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The Belko Experiment (2017), R, ★★

Oh, no. What happened?
Ok...right off the bat, I have heard some stuff about this movie and I have seen a trailer surrounding this project. I sort of scoffed and laughed at the premise because I asked to myself: "What actually led them to this?" It is a vague question that will be revealed later in the review. But, after watching the red band trailer, I thought, "Ok, a bloodied Office Space mixed with the traditional Battle Royale flavor to wet our appetite." Now, watching this experiment, and after thinking about what I saw, all I saw was an idea and/or experiment for a movie the whole time that it never takes off and finishes with an ending that felt a bit anticlimactic.

Mike Milch (Frank Gallagher, Jr.) has been an employee at Belko Industries, located in Bogotá, Columbia, for a little over a year alongside his boss, Barry (Tony Goldwyn) and his girlfriend, Leandra (Adria Arjona). As new employee, Dany (Melonie Diaz) reports on her first day, she learns that a tracking device is implanted on the base of every Belko employee's skull in case of an emergency or in case if he or she is kidnapped.

The 80 employees left in the office go about their day being busy, however, armored shutters seal off the walls and doors to lock them in. As people panic all over the office, the voice of an intercom instructs them to kill two people or else, two other random people will be killed. Believing it to be a prank, they ignore the announcement. But, people die via the bomb in their tracking device. Mike knows what is going on as he attempts to remove the tracking device but he is warned if he keeps continuing to attempt to remove it, he will be killed. But, the killing spree keeps going on...


It was perfectly executed because the office workplace is a psychological claustrophobia because you feel like you are trapped in an inhospitable environment and you can easily get bored and can potentially lose it. It was an interesting concept and an interesting psychological experiment. But, the biggest problem is that I was basically watching both the execution and the concept this whole movie. It is more like watching the outline and plugging in the idea into the situation and not create characters you want to care about, a narrative or some ideals/beliefs as to why this person is forcing the employees to do it. Is it for fun? Well, a little bit of a spoiler, it is in the title and in the end, the experience becomes disappointing.

I will admit this because this movie is not total garbage. Some of the cast is appealing with Tony Goldwyn, John C. McGinley, Michael Rooker and Melonie Diaz in the ensemble. I would have liked to follow some of them around more than the main character because I found the main character played by Frank Gallagher Jr. dull. There is some bloody, guilty-pleasure fun surrounding the killing spree when they take a "Lord of the Flies" concept and mix it with Office Space, The Hunger Games, Battle Royale and a little bit of The Purge. What the movie lack is some original spin, a smart narrative drive and a bit more insight into a workplace. There is some fun in the spree but it's not worth re-visiting anytime soon.

**


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