Customer Reviews

The Thirteenth Floor [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1999, `The Thirteenth Floor' was a film with an interesting concept but since it came out after `The Matrix', the film kind of wasn't all that popular in the US. But if there was one thing that `The Thirteenth Floor' would be known for during the beginning of the DVD era and most likely now with its Blu-ray release is the fantastic audio. For audiophiles looking for a film that is up there there in quality HD sound, `The Thirteenth Floor' sounds absolute beautiful in Dolby TrueHD!

"THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is a film based on Daniel Galouye's book "Simulacron 3' and directed by German director Josef Rusnak and produced by Roland Emmerich (Director and Producer of "Independence Day", "The Patriot", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "10,000 BC").

The film takes place in the late 1990's and starts off with Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl), an owner of a multi-billion dollar tech company known for it's work in virtual reality simulation. As he quickly visits the bar and gives an urgent letter to the bar keeper Jerry Ashton (Vincent D'Oforio), Hannon visits a local bar and meets up with someone he knows but is stabbed to death.

The film then shifts to his good friend and protege Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) who is contacted by the authorities specifically by LAPD Detective Larry McBain (Dennis Haysbert) for questioning in regards to Fuller's death. While both Hall and McBain visit Hannon's suite, they run into a woman who says that she is his daughter Jane (Gretchen Mol) and just came to town to visit her father.

As for Hall, he is shocked that his boss and good friend is dead but he feels that perhaps Fuller may have left him a clue in the virtual reality world that Fuller has been downloading into.

The concept of virtual reality with Fuller's technology is that a person has the ability to download themselves into a player and thus acting them out in almost a real-like world. For Douglas, he downloads himself into John Ferguson during the 1920's where he sees a version of Fuller and also meets up with the barkeeper (who has the urgent message written by Fuller and has read it). He tries to visit the online world and the first time he gets into that virtual world, he is shocked by how real it is. But what Ferguson doesn't know is that the barkeeper has seen Hall/Ferguson switch bodies and thus causing implications in the virtual world.

Things get out-of-hand during the second visit in which Ferguson meets up with Fuller to discuss this urgent letter that he wrote to him. Ferguson meets up with the barkeeper to find out why he has taken the letter meant for him and the barkeeper tells him that the letter contained information about the End of the World. In other words, driving to a location and finding out that the world that they (the characters in the virtual world) live in, is not real.

With someone from the virtual world now knowing the truth that their existence is not real, he shoots Ferguson to see if he will die. Fortunately, for Hall, he returns to his reality.

Meanwhile, Detective McBain and the authorities have a received an eyewitness report that Douglass Hall was responsible for the murder of Fuller and thus arrest him but release him out on bail when they have no real evidence against him. When McBain tells him that Fuller's daughter is not who she thinks that he is, Hall becomes even more confused.

That is until he drives to "The End of the World" and realizes that all this time, the world he lives in is a virtual world and he is a virtual character. Shocked by this development, Douglass tries to find out the truth of what is real and what is not real and who may have killed Fuller in his world. The person who may have the answer is the woman pretending to be Fuller's daughter. Thus Douglas begins his search for her.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is presented in 1080p High Definition with an aspect ration of 2:40:1. In some scenes, the picture quality looks good but for some other scenes, it looks aged. So, picture quality is a bit uneven at times. The film tends to use a lot of darker colors. A lot of blacks and if there is one thing that makes the film look cool is the actual use of city lights, the city look and just its use of darkness. The setup for the virtual world is OK despite it being ten years since the film came out. There are some technology featured on the film that shouts "1990's" but overall, the way the film goes from present time, to the past and then to the future, I liked that aspect. Granted, comparing it to "THE MATRIX" which came out a few months prior, unfortunately budget wise, the film didn't have the same quality or high technology type of feel.

If there was one thing going for the film, it was its use of audio. I remember during the initial home theater discussions for DVD's, "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" was among the top DVD's around 2001-2002 that were looked at as "reference" DVD's to show off one's home theater system because of the awesome audio. I remember testing the audio in my older receiver and just to hear the glass shatter, the virtual reality beams making its' noise to gun shots. The film's audio quality was just awesome.

