Game Box 1.0 (2004) User Reviews

Good Idea, Poor Movie

[Vincent_B · 4/10 · 26 February 2008]

First there are some plot holes in this movie. We see in the very beginning a kid dies from playing the game. But who was tied up in the mail truck delivering the package which contains the game? How did the driver place the package into the mailbox when he was lashed to the steering wheel? It is not like he was Mr. Fantastic. Wow that in just the first 15 minutes... The actors are second rate, take the "Bad Guy" played by Patrick Kilpatrick (who?) exactly he has appeared in one episode of everything on TV and some secondary roles in poor movies (like this one). So most of the acting is like TV dramas, I can live with that, but the graphics or special effects are horrible. The disembodied "Game" voice sounds like a poor clone of Hal from "Space Oddessy 2000". What they called Zombies looked more like shadows jumping around like monkeys from "Planet of the Apes". The Aliens had transparent bodies like the shadow zombies. In most cases, the movie was just predictable as it had no hook or hidden agenda going. The story was a good idea but like most good ideas discussed over lunch was never developed beyond that good idea stage.

The Tale of the Pinball Wizard

[VonCouch · 4/10 · 29 March 2011]

I'd be shocked if you know the title to the review, but it was an episode of the SNICK show Are You Afraid Of The Dark in 92. That's basically what this movie was. It's about a video game tester who mysteriously receives a new system in the mail that's supposed to give you the ultimate gaming experience. But once he plugs in, he's stuck and can't get out until he beats the game.

This really seems more like a project for Adobe After Effects than a full out movie. The whole "game" doesn't really seem to make sense and the effects make you wonder where the million dollar budget went to. The zombies in it are actually just strange, CGI, shadow gymnasts. The acting and the writing is pretty bad, but nobody hams it up like the evil cop who offed the main character's girlfriend. I swear, Nicolas Cage would tell this guy to tone it down. The movie gets points for not having a stupid twist ending that could have easily been churned out with the whole "reality/fantasy" thing it had going for it. But when the best compliment you can give is for not doing something even more stupid, I don't think that says much.

And though it's easy to focus on the negative, it's not completely unwatchable. The premise, though obvious, can be interesting and all in all it's a fun watch if you have the right group of people with you. Also, it stars Harvey from Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Topanga from Boy Meets World, so any TGIF fan should dig it just for that.

All in all, this isn't a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. But if you enjoy camp, this movie should hold your interests. Just get a good group of friends to watch it with.

Interesting Concept, But Too Many Negatives

[eric-a1129 · 3/10 · 20 June 2011]

The concept of this movie is somewhat interesting, and it is the overall story that gives this movie any value at all. Even though a large majority of the story is pretty lame and predictable, I was still able to get caught up in it and want to see how the plot played out, it is the only thing that kept me from turning this completely off. The graphics are just horrible and at times make it difficult to watch. The acting is pretty bad throughout, aside from Nate Richert who was decent as he made his depressing character very likable and genuine, he seemed to really take the role seriously. So, in all Gamebox 1.0 is pretty much what I had expected. I really can't recommend watching this movie, but hey, its not a COMPLETE waste of an hour and a half....almost though.

"Keep Your Eyes On the Health Icon and Don't Say a Word."

[ACAOKever · 2/10 · 22 September 2007]

Well, the first thing I saw after looking at the DVD box was "Best Screenplay" and thought this would be a good rental. WOW, was I mistaken! I'm sure at one time there was a good movie in here, but after the incredibly poor acting and "video game" production values, this ends up looking like Tron's retarded half-brother. The first scene sets up the overall atmosphere of the entire movie. Five minutes into it, you'll be asking yourself, "What the Hell am i watching?", and it will just snowball from there. An awful soundtrack that makes every song sound like Rob Zombie's "Dragula" rounds out this miserable piece of crap into a laughably bad movie. On a side note, #3 most romantic quote in a movie - "I think you're the final destination."

