Debug (2014)

I sometimes think movie reviewers see too many movies.

Consider this:  here we have a reasonably competent, low budget SF film, that delivers a few thrills and chills and manages to have at least a few interesting ideas.  Sure, a lot of those are retreads from better films, but on the whole this is an amiable time waster, with Jason Momoa the real standout as the usual insane AI. It even manages a certain creepy atmosphere in its brightly lit corridors, in a 2001 sort of way.

But you wouldn’t know that from most of the reviews.

David  Hewlett directed this film.  Most people remember him from Stargate Atlantis, although I tend to think of his impressive body of work as Vincenzo Natale’s favorite actor.  He previously directed the black comedy, A Dog’s Breakfast, which features a fictional TV SF space opera soap opera.

Most people forget the amount of skill that goes into the sort of competence on display here – particularly when a director is forced to work with a very narrow budget.  Hewlett’s film may not be a great classic, nor did it redefine the genre.  But it is well made.  One hopes David Hewlett has a few more like it in him.