Cube 2: Hypercube (2002)
Directed by Andrzej Sekula
Written by Sean Hood, Ernie Barbarash, Lauren McLaughlin
Produced by Ernie Barbarash, Suzanne Colvin, Peter Block, Mehra Meh, Betty Orr, Michael Paseornek
Starring Kari Matchett, Geraint Wyn Davies, Grace Lynn Kung, Neil Crone, Matthew Ferguson, Barbara Gordon, Lindsey Connell, Bruce Gray, Greer Kent
Sporadic traps, and translocational, transpositional, and transtemporal conditions assail a squabbling septet (Matchett, Davies, Kung, Crone, Ferguson, Gordon, Connell) trapped in a tesseractic labyrinth, to which all of them bear secret connections. His full and fascinating fictionalization of interdimensional abstractions doesn’t rescue Hood’s misscripted story, nor his, Barbarash’s, and McLaughlin’s contentiously callow characters, who are so dretchingly melodramatized by this ghastly cast that one longs for the comparative courtliness conveyed by six strips of bacon starring in Vincenzo Natali’s cult classic. The quality of numerous digital SFX and DP/director Sekula’s superintendence vary from scene to scene; he couldn’t or wouldn’t wrangle his players, but some of his shots are cleverly set. Just as dangers posed by shifting space, time, gravity, and direction don’t contribute to suspense as Natali’s, Bijelic’s, and Manson’s flagrant, acidic, gaseous, electromechanical hazards did, neither do these cantankerous chatterers interact intriguingly as did those of the first movie based on distinct psychosocial types. Had it half as much prattle, voiced by adept actors as mature adults, this ambitious sequel might’ve been good.
Recommended for a double feature paired with Cube or Beyond the Black Rainbow.