Dumbest movie I have ever seen

[funnybone9122 · 1/10 · 19 April 2011]

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen! I think it was written by a 5 year old. Seriously I imagined stuff like this in the third grade, but for adults to be a part of something this stupid is beyond awful! This movie is a perfect example of desperate actors trying to make a quick buck. Danielle Fishel from "Boy Meets World" is the only "famous" actor in this entire thing. The graphics are absolutely horrific. Aliens=invisible guys wearing green screen suits. The same goes for zombies. Any bad guy has a superimposed face put on top of their own to look "evil". The acting is absolutely terrible as well. The lines and sets used in this movie make it actually seem like this was made in somebody's closet! The soundtrack is basically a mix tape of Rob Zombie songs made by some Gothic 15 year old.

Movie wasn't good

[Keith5252 · 1/10 · 22 December 2007]

OK, this movie wasn't good at all. Video games aren't what I would brag on if I was over the age of 15. Cool to play games, but writing a comment about video game players may like this movie for that it is, that is strange. Just play a video game, don't make up a sorry story about getting trapped in one. I use my cell phone, I hope I don't loose my girlfriend in that. Grease being the worst ever? OK, Grease has a very well thought out story along with being a musical. Even if you don't like musicals, anyone would say Grease is good. My brother plays video games all the time and he watched 30 minutes and left because it was so awful. I feel asleep.

Harvey and Topanga get a Gamecube

[youngcollind · 1/10 · 18 March 2022]

I often find it hard to assign number ratings to "so bad, they're good" movies since even though they're objectively trash, they can still be a lot of fun. However I just couldn't resist scoring this a 1.0.

I have a fondness for 2000's era garbage as it's currently the most recent period to become noticeably campy. I'm sure the 2010's will have their day, but I can't say there's anything particularly funny about them just yet. Gamebox 1.0 hits all the marks of 00s cheese and wraps them around a timelessly silly concept.

Kicking into high gear right out the gate, the nu-metal/industrial score lets you know you're in for a ride. From there, the playlist hits all the stops of dated rap, metal and techno, with everything sounding like a cheap knock off of something else popular at the time.

It's the visual effects that really steal the show though. For the majority of the film we're treated to an overload of bad CGI. In some ways, it can be forgiven, since they're in a game, so it's not supposed to be realistic. However they manage to go so overboard with the various distortions that it just feels like a film student screwing around with Photoshop filters. Plus it includes the absolute loosest interpretation of what could constitute a zombie that's ever been put to film.

The story moves fast and is easy to follow, matching it's goofy action with cornball sensitivity. The icing on the cake is of course the ensemble of random TGIF sitcom stars who you almost pity for getting involved in this straight to video flop. Weirdly, the film goes out of it's way to name drop eXistenZ and Videodrome, just in case you needed a reminder that superior movies with the same premise already existed.

http://trust-the-dice.blogspot.com/

[angelicardour · 7/10 · 25 July 2014]

So, Harvey Kinkel from Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Topanga Lawrence from Boy Meets World meet and fall in love. Sabrina hears about it and casts a spell…. Wait… sorry… that's just how I looked at the movie because of the VERY familiar characters I saw. Relax, I kid – I kid.

Honestly? Rated 1.9 on Netflix and 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, I expect nothing short of bullsh*t from this movie. I severely underestimated it, and I think I know why. Netflix went all sorts of crazy with the labeling of this films genres. This is not, I repeat NOT, a horror movie in anyway-shape-or form. If you are expecting to see a horror, quickly pick up your remote and skip this film. Whatever moron sat through this and said "Oh, hey, this is a horror movie!" was on way too much LSD that day. I hope you had a bad trip douche-bag.

If I were to categorize this movie I would keep the Sci-Fi & Fantasy, trash the rest and add "Indie Film," "Video Game Movie" and "Psychological Thriller"… then find the guy who labeled it a horror and kick him square in the nuts.

Now, as for the movie, don't go into it expecting an A class movie, it's definitely a B movie, but it's done really nicely. A video game tester getting over the death of his girlfriend receives a free virtual reality game in the mail and assumes he's meant to test it. He does and gets locked inside. It's an interesting concept – true it's something I've seen done before – but it was done well in my opinion. The acting was good, not great, but good and the storyline was great. I happen to especially love the ending.

My suggestion? This is one of those movie you need to say "fuck the critics" to, watch and judge for yourself. And for the love of the dice, don't expect it to be a horror.

Why hasn't anyone heard about this?

