The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

Excellent adaptation.

Absolutely Fantastic

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Its super weird how Matrix, Existenz and this movie all came out in 1999. If you enjoyed those 2, you'll probably like this one as well. I did have one problem with it tho. The adr was terrible and it constantly put me off. Other than that, it was a good sci-fi/crime.Its about a guy who is a partner in a company which is experimenting with augmented reality simulations. His boss gets murdered and he is the prime suspect. He is trying to make sense of whats going on.

Every synopsis I read of The Thirteenth Floor has the words 'mind-bending' written in it. Therefore I made sure I followed the story pretty closely so that I didn't miss anything. And, when the credits finally rolled, I had the whole story pretty much figured out.The Thirteenth Floor was released in 1999, not that many people probably heard of it as The Matrix came out in the same year and relates to a similar kind of concept. In The Thirteenth Floor, the world of today has created an alternate reality in a computer program (in short, the 'matrix'), however this computer programme is designed to look like 1930s America and people can jump in and out of the 1930s populations' bodies with the help of the right computer equipment.For the first hour or so, I wasn't so much confused (as the 'mind-bending' plot was basically The Matrix with a dose of Inception thrown in - a good ten years before its own rise to fame). I was more bored. Nothing that interesting seemed to be happening and what was really going on wasn't revealed until around the hour mark. And, I have to say that when I 'got' what was happening, I liked it. Nice touch.All in all The Thirteenth Floor has a nice idea behind it and the actors play their parts well. However, it will never be either The Matrix or Inception, as it suffers from a distinct lack of budget. I knew it wasn't a new movie when I saw it, but I didn't know the exact year. I would have put it somewhere in the eighties rather than a year where bullets were being slowed down and George Lucas gave us The Phantom Menace. Also, The Thirteenth Floor has no stars and absolutely no action (minus the odd fist fight and gunshot). Therefore it gives the film a bit of a 'made-for-TV' feel about it.Perhaps it's 'the thinking man's Matrix? Either way, I liked it - it was some good ol' fashioned sci-fi. Of course it goes without saying that it would have been better with Carrie Ann Moss in a leather catsuit.

I often use the 13th floor as an example when I am teaching about theoretical computer science to non-technical people. It is a perfect example of Kleene's recursion theorem (that any simulation will not be anywhere as powerful machine simulating it). For example most of the backdrop of the 1930's VR is in black and white (even in closeups of unimportant details like the bank walls behind Hanna's 1930 avatar), the 1990's are a little crisper but certain obvious details like no smog in LA creep in. The 2030's is the only one believable but even it seems a little fishy because it lays on effects others left out too thickly (like the smog/mist is far to dense for that part of LA).

The story on this movie is amazing, but the only reason I say it was OK, it's because for some reason while I was watching the movie, I felt like I was watching a crappy movie. I'm not sure if it was because of the actors, the production, the mood or what, But I feel this movie could have been illustrated better, specially when it has such an amazing story.When you compare this movie to the matrix, you can see how different they, regardless of how similar the story is and the action effects. The matrix has a more serious and mysterious mood, which makes the movie more interesting, but the thirteen floor, they come and say what's going as if their research project was something very feasible, and not so amazing. They way the story was unraveled was weak, that's my point.