The Thirteenth Floor

Starring: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, & Vincent D'Onofrio

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Thirteenth Floor was Columbia Pictures answer to the Matrix and is based on the award winning 1964 Sci-Fi novel, Simulacron 3 by Daniel Galouye. I have known about this movie for a long time, but was always hesitant to see it, because when something like this appears in theaters 6 months after a groundbreaking film like the Matrix, you fully expect it to be a complete rip off. I was sitting at home flipping through the channels and saw the Matrix on, but I didn't wanna see it for the millionth time and decided to see if the Thirteenth Floor was streaming and sure it enough it was, and what a terrific story it turned out to be! In the year 2000, scientists have found a way to transfer a persons consciousness into a fully interactive computer program which has the potential to replace video games. The creator however has discovered a major problem with the system and is found dead. The second in charge of the project soon learns the answer to this brutal murder appears in the simulator, which is a replica of 1937. The story is absolutely ingenious and I loved how the film jumps between present day and the 1930s, it was like watching two stories at once that you knew would eventually come together. Craig Bierko stars in what turns out to be one of his few leading roles and he's just terrific. I remember him as the bad guy in the Long Kiss Goodnight and I thought he was great then, and he's great now. To make the cast even stronger, they take the intense Bierko and pair him with Law & Order's Vincent D'Onofrio, who is quite possibly the most intense actor in Hollywood. To top the whole thing off, this movie has a huge twist in the end, a twist that will make a lot of people wonder about the true nature of their own reality. The Thirteenth Floor is a fresh story with an amazing cast that will make you think, movies like this don't come along as often as they should!

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