Gamebox 1.0 (2004)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Feature: C+
Hoping
for a fanboy indie hit, David & Scott Hillenbrand’s Gamebox 1.0 (2004) arrives on DVD hoping for that special kind of
immortality. Surprisingly ambitious for
a low-budget work, it still cannot escape the shadow of two types of
films. One would be the “in the
videogame” type typified by The Last
Starfighter and especially Tron
in this case. The other is the virtual
reality film that began with Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm (1983) and continued into several Keanu Reeves films.
In this
case, a videogame tester (Nate Richert) is a nerdy-looking guy who suddenly is
out of his shell when one of the games he is sent seems to have both an
artificial intelligence component and realism that give him pain when he
receives it in the game. We have seen
all this before, but this flick naïvely travels through ground already broken
and makes some interesting mistakes in the process, some of which we cannot
reveal without ruining it for you.
However, it is far less pretentious than its many predecessors and with
less money, goes further. Also, it is
not a Horror/Slasher film to its credits interested in killing anyone who plays
videogames, which earns in a full point for caring about it audience by losing
that ultimate audience insult.
As for
any Science Fiction elements, they are few and far between, only qualifying as
such by default. See it for the fun
piece it is if you like videogames or are curious about these kinds of films
with a difference. As for the fanboys,
we give it a 50/50 chance they will finds and embrace it, but it has its
moments.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image originated in digital video and because
of all the videogame worlds, we get cheap-but-interesting stylized
representations of the various worlds offered in the story. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix should have been
stronger and more interesting, but has inconsistent surrounds and is not as
well-recorded as it could or should be.
The combination is tolerable, but more careful planning could have made
both aspects better. Extras include a
making of featurette worth seeing, deleted/extended scenes with optional
commentary, feature length audio commentary and a bloopers/gag reel that is
amusing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
