Subterano

...since all of the originality this script needed really IS "buried!" At least it is another opportunity to see the chiseled talent of Alex Dimitriades at work, though a bit of a letdown after his career-making performance in the searing indie HEAD ON.

Set in a future where VR video games aren't just a way of life, but have infused nearly every aspect of pop culture, (in other words, not all that different from today), Dimitriades plays one of the underground rebels of a faction known as the "Orphans Of The Revolution." It all gets kind of "JUDGE DREDD-meets-THE-MATRIX" from here, so I'll just skim over what passes for the "finer points." Having escaped an execution date with the help of an old flame (Tasma Walton), both renegades find themselves in the wrong place at a VERY wrong time, trapped in the parking deck of a high-rise with several other unlucky people.

Because living in this high-rise is the part-time sociopath/full-time "daddy's boy" who has just perfected a VR game called...you guessed it, SUBTERANO. Sonny has one of those dysfunctional relationships with his dad, and therefore has channeled all his hate, frustration and aggression into a game that has now transcended its VR origins and become part of the real world...and the captives in the parking deck must now play for their lives, or suffer the deadly consequences.

It certainly sounds more interesting than it is, and it isn't hard to believe that it actually sat on a shelf two years after its completion. I always wondered how movies would begin to reflect the tech advances in special effects achieved with THE MATRIX, and in its own just-okay CGI work, SUBTERANO reflects the very beginnings of the beneficial influences reaped by low-budget projects from the much superior forerunner.

Unlike CUBE, to which SUBTERANO bears more than just a passing resemblance, the characterizations are not as fully realized, so to the actors' credit they do at least manage to keep us interested before the "game" dispatches most of them. The dialogue at best never rises above soap-opera level, which makes one wonder how much time was spent on the script development as opposed to the special FX (which obviously gobbled up most of the film's meager budget.) Once you get past the somewhat tedious set-up in the first third of the movie, SUBTERANO does get curiously watchable afterward. A few trims here and there would probably make it more palatable for kids with a PG-13 sensibility. As it is, it's a fairly harmless piece of late-night fodder when nothing else is on.

(Note to Alex and Tasma: fire your agents and get new ones.)

Eleven people are trapped in an underground parking lot, where they must battle their way through it against lethal toys in a real-life virtual-reality game. I rented "Subterano" for no reason in particular, having never read anything about it but passing it hundreds of times on the video store shelf (Lets just say I have a lot of free time on my hands), but upon checking IMDb after renting it I found predominately poor reviews. Perhaps it was because I didn't expect much, I thoroughly enjoyed "Subterano". It may owe one-too-many nods to 1997's brilliant "Cube", and the futuristic clothing may be pretty silly, but there's plenty to like here.

For a low-budget movie, writer/director Esben Storm has done a great job with the film visually. Despite being filmed almost exclusively in a parking lot, the lighting is interesting and attractive (Lots of filters are used in this film to good effect) and there's enough tense action that thing never get boring.

The acting is surprisingly good for the most part, John Clayton and Alex Dimitriades being the best here. Everyone else is good too, but some of the characters could be rather annoying at times (The baby-faced teen girl being a prime example).

The special effects are good. Most direct-to-video films resort to cartoony and unconvincing CG, but here the computer effects are actually quite good, and there are some fun, gruesome death scenes (I'm not going to give them away) here and there. Thankfully, the gore isn't CG.

It's not a perfect film by any means, the script can be thin in places and the music is terrible at times, but "Subterano" was a fun, fast-paced sci-fi thriller that's certainly a stones-throw ahead of the brainless, CGI-laden "sci-fi" films produced by Hollywood these days. Give it a chance and you might like it.

6.5/10.

Subterano (2003) is an Australian movie that I recently found on Tubi. The storyline follows eleven strangers who find themselves randomly in a car garage. They don't know how they got there but as they start investigating their surroundings they discover robots, creatures and people from the future that wants to kill them. Is there any hope for escape and getting back home?

This movie is written and directed by Esben Storm (Deadly) and stars Alex Dimitriades (Ghost Ship), Tasma Walton (Mystery Road), Alison Whyte (Satisfaction), Janet Edwards (Smokin Aces) and Jason Stojanovski (Beat).

This movie is wild and I couldn't tell if it was purposely trying to be a "so bad it's good" project or not. The action sequences are very uneven as are the kill scenes. There's a couple scenes that made me smile, but for the most part there's nothing special here. Some of the costumes and technology depictions were cool and the ID opening was hilarious. The aciting was very mediocre and the villain at the end was awful and entertaining at the same time.

Overall, this is a bad movie that I'd recommend skipping. I'd score this a 3/10.

In Australia, a majority of films have to go through the Australian Film Finance Corporation before production. That usually means that Aussie flicks are underfunded, and Subterano is no exception. I tried to like this film. As an Aussie, I felt that I had a duty to like this film. But I couldn't. The script is terrible, the plot is unsuspenseful and you could really care less about the characters.

Sci-fi wise, Australia has had some success with 'Escape from Jupiter'. That was a children's TV series practically unheard of outside of Australia. And, in reality, Subterano is nothing more than an overbaked form of that, with little in the way of budget and creativity. Avoid this film at all costs. I remember saying that this is, without a doubt, proof that Australia should stay away from science fiction cinema. And I stand by that.

This has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust for months, so I figured I might as well watch it. I got it for $3 in a bargain bin, so I wasn't expecting much at all, but I got a rather pleasant surprise! Sure, it's not a great movie by any means, full of plot hole and continuity problems, but the actors were actually pretty good for a low budget flick like this. Same goes for the effects. The plot wasn't anything we haven't seen before, but it was handled well. I was pretty disappointed with the "Embo Man" villain in the end....looked like a bad Power Ranger villain. Oh well, it was still a lot better than expected for $3!

7/10