Verdict
Summary
From Full Moon and genre favorite filmmaker Albert Pyun, as well as future Blade and Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer, Arcade is very much in the vein of Tron, Nightmares, and Labyrinth done on a much lower scale with now-archaic looking digital effects. It’s absurd and ridiculous beyond belief, but it has a remarkably edgy tone, dealing with issues of suicide, depression, and addiction to video games, which is interesting seen in today’s light.
Plot:
A new virtual reality arcade game that hits the market turns into a deadly game of life and death.
Review:
Hitting the test market is a brand new, cutting edge virtual reality arcade game called “Arcade” that promises to push the limits of reality … and life and death for anyone who dares play it. Making its debut at a trendy underground gaming dungeon where all the cool kids hang out, the developers of the game offer free play for the bulky arcade system (which involves wearing a heavy set of goggles), and then if anyone wants to take a portable version home, they’re given the expensive system along with a questionnaire to answer and return to the game makers after the weekend. A group of good looking teenagers – played by Megan Ward (Encino Man), Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story), Seth Green (Idle Hands), and A.J. Langer (Escape From L.A.) – give the game a whirl, and when Alex (Ward) takes a set home, she enters the deadly virtual world of Arcade, a chilling digital hellzone where an overlord rules the landscape and dares players to try a half a dozen levels of one labyrinth after another. When several of her friends succumb to the maze and become mind-controlled slaves of the game, Alex and her teammate (Billingsley) have to get clever to beat the Arcade at its own game.
From Full Moon and genre favorite filmmaker Albert Pyun, as well as future Blade and Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer, Arcade is very much in the vein of Tron, Nightmares, and Labyrinth done on a much lower scale with now-archaic looking digital effects. It’s absurd and ridiculous beyond belief, but it has a remarkably edgy tone, dealing with issues of suicide, depression, and addiction to video games, which is interesting seen in today’s light. Pyun’s stylish sense of lighting and direction has always been underrated, and while Arcade is a little out of his purview as a creator, his ambition for the project was probably too big for him to chew on such a small scale. He filmed this and Dollman for Full Moon simultaneously, and indeed you can see some locations from the other film during a sequence here. I prefer Dollman, but Arcade is probably the more accessible film of the two movies.
Full Moon has just released Arcade on Blu-ray, and while the transfer is sharp and clear (more than it ever has been), the film is presented in a full frame (1:33:1) ratio, which is disappointing since Pyun shot the film in widescreen. Oh, well. The disc comes with an audio commentary with producer Charles Band and Megan Ward, a making-of feature, interviews, and bonus trailers.