[wonderbread777 · 9/10 · 3 March 2007]

Gamebox 1.0 has nobody in that you've seen before except Danielle Fishel and no one I know has heard about it except me. I saw a sneak screening in Hollywood with people off the street who also didn't know it existed. All that said, it's the best movie I've seen this year. The lead actor is a guy whose girlfriend got killed by a crooked cop. He's a miserable wreck doing nothing with his life except mope and watch old videos of her. Then he ends up with a video game that somehow sucks you into another world. (I'm not clear on how or why he gets the game. That could have been made clearer.) He ends up meeting his dead ex in the other world and the cop who killed her is now an evil gangster trying to kill him. Everything is clever and well thought out and people were crying at the end. I don't know if it's going into the theaters or coming out in blockbuster but you're getting your money's worth either way.

Just a game?

[maxwellsdemon-2 · 7/10 · 23 January 2008]

I'm a little wary of video game styled movies. Sometimes it works and you get a great show, but others are just horrific. Gamebox 1.0 was the former. The plot was a little predictable, but then again, so are most video games. The characters are a bit 2D, but that's also very typical of video games. The soundtrack was awesome, techy and game-like, just how it should be. There weren't any slow areas in the movie. I loved how when inside the game, the movements were a little jerky. It really contrasted against the real world, and really captured the video game atmosphere. The ending put a smile on my face - poetic justice, anyone? I recommend this for anyone who has a passion for video games. It's a niche area, and the average person would not appreciate the way a game can be brought to life. I've seen quite a few video game/computer based movies, and this is definitely one of the better titles.

Sepia town

[Cemetarygirl · 6/10 · 28 April 2007]

Can't believe the other critics didn't recognise Sabrinas boyfriend. This is another movie about video games. Did X-Box have a share in this or did everyone get a free one? The opening sequence is a guy seemingly having an epileptic fit in his sleep whilst playing this game in his dreams. Dies in game dies for real. So that is the premise. The movie is about a guy who works as a video game checker finding faults and bloopers in video games. Good job. He then gets sent a game through the post. Why maybe because the game seeks out the vulnerable of this world. But then why get too deep. Its only a game. Or is it? Nate (real name) decides to play the game a la Existenz and the lines get extremely blurred as he can not awaken from this game and when he does, by his friends waking him etc he is still having psychotic flashes. So the lines are truly sullied. The characters in his game are made up of his friends, his dead girlfriend and the crocked cop who shot her as the bad dude. He starts off playing one game and then enters the others through windows holes in the ground etc. The game he begins is as a spy and at first it is fun shooting people, who just happen to look like his friends, and driving fast cars and bikes, with no lights or speed limits to worry about. When he meets the girl character that resembles his girlfriend things get interesting, difficult and a little scary for him. In the real world he again confronts the crocked cop,who, not satisfied with killing his one true love, puts Nate in a coma where the game continues. The thing about this film is it appears in mostly sepia format and that can make it a little hard to get used to, but you warm to it and I ended up enjoying it. Slow to start but develops quite well and the writing is not too corny. The ending, Well I wont tell.

Won't appeal to everyone, but not to be written off

[invisiblekaz · 8/10 · 8 April 2009]

People come into movies with expectations. If you're expecting a thought-provoking drama, you won't be happy if the movie's a hokey musical. My advice? Don't go into a movie expecting the exact same thing you've always seen. I don't know what the budget was for Gamebox 1.0, but from what I can tell it certainly wasn't a "major motion picture." That being said, I think this was a lot more entertaining than people are giving it credit for. Starting off it was a little rickety. I didn't know what to make of the protagonist, but as the story went on and they developed his character it was a fun story to follow. I think the reason this movie won't appeal to everyone is the fact that it is what it promises. If you've ever played a relatively recent RPG or shooter, the game-scenes in the movie are like actual video game cut-scenes. It's an interesting idea -- not necessarily completely original, but certainly well executed. It was a journey for the main character and a way for him to grow, and the story only got more entertaining as it went along. I thought the ending was good. Each aspect of the film fit in neatly to make it so. People were probably put off by the simplicity or the unrealistic nature, but it comes back to going in with the right expectations. You don't play a video game to explore moral ambiguity or some deep, profound ideal. Don't go into a film that's supposed to be modeled after a video game expecting something like that.

