NoFace for Film

Title: The Thirteenth Floor
Year: 1999
Director: Josef Rusnak
Starring Cast: Craig Bierko, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Getchen Mol, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dennis Haysbert
Rated: R

NoFace rating: 4.5 out of 7

Like Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor is one of those underrated films that explored the concept of alternate realities but were overshadowed by The Matrix. The Thirteenth Floor actually came out the same year as The Matrix, but because the former had a B-rate actor (Bierko) in the lead role, because there were no badass lobby shootouts, and because there was no bullet time used, The Thirteenth Floor was quietly pushed in video shelves alongside Dark City while The Matrix took all the glory.

But now it gets its time in the spotlight, even though it’s just my tiny little spotlight.

The Thirteenth Floor mainly takes place in Los Angeles, 1999. Two scientists, Hannon Fuller (Mueller-Stahl) and Douglas Hall (Bierko) have created an alternate world in a computer. This virtual world is Los Angeles circa 1937. Fuller discovers something very important and decides to leave a letter to Hall in the 1937 world. Unfortunately, back in 1999 Fuller is brutally murdered, and it’s up to Hall to track down that letter to uncover the truth behind it. Complicating Hall’s mission are a suspicious detective (Haysbert) and Fuller’s beautiful daughter (Mol), who Fuller has never mentioned before.

In terms of the plot, like Dark City, people may scoff at The Thirteenth Floor and think, “Ok, been there, done that. We’ve seen The Matrix, we know all about alternate realities and stuff”. But there’s more to The Thirteenth Floor than it seems, a nice little plot twist 3/4ths in the movie. Some may consider the plot twist to be cheesy, but I thought it was pretty clever.

Although The Thirteenth Floor is not considered a “Hollywood blockbuster”, it by no means was filmed in a shoddy manner. The 1937 scenes are beautifully filmed, providing a great contrast to the cold, harsh familiarity of 1999. They did a terrific job of recreating L.A. in the 1930s and spared no expense. It’s really impressive.

As for the acting, Bierko isn’t the greatest actor. He tends to use his eyes and eyebrows to convey emotion, but often he exaggerates. Then again, it’s not like Keanu Reeves is a gifted thespian. Mol was ok, relatively expressionless until you learn more about her character. Haysbert was relatively ok as the detective, but at times he was a little irritating. I preferred William Hurt’s compassionate but determined detective in Dark City. Not surprisingly, the better actors were the veteran Mueller-Stahl, and D’Onofrio, who as we know has some experience with portraying insane people you can sympathize with (e.g. Full Metal Jacket).

I hope that die-hard Matrix fans won’t look at this film and think “rip-off!” because it really isn’t. They share a similar premise, but overall, The Thirteenth Floor is very different and should be appreciated on its own merit. It doesn’t have a lot of explosions or cool martial arts scenes, but the story is very interesting. I highly recommend renting it.

Technorati Tags: The Thirteenth Floor, virtual reality, alternate world, The Matrix, Dark City, Craig Bierko, Vincent D’Onofrio