The Employer

I just caught this movie and it was a powerful look at capitalism. The monologue by Malcolm McDowell at the end of the movie helps to deconstruct the basic ideals of the corporate world. Endure with this murderous tale filled with hopes of a peaceful escape, where the gore is aptly used for effect, stereotypes questioned and the interview process taken to a whole new level (while still being relateable to the actual job market). The variety of roles, the differing characteristics of the main five characters; all fitted in with flashbacks to show "how they got there?" and the overlooking McDowell.

With Billy Zane at the end, the use of music, good interview questions which foreshadow the coming violence and the simplicity of the characters and their lives help to fill out the 90 minutes extremely well. Watch it at night to help set the atmosphere, and for some reason reminded me of "Cube".

6/10 - got across what it set out to do with interesting shifts and entertaining, didn't try to do too much and built the characters slowly (but the interviewing flashbacks reveal future actions later in the movie).

This is the kind of movie I usually do not like. All the action in a closed frame, only dialogue, right, there are also four crimes, boring. But, the quality of the actors' play, I mean the five job candidates, all very natural, they pick up the film. Plus, Malcolm McDowell, "deadly serious" and very special talented. It is a little slow and predictable, even hard to believe that Keith Caverns (Michael DeLorenzo) can strangle with a tie the giant Mike Drake (Matthew Willig) or that Billie Lewis then kills Keith Caverns with her shoe heel. Except that, everything is like in life, I have seen with my own eyes such characters, in real life, in different working places, capable of anything for a job.

I was quite enthusiastic of watching this movie when I learned of it. The plot reminded me heavily of a similar movie titled Exam. Thus, I was expecting a similarly thrilling emotional and psychological ride. I did not receive it.

While the movie was entertaining to watch, I could not be helped but be irritated by some of the most illogical actions the characters took given their seemingly high intelligence. Overall, I could pretty much guess what would happen next and the ending was very very disappointing. I could think of at least three different endings that would have been much more intriguing, plot-twisting and unexpected.

To sum up, entertaining for while it runs on the screen, but nothing mind-blowing and leaves you rather frustrated at the end.

I've seen so many of these types of movies. Cube (also has 2 sequels) was one of the earlier good ones (where random people are stuck in various adjoining rooms with "puzzles to solve"). A more recent one that is better than Employer is Exam (2009) - rated 6.8 and with many great twists. Other similar movies involving people killing each other off in a "room" include: Devil 6.3 (2010) - people stuck in an elevator, The Killing Room 5.7(2009) - people in an scientific experiment, Unknown 6.5 (2006) - people stuck in a warehouse, Fermat's Room 6.6 (2007 - foreign language) - 4 mathematicians in a rm, The Method 7.3 (2005 - foreign language) - interview process Overall Cube (the first one) wins with 7.4 rating and oddly enough being the oldest (1997). Enjoy these movies if you like the genre.

Well that was boring, halfway through I began fast forwarding through the rest.

The premise of people trapped in a room, is old. People trapped in a room for a job, has already been done too (can't remember the name of the movie though).

The production value is inexistent. My HDCam makes better pictures than what I've seen here. Acting is bad, lighting is awful, score is generic, nothing in this movie is new.

McDowell played 6 minutes in this movie, he probably just needed a morning to get the filming done. Well, lately he showed up in Z-Grade movies anyway. Seeing him casted is a strong indicator for a poor movie.

Please excuse my low quality review, but I just did it to balance the 10/10 fake reviews written by the PR guys.