL EITHER. Jane reveals herself as a user when Hall does some investigating. Hall also finds out that his user is the one who has been doing these killings. At the same time, Winnet jacks into the 1930's VR world and gets killed, but his VR self's conscience switches, at the moment of death, to the present day Winnet.
Now with that in mind, Jane takes that information to lure Hall's user in and kill him. Hall just happens to be the shell for Jane's husband, who's gotten a bit jealous of Jane's involvement with Hall. Jane lure's her husband into Hall, has him killed and then goes back into her reality. Where Hall's conscience now rests in her husbands body. There they live happily ever after.
Those wacky NRG guys just let me walk right on in, as I ran about 5 mins late. This is an 'ok' movie. Not a film that'll do big box office, but it had it's potential, had it not stolen concepts of what I mentioned before and "12 Monkeys". Also, there's no star. Gretchen is a full on babe. Since "Rounders," she has reminded me of a cross between Jennifer Tilly and Drew Barrymore, but with intelligence, but she's not the lead character. Craig Bierko did alright, but this would have suited a good male lead like Bruce Willis. It's hard to place a younger guy in this role. Try as I might, Bruce keeps popping in there.
A 6 on the scale of 1 - 10, 10 being best. Had a lot of potential, if people go in not expecting anything, there are going on a nice little ride. It didn't suck, but it wasn't great either.
-Gold-en Eye-
