Die (2010)

Number Rolled: 79

Movie Name/Year: Die (2010)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 93 minutes

Rating: UR

Director: Dominic James

Writer: Domenico Salvaggio, Nick Mead

Actors: John Pyper-Ferguson, Emily Hampshire, Caterina Murino, Elias Koteas, Patricia McKenzie, Karl Pruner, Katie Boland, Fabio Fulco, Simone-Elise Girard, Bill Croft, Chip Chuipka, Frank Schorpion

Much like my last reviewed movie, “Nine Dead,” “Die” started off on the same premise. People who seem to be completely unconnected are locked in a room because of a single thing they have in common. This time, however, the connection is revealed early on: each of them recently attempted suicide. The six victims come from all different walks of life; a gambler who lost it all, a cop that has been corrupted by what he’s seen, a teenager with a drug addiction, a psychiatrist with a nasty past, a nurse who can’t stand the suffering and a philanthropist with no control. Their captor forces them to roll a six-sided die in order to determine their fate.

Choosing something through the roll of a die, I can relate to that! This entire blog is based around that idea, so naturally I had to add this movie to my instant queue. Going into it, I felt like it wasn’t going to differ much from the last movie I reviewed. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It was fantastic. I’m actually really surprised it didn’t score better on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m going to go ahead and assume that was because of how little known it is. Obviously it wasn’t a summer blockbuster or anything. It’s one of those movies on Netflix that’s easily overlooked. It could be mistaken for one of the “mock” movies floating around. By that, I mean a low-budget version of a high-budget movie that seems to be used as a placeholder until the rights to the real movie can be obtained. If you frequent Netflix, you know what I mean. It’s not that, though.

Much like the previous movie, “Die” had some “Saw”-like qualities. Well, that shouldn’t really be plural. There was a single “Saw”-like quality and that was only in the motive. One can have the same motive as someone else and reach their goal in a completely different manner – if at all. If you want to be a writer, there are billions of different paths you can take to get there. I don’t believe that should cheapen just how good this movie is.

The actors sold their parts to me. There wasn’t a single character I didn’t believe the story of. The plot was deep and thought-provoking. Even the thriller aspect of it was point on, without bothering to be gory. “Die” got its message across while managing to be entertaining.

Overall Opinion – 4/5