Official Synopsis:
Charlie Nash is an expert video game tester whose life has become unbearable after the tragic shooting of his girlfriend Kate. Finding no comfort in his friends or in his job, Charlie loses himself in video games. After receiving a mysterious test game in the mail, he immerses himself in its amazingly realistic, 3-D fantasy universe. However, Charlie soon learns this virtual world is totally real as he's plunged into a perilous, life-and-death battle against the game from which there is little chance of escape - or survival - in this pulse-pounding, effects-packed, sci-fi thriller.
Our Take:
Did anyone see A Sound of Thunder (2006)? No? No one? I bring up said “masterpiece” to tell you that the special effects in GameBox 1.0 rival those of the aforementioned cinematic experience.
Blurry. This whole film is blurry as all hell. That’s the filmmakers’ idea of SFX; just do some crude animation in the background and then put a blur filter over all of it. It plays out like remedial beginning beginners After Effects; it’s not only incredible annoying to stare at a blurry screen, but it’s also bad for your eyes. They are constantly strained, and well, it ended up giving me a headache.
It seems impossible to create a horror flick about video games without running into the same story element: If you die in the game, you die in real life. I’ve been reading horror fiction with the exact same plot since I was ten. Can’t anyone do something new with video games? If so, let me know and I will be your biggest supporter.
Okay, so we have crappy visuals and a crappy story…not much to look forward to, huh? How about some good news? Well, sort of. If you grew up around the time I did you’ll recognize two television faces: Topanga from Boy Meets World, and Harvey from Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Hey, you gotta take what you can get when dealing with this type of movie.
The creators actually treated this as if it were a good flick and threw in some nice special features:
* Making Of GameBox 1.0 (14 minutes) – The director speaks of the movie as a modern day Tron. But, if you’re in high school and want learn how to do some stuff on your home computer this is worth a check out.
* Deleted & Extended Scenes (12 minutes) – Play with or without director commentary.
* Bloopers (5 minutes) – General rule: If it’s not for a comedy, it’s not funny.
* Audio Commentary – There are two tracks, one with the directors and one with the producer/visual consultant.
Odds are you’re going to want to skip over GameBox 1.0 in favor of some actual video games…with good graphics. I don’t think anyone would blame you if you do.
Overall Picture:
Movie: D
DVD: B-
-Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer
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