I didn’t see Cube when it came out for one simple, idiotic reason. Pi had just come out. I figured, eh, I’ve seen Pi, I don’t need to see Cube. My brain works this way. I still haven’t seen the documentary Spellbound because I like the Hitchcock film.
Anyway, if you are a pessimist you will watch Cube and say, “Boy – the acting sure is shitty, the characters are false and the plotting doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” If you are an optimist you will say, “For a no budget film out of Canada, this achieves a great deal of tone, is very engaging to watch and somehow manages to be “heavy” without being overburdened by bullshit.”
For the most part, I consider myself an optimist.
This is one of the movies that suffers not so much because it’s terrible — it isn’t — but of the gap between how good it is and how good it ought to be. With a premise this awesome, mediocre just won’t do. c.f. TEETH for another example.