Arcade (1993)

I love this movie so much

How sad is this?

Expected more

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Story Synopsis: A company specialising in Virtual Reality games holds a demonstration of their latest game "Arcade" in an arcade parlour. They give out home versions of the game to a group of high school students. But the game, which has had its AI designed using the brain cells of a dead child, comes to life, taking the souls of anyone who plays it & loses. Alex Manning, one of the students given the game (& who is still recovering following the suicide of her mother) discovers the game's secret. She tries to stop her friends from playing the game but fails. Along with a friend who is a fearsome game player, she enters the VR world & tries to defeat the AI & rescue her friends.Film Analysis: When the pretty-to-look-at but totally brainless VR thriller The Lawnmower Man came out in the early 1990s, it spawned a whole slew of films that used VR as a plot device. Arcade, a cheap entry in producer Charles Band's Full Moon stables, is one of the lesser ones, even by the standards of the subgenre.With the exception of the Lawnmower Man films, just about every one of the VR films that came out during the 1990s used VR as either simply a hook to hang a thriller plot onto or to showcase killer AI systems. Arcade, written by future genre legend David S. Goyer & directed by cult genre director Albert Pyun, is a member of the latter category.The film is, by most standards, a fairly brainless sci-fi flick that has dated somewhat badly since the demise of the VR market. The critics have slammed the film, citing cheap effects & a stupid plot that recycles certain horror film elements. Personally I had not too much a problem watching the film. Sure the effects look quite cheap but judging from what I've seen from films made during that era, the effects don't look too bad. As for the story, Arcade takes a few cues from the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films, with an AI that acts a lot like a high-tech Freddy Krueger (brought to life by Jonathan Fuller's spirited voice over work) & even having a dramatic but brainless scene where star Megan Ward has to confront her dead mother in order to defeat the game.Arcade is not the sort of film you would expect from a director whose bread & butter features revolve around kickboxing, future locales & killer robots (or all three at once), but Pyun manages to keep the story moving along with almost no problems in the narrative department. The only problem with the story is a lack of consistency – the game's structure is quite simple, too simple in fact – plus the mysterious disappearance of a couple of levels.The acting is okay, with Megan Ward (who came to the genre's attention after her performance in the zombie flick TRANCERS II) playing a vulnerable teenager quite well. Making an early bit part is Seth Green as well as long time Pyun associate Norbert Weisser as a zoned-out computer programmer.

The newest video game sensation is "Arcade", a virtual reality game that one must win....or lose your mind and forever be part of the game. Alex (Megan Ward) and her friends try the game, but Alex's boyfriend loses and disappears. One of Alex's friends tries a home version of the game and disappears before her eyes. Determined to get their friends back, Alex and her friend Nick (Peter Billingsley) take on the mind-reading Arcade! While the plot may be familiar to anyone who's seen TRON, this is a decent low-budget sci-fi film. Many of the actors are now familiar faces: Seth Green, A.J. Langer and John DeLancie among them. Although director Albert Pyun usually directs low-budget boredom (DOLLMAN, CYBORG, etc.), this movie actually has a good story and some pretty good actors. The pace is somewhat slow, and the CGI F/X won't impress today's kids accustomed to video game-like movies with endless amounts of special effects, explosions and loud music, but fans of movies that actually have a plot and characterization will find it entertaining. I'd place this with Pyun's better movies such as RADIOACTIVE DREAMS and THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER.Charles Band, the film's producer and CEO of Full Moon Pictures, held this movie's release back for a year in order to redo the CGI F/X. For those curious to what they originally looked like, watch the 10 minute "Videozone" featurette included on the DVD. I think it was a wise move, and the movie benefits greatly because of it. The only complaint I really have is that the DVD didn't include the full "Videozone" segment, which included this film's trailer. (This DVD was part of a import boxed set of region-free DVDs.)

Arcade (1993) was another in the long line of mediocre movies the Albert Pyun has made during the nineties. Grant, a few of them are pretty good but for the most part, Mr. Pyun is an average director at best who cranks out low budget mundane films. Why does he direct so many blah films? Who knows, at least he gets paid for what he does. This movie makes virtual reality look lame and pretty much a far out pipe dream. If you ever wanted to know what happened to Peter Billingsly (A Christmas Story) then you'll want to watch this movie. He's finally grown up. Keep an eye out for Seth Green as well. Recommended for bad movie fans.The nineties were the beginning of major players appearing in straight-to-video movies. Stars who have fallen from the realm of "Who Cares" have found a new home. They're making bad d.t.v. films or appearing on Hollywood Squares or hosting a paid programming advert hawking either useless products or worthless real estate. The beginning of a new video market , the movie theaters were becoming less and less relevant.

Cheesy fun with pretty bad "virtual reality" effects and a very dumb ending. Like some other Albert Pyun films of that period (especially the "Nemesis" sequels"), this is short enough and unpretentious enough to be bearable...and that's all. Megan Ward's rather appealing performance is a notch above the rest. (*1/2)