So, needless to say, I had high expectations for the Dolby TrueHD audio for this film and sure enough, it didn't disappoint. The film came out loud and clear and I felt the sound all around me. The glass shattering and the virtual reality beams just sounded enormously sweet and overall, if I had it any louder, I think I could busted my eardrum. Now granted, with newer films that scream of gorgeous sound like "Quantum of Solace" and "Transformers", for an older film, "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is just audio goodness and despite being ten years old, the film is just amazing to listen to. Its definitely a disc worth picking up to showcase Dolby TrueHD sound.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" unfortunately does not come with as many special features as its original DVD release. Included on the Blu-ray are:

* Commentary with Director Josef Rusnak and Production Designer Kirk M. Petruccelli - The commentary track features Josef Rusnak but if anything, with the film utilizing so much production design, it was a good choice by Rusnak to include Kirk M. Petruccelli to discuss a lot of the work he had to do for the film. If there was anything that I found quite intriguing in the commentary was Rusnak's comment about the end. He filmed so many different endings and even 'till now, he is not sure if he chose the correct ending.
* Music Video of "Erase/Rewind" by the Cardigans - An older music video by the Cardigans.
* Previews: Film trailers

The original DVD had a few more special features such as the audio test utilizing the film "Godzilla" which Emmerich did direct, production notes, conceptual art gallery and special effects gallery. Not quite sure why they eliminated those.

The Blu-ray is also BD-Live enabled.

JUDGMENT CALL:

Personally, I actually enjoyed "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR". It was an interesting concept about virtual reality worlds and what if those virtual reality worlds created other virtual reality worlds and thus, I'm sure it can get quite confusing. Especially if one is able to freely travel to different eras.

But part of the problem with "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is that with a $16 million budget, there is only so much you can do. And with a film like "THE MATRIX" coming out a few months before "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" back in 1999, they have their similarities but special effects-wise, "THE MATRIX" was just a significant film, while the "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" didn't have any super star power behind it and didn't do well in the box office.

But I watched the film several times over the years and there's something about the film that has that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" holodeck vibe, the adventure of visiting other worlds in different eras and combining the sci-fi time travel, suspense and in the end, "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is a thrilling story. I felt that Craig Bierko and Gretchen Mol did a fine job with portraying multiple characters and their mannerisms. But It's just that with a small budget, there is only so much you can do in terms of special effects.

But despite its shortcomings, "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR" is one of those films that is worth giving a chance and who knows, you may enjoy it. I certainly did. And as for the audiophiles, this film will definitely be a pleasuring auditory experience.

[Non-spoiler comments]
I've seen this film a few times, mainly because I like wrapping my mind around multiple-world concepts. While 13th Floor doesn't reach the cinematic or conceptual heights and depths of Blade Runner and other true classics of the genre, it's certainly worth seeing. The performances are good if mostly not great, though the script is quite solid, and while the few effects are kind of hokey, both 1937 L.A. and the details in the modern world are very nicely designed and make the film worth seeing a few times.

It's hard not to compare this with The Matrix, as the basic concept is quite similar, and the feel is clearly 1999, though TM is truly superior in almost every way. 13th wisely avoids going for the full-on effects, and its small budget forces it to use the philosophical pretexts well. Bierko and Mol and Stahl are acceptable, but Stahl and especially the redoubtable D'Onofrio add considerably more brio to their roles. Vincent has taken many a decent film and notched it up with his unique charisma, and this is no exception.

I do think that if D'Onofrio and Bierko had reversed roles here, it would be a far better film. Bierko just doesn't have the dramatic depth. Stahl outmatches him in every scene, but when Stahl and D'Ono get together here, those brief scenes steal the film, dramatically.

And Dennis Haysbert should give back his acting fees for every film he's ever made now that he's the Allstate guy! I can't see him or hear his voice in anything without immediately thinking of insurance sleaziness, which is great for them but miserable for all the films he's in. I know that seems like a joke, but I swear he really pulls me out of this movie whenever he shows up. And, frankly, it's no wonder he became a pitchman, as he's no great actor. He overplays this role and should have watched Ford in Blade Runner to see how to make laconic say so much more than snidely menacing.

The blu-ray transfer is mostly crisp, but certain scenes suffer from a lower transfer quality than others, which can be momentarily distracting. There are actually less extras than the dvd, which is pointless and a bit of a rip-off at double the price. Unless you worship this movie, I'd say go for the dvd. The transfer is good but not world-class; the Matrix blu-ray blows this out of the water.

[Spoiler thoughts]
One of the weakest moments here for me is when they reach the end of their world and it looks like an outtake from Tron. Come on, is that really the best that could be done? Half-done green-line renderings of distant mountains? The programmers would simply program nothing there, not a tracery in LED lines. Better to simply show an edge-of-nothingness scenario. It jars me out of the well-made world of the film into realizing this is an occasionally hokey sci-fi film.

Ditto with the Pink Floyd laser spray when they enter the Other World. Come on! It's pointless and distracting and makes the clean jack-in of The Matrix seem pure and elegant by comparison. Which is a drag, as the set design of 13th Floor is otherwise so well done, with many tiny details that add much to the feel.

Galouye's Simulacron-3 novel inspired this story, and I also think the writers here missed the mark by not using more of his ideas. He explored the philosophical implications of the triple-world idea to greater effect than this did, and seeing as that's the key to the whole premise, it deserves more weight. There are SO many possibilities with that concept, and they're barely scratched here in favor of the rather weak love story. To my mind that's the single greatest flaw in 13th Floor: it has so many deeper moments waiting in those other potential realities and it just lets them slide on by.

