© 2006 William Ahearn

Given a choice of seeing “Dark City,” “The Matrix” or “The 13th Floor,” I’m going with “The 13th Floor.” It accomplishes everything in the other two films and doesn’t do it with superficial religiosity, kung faux, over-produced action scenes or cartoonish aliens. This is the best film dealing with virtual reality that I've seen. Not that there's much competition.

Don’t get me wrong, this could have been a much better film but even with its lack of budget and stars (Gretchen Mol is the best-known name), it delivers a very interesting flick.

The basic gist is that a software company creates a computer simulation of Los Angeles circa 1937. The simulation allows you to enter it via a headset and live among the sims who believe they are real. Different lives can be led down among the digits and the creator of the simulation has been misbehaving in the simulated LA. He ends up murdered in the real-time Los Angeles and that’s when it all begins to unravel.

Since this isn’t a well-known movie that I can expect people have already seen, I won’t spoil it. Part detective flick, part computer movie, it’s much more interesting than the over-hyped, high-priced schlock.

This is one of the best of its type.

Many thanks to Char Busse for the flick.