I gotta say ... i liked this movie

[chris_severn · 7/10 · 13 May 2009]

I queued this move on Hulu.com. When i started to watch is I said to myself "ahh... just gonna relax and vegg out while this movie plays in the background". I started to watch and I was really taken in by it.

I enjoyed the storyline and the video game sequences were really cool. Granted they didn't look "REAL" but I don't think that was the point. The video game sequences looked like a video game.

It was a great script considering, and I really enjoyed watching this film. I would suggest anyone who like a good story and interesting plot as opposed to over the top special effects.

I would recommend renting this movie or at the very least ... watch in on Hulu.

Pretty good

[jstarone67 · 10/10 · 7 March 2007]

Gamebox has a lot of things in common with Brainscan and Stay Alive, both of which came before it and were probably in the same budget arena. I don't know what Ed Furlong made back then but it couldn't have been much and Frankie Muniz is the only guy in Stay Alive who made any money. I think Brainscan is one of the best of its kind and I'd add Gamebox to the Brainscan end of the spectrum. Charlie's such a mess in the beginning you can't help rooting for him to at least start interacting with humans again. When he gets sucked into the game you figure he's gonna crawl into a hole and die but he turns out to be the perfect guy for the job. Once he's in the game world full time the movie really starts to move. My only problem with it is it could have made more of his relationship with his girlfriend in the beginning. Maybe more flashbacks or something so we see what she's like compared to PRincess. They show her in an old video but she doesn't say anything.

It was way better than I expected

[bdockery-53-478540 · 9/10 · 13 May 2011]

I threw this movie on, from netflix instant, and I expected it to be junk. It was a lot better than I ever expected. It was exciting, different, and definitely interesting. I loved it, I would recommend it, and honestly I might even watch it again. I'm not sure if it went in theaters but if it didn't, I do not understand why not. I never heard of it before, and I found that weird because it was a really good movie. The actors weren't extremely famous, but I actually did know most of them from a few older shows (Boy meets world, Sabrina the Teenage Witch). For being made it '04 the graphics were pretty damn good. Overall: thumbs up, 9 stars, recommend. Watch it, you won't regret it.

All in all a good movie

[Extrmeben · 8/10 · 15 August 2007]

I for one liked this movie, I thought it was a pretty original movie and thought that it could have been a lot worse. I enjoyed seeing familiar faces in this movie too such as Nate Richer- who we know as Harvey from Sabrina the teenage witch, there's also Danielle Fishel who played Topanga on boy meets world and also Patrick Renna who played Hamilton in the sandlot love this movie cause it's funny and entertaining. I know there are people who don't like this movie and others get really upset that this movie was made, but it's just like any other movie that some people don't like, it's defiantly not the worst movie ever made, I be live the worst movie ever made would have to be Grease. I recommend this movie to video game lovers. cause maybe only they can really appreciate this great movie

Hey This Isn't Too Bad!

[bkearns01 · 8/10 · 10 April 2011]

OK So I watched this on NETFLIX and didn't expect to get more than 10 minutes into it before shutting it down, but I immediately related to the lead character. This film obviously had no budget but still it grabbed me and I couldn't turn away from it. The storyline was really quite good and kept moving. I would LOVE to see GAMEBOX 2.0 with something like a $30,000,000.00 budget. Some great CGI ala Avatar. Some of todays video game effects and of course some SEX and EXPLOSIONS! Wow, this could easily become the new franchise line of films done correctly, right up to GAMEBOX 13.0. Seriously, SAW has grown old, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Freddy are done and in remakes. I really wish some exec with a ton of cash sees the promise of this film.

Truly One Of The Movies Ever

[teambuildcharles · 10/10 · 2 January 2023]

The Game Box 1.0 was a trailblazing 2004 movie about what happens when video gaming is taken to far. The Game Box gives us a look into the mind of a common Call Of Duty player as he controls his prisoner forced into being a video character. Brilliance is too low a word to describe this masterwork! The Game Box 1.0 will go done certainly as one of the movies ever. Everyday this movie informs my life and my decisions in terms of dealing with the vice that is video game enjoyment. This film will go down along with The Godfather, The Sound of Music, and The Master of Disguise as one of the few films that has a timeless appeal.