One thing I do like is how we're shown but never told that when you die in your double, his consciousness replaces yours in your world. It's a fine double-jeopardy idea that works even better for us having to notice it ourselves. But it does set up a really cheesy Hollywood ending that distracts from the weight of the ideas here. What about getting stuck in the third world? So many maybes disposed of in favor of a weak wrap-it-up-neatly denouement.

Anyhow, just one sci-fi fan's opinion. But what do I know; I'd like to see almost every Philip K. Dick story set to film, so I tend to want to see the ideas more than the drama in these movies. 13th Floor offers more melodrama than conceptual brilliance, but it's certainly worth seeing and is holding up well as the years go by.

Traveling through computer generated simulations, the characters of The Thirteenth Floor bring together an intelligent film that is sure to please. Similar to Dark City (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray], The Thirteenth Floor is strong on production value and doesn't seem terribly dated, even though ten years have passed since its release. Strong acting and a multi-layered plot lend itself to this thinking man's science-fiction piece that is not composed of aliens and spaceships. Give it a try. It will certainly be a film you will want to view more than once.

Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has a secret and knows that he will be killed for it. Therefore, he leaves a message or his friend and college, Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko.) Soon Fuller is found dead. Naturally, his college is suspected. Douglas must find the message before he is incarcerated.

So far, this seems standard formula. That is where the formula ends. Douglas must go into a computer simulation to retrieve the message, not so easily done. The simulation takes part in the 30's.

Meantime back in the real world Fuller's daughter shows up to everyone surprise, as no one knew he had a daughter. How will she figure in the mystery?

For people that grew up in L.A. you may recognize some of the locations such as the RMS Queen Mary. Before they told where the oil wells were supposed to be, I was guessing Signal Hill.

Be sure to watch the voice over commentary as it gives more insight as to what they are trying to express.

Only seeing the presentation in Blu-ray I could not contrast it to the original presentation however all the pictures and locations look real and do not lose any definition with 1080p or 46" screen.

If you enjoy the intricacies of this story, you will like to read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.


Sophie's World

I'm a big sci-fi movie fan, and this is one of the best movies I've seen. You can't really provide too much details of the movie without giving it away, but the story and the performance of the actors made you curious and interested in how the movie turns out. Its not comparable to other sci-fi films in terms of special effects or star power, but actors did a great job and the effects were appropriate for this film. I guess this is really a thriller/sci fi. I highly recommend this movie.

This movie is great. When I found out it was available on bluray I ordered it immediately and I couldn't be happier. If you like scifi this is a good story with a good surprise ending. I would highly recomend it.

If you are longing for something that is NOT a Vampire or Werewolf and maybe NOT blowing something up in outer space, BUT STILL would like an edgy Sci-Fi drama....you may have found the right place to enjoy one.
Originally, this was released on DVD and like other similar movies, like Dark City, received mediocre reviews at best. It also shares the same issues of "What would you classify it as just not only being one type but adding a mystery and love interest twist to it as many do now that Sci-Fi has changed over the years to keep our interest.
The Screen play was very well done as it is easy to follow this story line. Sometimes there are little visual points in the show that they go to and you get into a rhythm of where they might be lurking to be picked up..very interesting as well as a high entertainment factor. For instance, a scene changes from what you would think is the present time, like 2010, to a period in the late 1920s and the production company really makes you believe it could actually happen the way the story is being shown. The details are flawless and later in the special feature, they explain how they added soft CGI to get the effects that, to Me, DID Nail this completely together...a great job!
The Video and Audio did gain good improvements color correction and effects; sound stage and placement was well refined and detailed in the loss less domain. good transfer over the DVD and well worth the cost even if you already own the DVD to purchase the Blu-ray.
As with many that have got into this offering, they all tell me they must see it more than once and wonder how these get under the radar types keep coming out for our enjoyment. If you like Dark City, you may like this one too (A little less fantasy)
So please don't pass this bargain up unless you're only looking at Missile Command for substance.

I bought this sleeper on VHS years ago and was mesmerized by it. Replacing VHS with digital, this was on the list to replace. Viewing it again in Blu-Ray, I was amazed at the quality, considering the age of the original. And as before, the story was gripping, beginning to end.

I originaly saw this movie on TV; so much one of my favorites. After I began collecting DVDs, I spent several years trying to find it. I came up with some interesting movies. Most people thought I was referring to "The Matrix." The problem was I could not remember the title. When I found that the movie came from a novel, I, of course, read it; "Simulacron 3." I love the premise. There is a short TV series of this story around someplace. I'd sure love to get my hands on it. Anyone know where I can find the series? GEM

Slow, dull, and dark with a poor sound track. No chemistry betweem the leads. Special effects are rudimentary: at best.