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DVD The Employer
 Rating: 4.4 Genres: Thriller Director: Frank Merle Writers: Frank Merle Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Dastmalchian, Paige Howard |
| Storyline Five highly qualified applicants interview for a coveted job with the Carcharias Corporation, a powerful conglomerate whose business practices are shrouded in mystery. On the night before the last round of interviews, they are all kidnapped and drugged. The next day, they wake up trapped together in a locked room without any hope of escape. Soon the true nature of their situation is revealed when they receive a phone call from the mysterious CEO of Carcharias, known only as The Employer. He informs them that they are about to experience the final interview, but it’s not at all what they were expecting. Written by Hyrax Entertainment |
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| Details: Country: USA Release Date: 7 June 2013 (USA) |
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DVD The Employer
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4 comments
Well that was boring, halfway through I began fast forwarding through the rest.
The premise of people trapped in a room, is old. People trapped in a room for a job, has already been done too (can't remember the name of the movie though).
The production value is inexistent. My HDCam makes better pictures than what I've seen here. Acting is bad, lighting is awful, score is generic, nothing in this movie is new.
McDowell played 6 minutes in this movie, he probably just needed a morning to get the filming done. Well, lately he showed up in Z-Grade movies anyway. Seeing him casted is a strong indicator for a poor movie.
Please excuse my low quality review, but I just did it to balance the 10/10 fake reviews written by the PR guys.
I've seen so many of these types of movies. Cube (also has 2 sequels) was one of the earlier good ones (where random people are stuck in various adjoining rooms with "puzzles to solve"). A more recent one that is better than Employer is Exam (2009) – rated 6.8 and with many great twists. Other similar movies involving people killing each other off in a "room" include: Devil 6.3 (2010) – people stuck in an elevator, The Killing Room 5.7(2009) – people in an scientific experiment, Unknown 6.5 (2006) – people stuck in a warehouse, Fermat's Room 6.6 (2007 – foreign language) – 4 mathematicians in a rm, The Method 7.3 (2005 – foreign language) – interview process Overall Cube (the first one) wins with 7.4 rating and oddly enough being the oldest (1997). Enjoy these movies if you like the genre.
This was truly a disappointing movie. When I read the description, I thought it would be something similar to that one movie about the test, where candidates compete with each other for a job position. I was expecting lots of twists and mind games that would keep me guessing who the winner will be. There was none of that. A weak plot with no explanation in the end. Characters also do not make sense. A strong muscular guy who gets choked to death with a tie who just got his head bashed in? He could have easily overpowered the strangler. Or how about a skinny girl who can easily disarm the muscle giant and pin him to the ground but cannot take on 2 defenseless person her size?
Save your time and money for a better, deserving movie because there was nothing thrilling about this thriller.
Another story about a group of strangers locked together in an enclosed space, hoping for a way out. In here, these five are job applicants; in the last step to join a powerful corporation, only one can leave the room with the job… and their life.
I really like this kind of film; it is always such a psychologically heavy concept, often accompanied by interesting twists and thought- provoking mindgames…
Unfortunately, 'The Employer' fails in that aspect.
The movie is too short and moves too fast to create the necessary tension in the room scenes, and the characters/actors are so bad they are unable to create any interest in the viewer. And it is far from just the actors' faults (though they have their share on it): the characters are horribly conceived and developed, their actions not making sense and being overly ruthless/psychopathic to the point of being unbelievable/almost cartoonish.
This makes the twists almost pointless and their impact almost nonexistent. The psychological aspect the film needed ends forgotten and ignored.
Malcolm McDowell is the only one to do a good job, and his character is quite fun to watch (though equally bad). A sharp contrast to the otherwise terribleness.
In the end, this film is far too moronic and badly made. It can't even pass as a idiotic, semi-gory thriller, as the anti-capitalistic stance the film seems to defend (considering the way they portray the big corporations) show they tried to make this have some kind of half-assed message. In other words, they actually believed this could be good.
I give it a 4 just because I love this concept, which made me try to like it, but in the end it could very well receive a lower rating. Much better choices would be 'Exam', 'La habitación de Fermat', and even the 'Cube' franchise.