Les rescapés

i recently saw the movie on cable and I was wondering what similarities were there between this movie and the Matrix

You have got Jo or Joseph like Neo

You have got A. T. like Morpheaus

and you have got the girl like Trinity.

Even the villains move around in suits like those in Matrix

and all that talk in the elevator where A.T. says that the floor is still there and what they are seeing was all deja vu like in the Matrix

Would not be surprised if the Wachowski Brothers had seen this and been 'inspired'

As a fan of low budget sci-fi (especially Rutger Hauer movies) I have to admit to being biased towards this before I'd even seen it. But, not only did it live up to expectations, it far surpassed them. This is a slick, well directed and acted and fairly intelligent entry into the 'alternate dimension' genre.

It's fast paced and the gorgeous Andrea Roth certainly adds to the enjoyment factor. Rutger Hauer is his usual sardonic self, always great value. Josh Charles is excellent in what I think is the best film of his career!! OK, so the budget is low, but the makers have done wonders with what they had to work with and it looks like a much more expensive movie - the cinematography is fantastic and gives the whole movie a lovely 'gloss' look. There is lots of humor, an excellent villain and some very exciting actions scenes - what more could you want? A lot of people compare this to the Matrix, which I feel is unfair. The Matrix is (great fun, but) very overblown and pretentious, whilst this movie plumps solely for entertaining. Some of the themes are the same, but the similarities end there. I'd go for Crossworlds any day!!

Honestly, most B-Movies are terrible. The sudden, sad trend among movie fans to purposefully exalt crap films just for a laugh has become a "lowering of the tone" for snobs such as my self. Is Troll 2 unintentionally hilarious? Yeah. Does that mean it's "Brilliant"? No, it sucks and for many B-Movie fans, the line between satire and reality has been blurred. Face it, the joke is over. The vast majority of the B-films or Direct to DVDers are awful and unwatchable.

But every now and then, you find a B-movie that has enough heart and soul to transcend that. Every now and then you see a movie that has enough gumption to spit in the eye of their low budget and no big name. Crossworlds is one of those movies, it shows a panache you don't normally find on late night cable and plays the hand it's dealt.

The budget is so low you'd expect the sets to be made of duct tape, the plot is a bit out there, and the names of the characters are out right weird and yet...you find yourself realizing that if this had a bigger budget it would be a hit film. If this had some studio support, a slightly tighter story, and better SFX, it would be a modest box office coup.

The film is, dare I say it, rather fun and compared to Transformers or Avatar or some other over indulgent crap masquerading as a blockbuster.

In a just world, this film would've been a real movie instead of a cult classic but then again, it probably would've have been as good if had been made at a major studio.

Very much a low budget 80's film, but perhaps the film itself time-traveled 10 years into the future, because it was released 1996.

You would be hard pressed to create more 80's legitimacy than this one. I still find it hard to believe. I even checked with wikipedia to make sure it wasn't released opposite War Games or something like that.

Anyway, it didn't age well regardless of when it was released. I'm giving it 5 because Rutger. Otherwise I would give it a 4 max.

Serious talk: Excellent choice for a remake. Given the right cast & director and *budget*, it could be an excellent movie. It's a Heinlein story, so everything you need for an epic is already there.

Sam, Michael, you guys doing anything right now? How about you John? When are you gonna be available?

Other than the obviously older Rutger Hauer as a clue, I was astounded to find that this film was from 1996, it has such an 80s feel. And the uniformly egregious songs had a bad-80s feel as well.

The genesis of this film seems evident: someone wanted to make a film of Heinlein's "Glory Road", discovered the rights to that work were too expensive, and had a lackey write a screenplay with many similarities but which could be filmed in LA and environs.

Rutger Hauer plays it straight and generally classes things up, but the film tends to bog down when he is not around. Andrea Roth is decorative and tries hard, but she is no Empress of the Twenty Universes.

Even for a fantasy work, there are too many inconsistencies and plot conveniences for the film to be enjoyable for me. I am willing to suspend disbelief in order to be entertained, but not to have sloppy plot devices hang disbelief by the neck until dead.

If you want a good cross-dimensional story, go read "Glory Road". Then hope, as I do, that someone who understands the appeal of that story can get their hands on a budget sufficient to do a worthy film version of it.