Overall Rating
  Awesome: 13.21%
Worth A Look: 9.43%
Average: 9.43%
Pretty Bad: 33.96%
Total Crap: 33.96%
3 reviews, 35 user ratings
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| Thirteenth Floor, The |
by Filmnet
"You can go there even though it doesn't exist?"
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The Thirteenth Floor has the unfortunate timing to follow closely in the footsteps of the box office smash "The Matrix", starring Keanu Reeves and last year's successful film "Dark City" - it has not avoided the critical comparison. Each film uses the same "questioning of our own reality" premise and in this comparison, "The Thirteenth Floor" has come up as the poorer instalment.Based on the novel "Simulacron 3" by Daniel F Galouye, the film centres around Douglas Hall (Craig Bierk - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Long Kiss Goodnight), a man accused of killing his boss and close friend, Hannon Fuller, (Armin Mueller-Stahl - Shine, The Peacemaker). Fuller, a software engineer, had created a fully functional simulated computer world modelled after 1937 Los Angeles. This world was designed complete with digital characters possessing a sense of self, through which it was possible to "jack-in" to the computer and download your own consciousness into a character.
It is after one of these downloads Fuller is murdered by an unknown assailant. Unfortunately for Douglas he has no memory of the night of Fuller's murder and becomes the main suspect in the police investigation. It is therefore up to him to discover the truth behind the murder and prove his innocence.
As the movie slowly (I stress slowly) progresses he begins to unravel the mystery behind his boss's death, the unexpected arrival of Fuller's daughter, (Gretchen Mol - Rounders, Music from Another Room), and the real truth behind the world they created in 1937 as well as the present world. The Thirteenth Floor lacks the effects and action of "The Matrix" or the quirky, bizarre nature of "Dark City", yet these could have been overlooked if they were replaced by stellar acting, or an original and engaging plot. This is not the case and the film is the lesser for it.
On a positive note, Vincent D'Onofrio, (Full Metal Jacket, JFK) slips between his dual supporting roles, un-nervingly well - while the film's cinematographer, Wedigo Von Schultzendorff, has created the look of the 1930s LA scenes for the classic "film noir". Josef Rusnak, (his first solo directing job) has done an adequate job, but the story moves too slowly and predicably for the audience to ignore the film's shortcomings.
It begins to pose questions of accepting reality, Descartes: I think therefore I am, appears at the start of the film, causing one to ask, but am I really thinking this? Instead of continuing to make the audience uncomfortably question what they take as life, Rusnak introduces a romance between Mol and Bierko and ignores building the suspense necessary to carry the audience through to the end. In trying to hide premise till the bitter end, with the possible intention of tantalising the audience, Rusnak has unfortunately waited too long and bored this viewer.Spiralling from fantasy thriller to cliché-riddled whodunnit, the plot is too quickly unravelled with a predictable and unsatisfying ending. If you have seen either of its predecessors, this is definitely a wait for video release. (Naomi Morrison--filmnet.org.au)
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=799&reviewer=169
originally posted: 12/20/99 17:43:12
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USA
28-May-1999 (R)
DVD: 03-Dec-2002
UK
N/A
Australia
02-Sep-1999 (MA)
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