Plot: What’s it about?
The movie is about Allegra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is a video game programmer and she has just made the video game console that is going to change everyone’s world. There are twelve people who volunteer to take a test drive of this gaming console. It goes wrong when someone tries to kill Allegra while the 12 people including Allegra are playing the game. Now the only one to help her is a marketing trainee named Ted Pikul. (Jude Law) Allegra and Ted escape the old church where the test drive was taken place and they head out to the country side where some of Allegra’s friends can help her.
Allegra wants to see if her console is okay because the game was disrupted in the middle of play and she needs to know if her 35 million dollar console needs to be fixed or not. The game is played by inserting a line into a port that is inserted into your spinal chord. It is a procedure that is like getting your ear’s pierced except a bit more dangerous and powerful. Ted does not have a port in him so the two of them go to a gas station to get one illegally inserted into Ted. The gas station owner’s name is Gas. (Willem Dafoe) He inserts Ted with a port in his spinal chord and then Ted and Allegra go to play the game, but it goes wrong and now they are mixed up in trouble with Gas. Word has gone out that Allegra is worth five million dollars in cash if she is killed and Gas likes the way that sounds. Now Ted and Allegra are caught up in staying alive and trying to find out who they can trust to stay alive.
This is a different kind movie and hard to describe. It is a suspense drama that is really not difficult to follow, but just difficult to determine when Allegra and Ted are in the game and when they are in real life. Which makes the movie more fun of course. The movie moves at a slower pace although the movie is only 96 minutes long. The acting is well done and the story is okay, but it just didn’t entertain me all that much. I thought the movie was okay and worth a rental for an evening, but I wouldn’t recommend owning this one unless you really liked the movie. With the high price tag on this DVD, $29.99 suggested retail, and although it is 16×9 enhanced and has 5.1 sound. The price is $10 too much for this one so unless you get a great price I would recommend just a rental and only so if you like Sci-Fi movies.
Video: How does it look?
This is a good picture that is 16×9 enhanced even though it doesn’t say it on the case. The picture is good throughout the movie and no negative picture qualities were present throughout the movie. The lighting was dim throughout the movie, but the picture quality was clear and free of grain.
Audio: How does it sound?
The soundtrack is also in 5.1 sound and that doesn’t show up on the case either. I guess Disney is just trying to throw us off and give us the goods while not letting us know about them until we take it home. “Pretty sneaky sis.” Anyway the soundtrack is pretty good although the rear speakers are pretty much not used in most of the movie and the subwoofer is used once or twice, but nothing noteworthy.
Supplements: What are the extras?
You get a theatrical trailer in 2.0 sound and that is it.
