Search - Game Box 1.0 (Widescreen) on DVD

Awesome concept somewhat hampered by low budget...

Brett Heitkam | Lena, IL United States | 05/07/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gamebox 1.0 (originally titled Game Over) is NOT a horror movie as the cover art implies. It is actually a very family friendly PG-13 sci-fi/action adventure movie involving a guy who gets sucked into a virtual reality video game where if he dies in the game, he dies in real life.

This movie was made with a $200,000 budget, which is pretty impressive considering what the final product ended up looking like. The first half of the movie, in which our hero is in a Grand Theft Auto-esque virtual world, looks wonderful. The computer generated background is rich in detail and full of eye candy. Once the movie shifts gears, and the characters end up in the next two games (ZombieLand and Alien Planet), the special effects are much less impressive, which was a bit disappointing. It would be great if they would remake this movie with a "movie theater quality" budget!

With that being said, the movie goes by very quickly and holds your interest. The story is fascinating, and, unlike a lot of movies I have seen recently, the ending is actually very good and extremely satisfying. This is a great movie for tweenage boys (8-12), especially ones that are into video games. There is very little swearing, and all the violence is very toned down, such as when someone gets shot in the video game, there is just like a small smoking hole in their shirt and no blood. I'm pretty picky about what our 10 and 11 year olds watch, but after screening this, I had no qualms about letting them see it; I knew it would be right up their alley, and they did love it!

If this sounds like something you would be remotely interested in, check it out. Oh, and if you want to see how they did the special effects, check out some of the behind the scenes footage in the special features. It's actually pretty cool! Highly recommended!"

Friday Night Line Up

Lee Minnesota | 02/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I found the special features on this movie to be very interesting. It shows how the movie was created mostly on green screen. It also explains how they created a look to the movie that was mixed between film and video game. All this was done on a very low budget. That's great! Also, I believe it is great for the younger audience as well. The two main characters are from the old ABC Friday Nite Line Up. Nate Richert was Harvey on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Danielle Fishel was Topenga on Boy Meets World. These two actors together make for a very entertaining family movie. No guts, no gore......... just interesting concepts in movie creation. Don't miss the special features section on the video."

Silent hill meets power rangers/vr troopers

Milo Tupy | St. Paul, MN USA | 04/21/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"crappy B movie that has no entertaiment value....nothing cool about this movie at all, the only 2 reasons why I didn't turn it off was 1. because I spent 4.25 at blockbuster to rent it (which by the way, is almost to buying price on amazon) and 2 it has topenga (Danielle Fishel) from boy meets world in it and I had a smidgen of hope that she would take her clothes off. Keep on dreaming, because they could even do that for this film. It's in your best interest to pretend like you've never hear of this movie and go on with your live!"

Way to many bugs wait for 9.0

InterMillan | California | 05/17/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As your walking down the video aisle Game Box 1.0 might catch the casual eye of the horror/sci-fi fan with its slick cover and catchy phrases like, "The only way out is to win," "None stop sci-fi thriller," and some international award for best screenplay and visual effects (Same geniusness that probably gave Gigli the best picture in 2004). Nonetheless, your curiosity gets the best of you and you rent the movie.

Then you realize the best thing about this movie was its cover, and the voice of the video game that sounds like HAL from 2001 A Space Odyssey. Besides that this movie was worse than a left over Chinese food sitting in your fridge for over 3 months. Just because its a low budget movie doesn't excuse it from being bad. There are plenty of low budget horror/sci-fi movies that are ebullient, but 1.0 fails in all aspect, no direction, no character development, and above all NO PLOT! The movie is pretty much about a nerd who gets a mysterious video game and is SOME HOW transported in to a virtual reality game, which has worse graphics then a regular NES (Put it this way TRON made in 1982 has better graphics). But you're never told who develops the video game, why, the purpose, and why it's sent to Charlie Nash (the main character). The #56 of things that didn't make sense about this movie (it's too difficult to list 1-100) was that if the game is sent to each person by the previous individual player, like the way Charlie did too Ronald Hobbes/Ao Shun in the end, than how did Charlie Nash receive the console if the previous player was dead????? Because according to the video game (yes it speaks) all previous players are dead? I guess we can only assume that the video game has limbs and is able to wrap and stamp it self up and make it in the back of the USPS truck. #42 Why does it want to kill people? Is it pissed off that X-BOX has better graphics??? Are you confused yet??? My gosh, make it cheesy, but please don't make it this stupid....

I disagree with the previous reviewer that this movie is for kids. The only part where Patrick Kilpatrick (Ronald Hobbes/Ao Shun) is not moaning like a Neanderthal is when he offers Nash a stash of drugs. Even if its really cheesy, plenty guns, pistols to semi-automatics, chopping off hands, and killings makes it difficult to recommend to any one under 13.

IN THE END There are too many "bugs" in this movie. It won't appeal to any gamers, sci-fi, or horror fans. There is a reason why this movie was made in 2004 and is now being released on to DVD in 2007. It's because it's bad! I've seen better cheesy movies on the SCI-FI channel that are 10x more entertaining, and after 3 years if SCI-FI channel ain't showing it than you know it must be bad........"