Pandora Machine (2004) (V)

User Rating:

3.5/10   

Director:

Andrew Bellware

Writers:

Andrew Bellware (writer)
Laura Schlachtmeyer (writer)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Evil is out of the box.

Cast

Daryl Boling	...	Detective Michael Kelly
Doris Hick	...	Detective Jane Sikorski
Margaret Dodge	...	Athena
Jason Howard	...	Buford Prettyman
Monica Russell	...	Sonia Kelly
Don Arrup	...	The Neuro-Necromotron
Hillary Sinn	...	Lily Garland
Cesar Carrasco	...	August Evinruud
Eva van Dok	...	Nora Meredith
Laura Walczak	...	Captain Misha Descartes
Ron Domingo	...	Mitchell Osric (Interrogator)
Betty Ouyang	...	Auditor Rachel Molotov
Mitchell Riggs	...	Arno Bierwirth
Sarah Matthay	...	Natalie Lewis
Heather Grayson	...	Sarah Nazareth

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and violence.

Runtime:

USA:77 min | USA:84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Westrex Recording System) | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Braidwood Films

Totally ridiculous fun

Roger Ebert once said that the star system for rating movies is a sliding scale. To give this movie high marks doesn't mean that it's almost as good as "Silence of the Lambs" or "Star Wars", or even "Bladerunner" (which it resembles slightly). It's not nearly as good as any of those movies. I give it high marks because compared to other low budget (very, very low-budget) sci-fi movies, it's totally watchable, silly in a fun way, and just a little bit smarter than much of the genre in the way it deals with the question of the nature of sentient life. It's even slightly moving in a couple of scenes. Daryl Boling is a fine actor, and writer/director Andrew Bellware is an enthusiastic digital-age Ed Wood, without an allowance or an editor.

One of the pleasures of watching this movie is seeing what someone can create without spending any money at all on production. Seriously, haven't you ever wished you could go out and make a feature-length movie yourself, with real actors? In this day of digital technology, who needs a studio, right? Well, here's an example of someone who did it, and all things considered, did it pretty well.

Also, there is a tremendous amount of gratuitous nudity. No character wears clothing unless the plot absolutely requires it. I've rented other cheap sci-fi movies at Blockbuster, and they didn't contain ANY nudity.

If you get your hands on this DVD, you must watch the bonus commentary track. It's very funny.