it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

What made 'Arcade' cool was that despite it's many faults was a decent Cult Movie. The writing was terrible, the acting was average at best, the directing was bad, The budget was well below what it needed to be to make a great film. But for what it was, a low-budget Cult Movie, it hit the mark like nothing else. I suggest at least one viewing for everyone.

Story Synopsis: A company specialising in Virtual Reality games holds a demonstration of their latest game "Arcade" in an arcade parlour. They give out home versions of the game to a group of high school students. But the game, which has had its AI designed using the brain cells of a dead child, comes to life, taking the souls of anyone who plays it & loses. Alex Manning, one of the students given the game (& who is still recovering following the suicide of her mother) discovers the game's secret. She tries to stop her friends from playing the game but fails. Along with a friend who is a fearsome game player, she enters the VR world & tries to defeat the AI & rescue her friends.Film Analysis: When the pretty-to-look-at but totally brainless VR thriller The Lawnmower Man came out in the early 1990s, it spawned a whole slew of films that used VR as a plot device. Arcade, a cheap entry in producer Charles Band's Full Moon stables, is one of the lesser ones, even by the standards of the subgenre.With the exception of the Lawnmower Man films, just about every one of the VR films that came out during the 1990s used VR as either simply a hook to hang a thriller plot onto or to showcase killer AI systems. Arcade, written by future genre legend David S. Goyer & directed by cult genre director Albert Pyun, is a member of the latter category.The film is, by most standards, a fairly brainless sci-fi flick that has dated somewhat badly since the demise of the VR market. The critics have slammed the film, citing cheap effects & a stupid plot that recycles certain horror film elements. Personally I had not too much a problem watching the film. Sure the effects look quite cheap but judging from what I've seen from films made during that era, the effects don't look too bad. As for the story, Arcade takes a few cues from the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films, with an AI that acts a lot like a high-tech Freddy Krueger (brought to life by Jonathan Fuller's spirited voice over work) & even having a dramatic but brainless scene where star Megan Ward has to confront her dead mother in order to defeat the game.Arcade is not the sort of film you would expect from a director whose bread & butter features revolve around kickboxing, future locales & killer robots (or all three at once), but Pyun manages to keep the story moving along with almost no problems in the narrative department. The only problem with the story is a lack of consistency – the game's structure is quite simple, too simple in fact – plus the mysterious disappearance of a couple of levels.The acting is okay, with Megan Ward (who came to the genre's attention after her performance in the zombie flick TRANCERS II) playing a vulnerable teenager quite well. Making an early bit part is Seth Green as well as long time Pyun associate Norbert Weisser as a zoned-out computer programmer.

"Arcade" is not only the name of this direct to video feature, but the name of the cutting edge video game within the feature. This game Arcade is a virtual reality extravaganza that its makers hope will be all the rage among todays' kids. However, something's gone horribly wrong with the game (natch) and the teens who play it go bonkers and then get trapped somewhere inside the game. And the game would dearly love to become a part of the "real world". Megan Ward ("Encino Man", "Freaked") is sexy and appealing in the main role; even if technically she's too old for her role, casting 20-somethings as teenagers is a concept that's hardly new for the movie business. It's also extremely amusing not only to see a young Seth Green in this, but none other than Peter Billingsley (a.k.a. Ralphie in "A Christmas Story") as another of Wards' friends. The cast also includes John de Lancie (Q from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation), Sharon Farrell ("Night of the Comet"), A.J. Langer ("The People Under the Stairs"), Bryan Dattilo ('Days of Our Lives'), Don Stark ('That '70s Show'), and Norbert Weisser, a regular in the films of director Albert Pyun ("The Sword and the Sorceror", "Cyborg", "Nemesis"), as the games' designer. The issue that this viewer had with "Arcade" was that considering its subject matter, it still turned out to be a rather boring, muddled story. It simply has little energy, and it's too hard to muster much interest in the characters or the tale being told, even though there's one intense story thread with the heroines' mother having killed herself. And even for a company that specialized in low budget genre fare, this looks especially cheap. The special effects are basically adequate; "The Lawnmower Man" had more visual buzz when it came to the whole virtual reality concept. This may entertain less discriminating viewers, but with the characters lacking rooting interest and the movie coming up short in dramatic tension, it has to rate as a below average Full Moon production. Four out of 10.

Yes, this is the worst film I have ever seen. That's not to say it's the least enjoyable film I've ever seen, that dubious honour goes to My Dog Skip, a hideously patriotic story of a boy who learns all life's lessons through his pet dog that I was forced to watch on a bus. But Arcade has the worst plot, the worst production values, the worst script, the worst acting, the worst... everything, really.This complete lack of virtue is, of course, Arcade's saving grace. This really is a freak show exhibit of a film. I watched it all the way through because I simply could not take my eyes from the grotesque spectacle on the screen. I had to see how much worse it could get. And boy, did it ever get worse.How did this film get made? Who knows. I'm glad to see it went straight to video, which is where it deserves to be. Watch it if you've got a taste for the truly horrible.