The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

The movie is a beautifully shot, well-acted and stunningly written sci-fi story, one that will not dissappoint fans of other great feautures of those years, like Matrix or Cube. But, in my opinion, this one is a bit smarter and, mixing the sense of What-is-reality with the excecution of neo-noir movies, stands out as a unique take on the matter.

Excellent Sci-fi, worth it for the authentic period scenes alone. Great casting and production design, with just the right amount of characters to weave a magnetic noir thriller. The period sections include professional dancers and bands; this has been brilliantly crafted. Another chameleon appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio too. Some philosophical questions dominate. Well worth the watch

The movie itself is decent, has a good pacing, gets you curious to see how the story unfolds, but the biggest problem, at least for me was, that it got too predictable and plain over the duration. The setup and the premise were extremely interesting and it could have unfolded into an excellent masterpiece, but the idea wasn't used to its limits, unfortunately.Don't get me wrong, the movie is a solid choice if you like sci-fi/mystery movies, but it just really affects my opinion, whenever i see an awesome idea, that just simply does not get executed to its maximum potential. The whole different world idea was just excellent, but i would have liked to see different worlds, some interesting overlaps, maybe? This is a movie that should leave you brainstorming like a madman after finishing it, but it kind of chews all the information up for you and you just get presented with the final product, i would much rather try to figure out what really happened myself, but oh well, everyone is different, i suppose.Overall it is not bad, no the greatest sci-fi/mystery flick you will encounter, but it is worth a watch. The acting is decent, not outstanding, but for a movie of this caliber it is good enough.

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.