The Call Up - An den Grenzen der Wirklichkeit

I'm a little stunned at some of the bad reviews this movies has had. It isn't that bad at all. It has it's typical character types for a movie of this type to give the story a bit of 'zap' and these characters emerge immediately. It's well done for a low budget movie, with good acting and directing ideas, and for once, I didn't pre-empt what the ending would be like. I was a little surprised, which doesn't happen often, yet viewers will determine the way the movie will go, as that is what it is..a game. I can tell you, there are some shocking movies out there that have ratings too high, with acting so laughable and the directing a nightmare to watch, yet this movie holds it own, actors and direction. See for yourself.

I saw the film at a sci-fi festival and found the premise absolutely engaging. Without giving away too much of the story, this is one of those movies that grabs something familiar from the contemporary world and takes it to the extreme, with fascinating consequences. Mixing VR and reality is the holy grail of gamers, but the sort of scenario described here is chilling, to say the least. Funnily, the writer-director takes every trope of the first-person shooter and turns it into a clever detail. And that's where most of the fun comes from. The characters conveniently follow the group casting of any slasher, with all the classic types and a couple of surprises. Maybe I would have wished these characters to be a bit more explored and a little less action scenes, but you can't fault this film for doing what most FPS do! Good fun

Since IMDb is filled now with fake reviews and comments about this movie I feel compelled to write my opinion, trying to balance the force a little.

I tried the movie with my kid, I got the title and was very intrigued that it's gonna be an Occulus 3.0 experience or something of the sort.

I gotta say this, because this is a review and I'm gonna be honest, the premise was good, the first act (the preparation) was solid but the director slipped through it's fingers some errors that are worth checking.

First of all, this is a movie about Gamers that somehow are living in a future earth, so, they have super advanced smartphones and cards with screens but they somehow have video games with pre-xbox360 graphics (despicted on the game-play from the screen of one of the character's home).

The movie proceed then to a nice first act in which we see the Gamers prepping for the game. The offices, the suits and the helmets were a nice touch and I must say they were a good fit to the movie (if not one of the strongest points).

BUT As soon as the actions starts (the first 10 minutes of VR) you kinda see what the rest of the movie will be like.

The scenery is EXTREMELY limited, the script is non-existent, the "missions" stops being missions and starts being just "walk and kill", not a single video game of this era will support this kind of nonsense gaming, they need to have a plausible argument.

In this movie, the director switches the argument for the character development, he places all the stereotypical ones, the shy girl, the psycho, the ego-maniac fat guy who lives in the basement, the.. you get the point. Not a single stereotype was missing, this.. was not a good starting point, to be honest.

Since the movie is all about them, we get lost in a sea of corridors, switching from room A to room B and then to Room C, but then you kinda get the point. There is NO room D ! The whole movie is filmed in no more than 3 rooms, and 1 or 2 corridors with very poor scenery, they even had the guts to film several scenes with the same rooms in the same angle !. IF you're going to film a movie with few rooms at least try to switch angles.

Tip to the director: YOU CAN make a good movie with no scenery at all, I know you know because this movie seems to follow the same progression as the movie THE CUBE. Yes, you can bet. Those who saw the movie will see the similarities.

The ending was good but again, too similar to the movie THE CUBE.

For anyone reading this review, if you somehow liked the premise and you still didn't know what THE CUBE is, go watch it and you'll be amazed, that's a serious SCI FI horror movie worth of your consideration.

This movie could of been so much better if they hired better actors, Morfydd Clark was the only one doing a good job, all the rest was mediocre, being the guy who acted as "the Sargent" one of the worse actors I ever seen in my life.

Finally, I would not dare to speak too much about the music because I do really believe that the musician is just incompetent. Trying to make a soundtrack about a VR video game with CASIO tone music from the 80's is only gonna make Gamers more angry at you.

Gamers are not dumb stereotypes like the ones in the movie, that listen to CASIO tone music, stuck in a basement and still playing 1995 games. The world has changed, video game industry has evolved to a point in which soundtracks are becoming an essential part of any video game. I've seen incredible soundtracks from games where the budget was 3 times less than budget movies so this is really not an excuse to make an horrible soundtrack.

Talking about FX on this one is like talking about how does a video game looked 5 years ago, because, seriously, the CGI was so bad that my Xbox can render better in-game graphics than some of the scenes of this movie, specially the "exteriors". They could be avoided and we should of get a much better product. Bad FX tend to somehow hurt a movie much more than it should.

Good movies could be made with almost no special effects and there are plenty of examples out there. As a rule of thumb, if you're not going to produce an acceptable FX, it's better not to do it and hide it, it's gonna be a much better overall execution than to do it badly, tons of directors did great things following this path.

All in all, the movie premise was good, the execution was really poor, all the middle is just expendable material and the ending is good but since it's almost a ripoff from THE CUBE and others, it doesn't create a rewarding experience.

The only redeeming factors of this movie are: the first minutes, the concept, some bits of the ending and the legs of Morfydd Clark on that amazing suit, that's it.

The movie is a solid 3/10 If you somehow are a fan of budget movies, there are WAY better movies out there. You can start by watching Kill Command for example.

Well shot and composed with good colors and contrast. Appropriate solid special effects and motion graphics, not over the top at all.

Yes these are aesthetic observations but aesthetics are important, especially in Sci-Fi. They're also the only good thing I can say about the movie.

Horrible acting and a horrible script. I don't know whats worse, the script or the casting. The stereotypes are also poorly written. For stereotypes. All the building blocks were there for something more coherent and edgy. A tighter script with some better casting could have turned this into a cult classic.

The missed opportunity is highlighted even more by the solid production work. Unfortunate.

As someone who used to enjoy gaming a lot before the house was taken over by a wee one, I have to say, the kind of virtual reality shown in this movie seemed like a dream. Thing is, it very quickly turns into a nightmare. I can imagine most Gamers would enjoy the movie, even if it were only for the possibilities....

The movie follows a group of elite Gamers who are called up to try out a new virtual reality experience. When things quickly take a sinister turn, are the best-of-the-best good enough to finish the game?

I enjoyed The Call Up as I quickly became engaged with the characters. The acting was solid and the special effects were spot on. It takes you to the next level of game-play and makes you think about what we actually do in games when we're blowing each others heads off. There is a kind of predictability of sorts, but that would be nigh on impossible for this not to be the case and it's not as if the entire story is wide open.

The ending was a bit of an anticlimax, but in actual fact, this probably is a good thing given the mood of the movie.

I did enjoy the movie and would recommend it to any Gamers or avid movie watchers. It's never going to be a blockbuster or total crowd pleaser, but I didn't feel I'd wasted time by watching it (how I judge most movies) and I wouldn't be averse to watching it again. If you don't find the prospect of virtual reality intriguing or feel like gaming is for kids, then probably best to give this one a wide berth.