The Belko Experiment

The most original script since Hunger Games stole Battle Royale's story based off Jean-Claude Van Damme's Hard Target based off of Schwarzenegger's Predator based off 1961's Bloodlust! based off 1956's Run for the Sun based off of 1945's Game of Death based off of 1932's The Most Dangerous Game based off the 1924 novel The Hounds of Zaroff, based off HUMAN HISTORY.

If they inject a tracking device into your skull 99.99% of the time that tracking device is a bomb. "But the benefit package has dental !!!"

The ending ruins almost all the enjoyment that was had earlier, as it becomes clear that this exercise in violence (fun as it could be) was going nowhere.

The script has the kind of high-concept, one-sentence premise that sells itself and Gunn's structure manages to elicit plenty of escalating tension & entertaining variations on multiple confrontations out of what - in lesser hands - might have easily felt tiresomely one-note. The problem is that the film fails to explain its fantastic premise in any satisfactory way. Gunn shrewdly tries to shy away from this flaw by adding an even more impossible twist, but the end doesn't live up to the rest.

I've seen way too many of these Zimbardo-infused Battle Royale knockoffs, and they're all detestable. With Greg McLean directing, at least Belko is grittier than most; but that doesn't quite rescue it from its humdrum predictability and pretentious while asinine allegorical subtext. For God's sake, won't horror directors please just stop remaking this same movie over and over again?

Well thought out and it has a good plot

Good pacing, superficial characters & a tight run time. It's really an exercise in hyper gore with not much justification, not even the low hanging fruit of the corporate ladder allegory, just a faceless something tacked on in the end.

Battle Royal meets The Office...Why didn't I think of that? With at least some original kills or a few interesting characters this could have worked, but since both are missing, its very forgettable.

A visual representation of how it feels to work for a corporation.

I think the film itself is an experiment on making a schlocky James Gunn script into a completely straight-forward and dull movie.

I was left somewhat confused as The Belko Experiment has not nearly enough comedy to be an enjoyable dark comedy nor does it strive to say anything resembling satire. So to take it just as a unique take on the kill-or-be-killed trope it is just fine. The practical gore effects are a nice touch.

There's a fundamental disconnect between the script and the director. The tone is all wrong for this material. If Gunn directed this himself it might be more fun as it seems the ideal tone was clearly meant to be closer to Slither than Wolf Creek

Another "people stuck in a place and have to either solve puzzles or be the last one standing in order to escape" I gravitate to these types of films because in my head, I have the perfect version, which has yet to be filmed. This doesn't do anything new (including the ending) and is mostly a time waster. Do yourself a favor and watch "Cube" or "The Killing Room" instead.

The Belko Experiment certainly holds a lot of potential with its premise, and that will definitely get people to watch, but that's all that's there. Belko doesn't do anything that original, it quickly reverts to just another slasher film. The character are quickly diverged to one of two types of people and nothing sets them apart from each other, giving no arch to the characters. Combined with a disappointing ending, Belko doesn't set itself apart from other properties like it.

When you factor in the recent tiresome run of Battle Royale inspired American films, there is a case to be made for "The Belko Experiment" being the most pointless movie ever made. No fun characters, no fun kills, no payoff, no twists, no development - this is a nothing movie.

okay movie

Is anything being said here new, provocative, or even particularly well said? No. Is it at least funny and quirky with its concept? At times, though very few and far between. It's not only exactly what you think it'd be, but even less so than that.Trust me, this isn't anything you need to "experiment" with.

Das Kapital: The Horror Movie

Embarrassing from beginning to end. A smug and self-satisfied piece of crap.

This film needed a better ending and it could have used more interesting characters. Better characters would have made things more exciting. Overall this movie is disappointing.

Plot 12/20 Fiction 8/20 Casting/Acting 5/20 Worldbuilding 7/20 Entertainment 8/20

21.01.2022 Kartal

This one was a lot of fun. Anyone that has spent time in an office setting can probably relate to this, at least a little.

Fun movie, bit silly, at least it has an interesting ending unlike most movies in the genre so there's that. The corporate twist is amusing, it's not a bad watch really.

61.4.

There's been a lot of these types of films over the last few years some better than others. This one fell right in the middle. The story is basic, minimal and yet still very cliched. The gore is okay, the characterizations are pretty bad and the acting doesn't help. The acting isn't bad but its not good enough to rise this film above mediocrity. The best part of the film is locating all the b-list and character actors and trying to remember where you know them from.

I really dislike this film, and I can't help thinking part of the blame lies in a complete disconnect between screenwriter and director. The screenwriter is James Gunn, all of whose work displays dark humour, and this film is completely humourless. I can't help thinking that director Greg McLean, best known for the joyless slog "Wolf Creek" is somewhat to blame. Anyway, this is competently put together, but it never manages to transcend it's stupid premise.

Seyret ve unut.

I mean, I was thoroughly entertained. It was a very quick paced movie after all. It has been done before by the likes of Battle Royale, Hunger Games and Circle, but this time it’s an office building. The large cast makes it mildly difficult to predict who will die at first, but once it begins to narrow down there’s only a few characters who seem like they’ll actually survive, the rest being obvious choices to kill. Totally worth renting if you like the plot and don’t mind the gore.

