DigitalRevenantX7 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.

ctomvelu1 Classic Full Moon video about a bunch of teens who try out a new video game, only to be sucked into it and trapped there. Dull, poorly executed and downright silly at times. You know you're in trouble when characters keep saying, "Virtual reality is the future!" However, this does have John DeLancie of "Star Trek:TNG" and the very pretty Megan Ward to keep us mildly interested. A young, pre-"Buffy" Seth Green plays a teen punk and Peter Billingsley of "A Christmas Story" fame is one of the teens. When my daughters were little, we never missed a Full Moon video, and this was made during the height of Full Moon's popularity. Cheap, down and dirty entertainment. Full Moon's laurels rests on its "Puppetmaster" series, which was only slightly better than other Full Moon titles. By the way, the attractive Ms. Ward turns up in several other low-budget videos of the period, including "Amityville: Time" and "Trancers 3."

BHorrorWriter There really isn't anything special about this movie. Filmed 2 years before its release year. Charles Band wanted to punch up the CGI to make it look better...He should have tried again. The acting is decent with such actors as Megan Ward, Peter Billingsley and Seth Green to hi0llite some of the main characters.Arcade, though one of Full Moon better, not great, but better movies, really tries to be something big, but due to a poor script, fails to deliver the goods.5 out of 10

Dennis Littrell This is a harmless little sci-fi for pre-teens that mom and dad can scan at any time and see no sex and only a touch or two of violence grace the screen. The plot and pseudo- science are of the leave-your-brain-at-home variety while the graphics are nothing special. The direction is slow, clear and undistinguished. The photography is pedestrian, but not bad. The cast is cute, led by the beautiful Megan Ward. She is demure and fully clothed as a teenaged heroine who saves her boy friend and pals from an evil virtual-reality game gone amuck. The fact that she was 23-years-old at the time and a little too old for the part did not bother me at all. Her fresh face and great beauty allowed me to watch the whole thing! The once vampish Sharon Farrell has a small part as the star's mom which she plays flawlessly with just a touch of irony.