I really enjoy the concept and it starts great, but I wish it had something more to say. It just becomes too typical towards the end.

Disappointing. Horrible writing, bored looking actors. Wasn't even as gory as I was hoping it to be.

Works much better when McLean's instincts win out against Gunn's. Not nearly enough of people getting their skulls bashed in with office supplies for my taste, and the "satire" feels unearned and trite. But damn, Michael Rooker's head injury is enough for me to be content.

This is how Battle Royale should have been made. Man, what a horror flick.

Kind of an ugly film, actually. I wanted to take a shower afterward.

Decent remake of a plot that has been done many times before. I still felt tense and a little scared at times, not knowing who would be next to die. If you've seen Battle Royale, then you know what this movie is going for and probably won't be surprised at the ending.

Fun, violent movie with an interesting premise and compelling characters. The acting, music, and death scenes are well done.

Schlock comes in many forms, and "The Belko Experiment" is schlock through and through. It has nothing to say on the human condition, office mentality, or even the soullessness of the titular corporation itself, but in many ways that's its greatest asset: it says nothing, focusing on set pieces and moments that seemed cool on paper and executing them with effortless glee, a manic depiction of nothing more than was advertised. It may not be anything close to high art, but "Belko" is a real riot.

I'm terribly fond of director James Gunn, who is always chill and approachable on Facebook, has adorkable hair and posts almost as many cat pictures as I do. I really wanted to like this movie. And it has a certain swagger and some cool deaths. But it doesn't bring anything new to the genre and the ending felt so generic. Maybe it's just that I don't dislike my colleagues enough for this to really resonate with me. If it had been a movie about murdering customers on the hand ...

It's completely watchable and not boring but it's also nothing special nor memorable. Life is all about wasting time with distractions and this is certainly a capable way of doing that for 89 minutes.

A film with a premise as eyebrow-raising as THE BELKO EXPERIMENT--unwilling corporate yutzes are tricked into a sadistic last-man-standing competition--really needs to deliver a cogent message to justify all the bloodletting. BELKO is a letdown in this department, deploying a feeble satire that is all but forgotten once the body count begins to rise. Young or naive minds may be blown, but it's business as usual for anyone familiar with this sort of hollow exercise in violent catharsis.

Has decent ideas, but doesn't follow through on them.

I gotta say I just kinda inherently love this sick gory twisted Battle Royale type shit, so I definitely can't hate this film. It runs through a pretty cliché and predictable version of that kind of story though.

The gore & subdued dark humor gave it the faintest flavor of verhoeven, with tony goldwyn giving his best Peter weller impersonation. Speaking of goldwyn, his villain is much more charismatic, interesting, and potentially(yet not explored deeply) complex than the stock "hero" were given. gore effects were great and there's 2 fantastic scenes on either side of the hour mark, 1 dramatic, 1 overthetop. Its overly optimistic on human nature. Cant wait for shitty politically charged sequels

Wow that was a pretty good prank you pulled on me, Mr. McLean

I'm generally okay with graphic films but this leaves you with a bleak feeling since in the end, the violence seems merely gratuitous. Maybe that is in fact supposed to be the message ... however, I have to admit that the special effects were pretty good. And if you're a TV show addict, you will see a lot of familiar faces (though it's kind of brutal to see your favorite characters from another show get killed). Overall: Battle Royale meets The Office (without the humor).

The Office meets Battle Royale could be done well, and I'd hoped Gunn's script would at least have some fun with it. But it's painfully straightforward all the way, leaving McLean little to do but indulge in the same bleak sadism he brought to Wolf Creek, and the not-bad cast little to do but remember where the squibs are. I don't mind violence, but at the end I felt like I was the one in an experiment.

peeeh....

Entertaining but predictable.

Although not A-listers, I was really looking forward to the star-studded collective in the movie. Unfortunately the scenario played out is quite popular, and the movie brought nothing new to the genre. However, they said something never said before "they won't let anyone live, because WE KNOW".

Well.. It's ok but can't exactly deliver on the promise and has a VERY, VERY cliché ending that could be seen a mile away with all the "international" etc.. Could've gone deeper with the psychology but just decided to scratch the surface. Not that great overall apart from the new girls death scene.

You can tell right from the start what's going to happen - whom is going to kill whom, which takes a lot of the sting out of the tale

Is entertaining, though its exploitative, cynical nature is tamed by its many (non-exploitation) clichés. Which unfortunately keeps it from being any kind of interesting. The silliness of most of the direction and some of the writing and the bad overacting didn't help. I mean, there are decent performances, and not all of the writing is dumb or bland, but......those guys start working for a company that puts tags into their heads, and then they're surprised fucked up shit happens? Seriously? :D

It does nothing original or even particularly interesting with a pretty cool premise (I like these kinds of movies), and it's quite predictable, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a decent time. Unlike a movie like Cube where characters question everything and that's part of the fun, this is really straightforward, which hurts it. The ending is shit. Seriously, the reveal has some of the worst reasoning ever; the results of the experiment would be so obvious to even stupid people.