Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

framptonhollis 'Time Piece' was fantastic, and Jim Henson's follow up of sorts is even better. It is called 'The Cube' and is about a man trapped in a cube that he cannot escape...and that is, essentially it, but that is also not it at all. It sounds simple, but gets more complicated by the second as strange characters come and go and come back again and go away again; the man is confused and so are we, it seems that there is no solution to a problem so absurd, so nonsensical. It takes on a style of sorts (story-wise) that expresses what the halfway point between the meeting of the worlds of 'The Twilight Zone' and a Samuel Beckett play would look like. It is so surreal and thought provoking, but also extremely funny (an important aspect of Henson's entire career was, obviously, his witty sense of humor that hasn't aged in the slightest), and kind of disturbing and weirdly sad and sadly weird (sadly as in the weirdness itself sometimes takes on a more tragic feeling, even when it's still being very humorous, not as in the weirdness itself is an unfortunate product of the film, as it is certainly quite the opposite of THAT), and genuinely really terrifying in parts (those laughing clowns, the boy on the bike singing "you'll never get outta here..." *shudders*). It's so many emotions bottled up into one stylistically consistent surrealist comedy that is as metafictional, postmodern (more so in an artistic sense than in a philosophical sense, although there's a little of that, too), philosophical, strange, confusing, thought provoking, troubling, dark, funny, and entertaining as I could have ever anticipated!

hiveminded I was recently at an obscure movie party some friends of mine held and got to see this rare little gem of a flick. I was very surprised to see it was produced, directed and co-written by Jim Henson as the film began, and thought that I was probably in for a treat. I was not wrong. This film says volumes in the 50 minutes or so that it runs and definitely leaves the viewer with something to ponder. The acting is also not bad and the film being black and white somehow makes it more impacting. This is Henson at his best in my opinion. I hope this film becomes more available and gets some of the attention it most definitely deserves. And to think this was a movie on television in 1969..

tedg This little project still works, to judge from the comments here. Viewers still think there is something profound going on. There is, I think, but not in the sophomoric story.You may find this hard to view, so let me describe it. A man finds himself in a white cube, apparently imprisoned forever. For an hour, people enter and leave this cube and a large number of vignettes are played out. Each one deals with some notion of perception or reality.Careful watchers will see that these episodes are not coherent. They do not incrementally add to a whole view or comment on being. They are, in fact, random and often contradictory. One involves sex, another race, affirmation, communication, religion, family and so on. Each little episode adopts the path of least theatrical resistance regardless of what went before or after. There is no overarching philosophy that they fit into.I believe that is precisely the point. Henson wasn't interested in making a point. No, he never was, ever. His interest then was to create and explore a theatrical framework that could be easily read by us. And then within that, he could move small, encapsulated dramas in and out. It was essential to him that they NOT be related in any way.You see, his goal was to design a channel, not the content of that channel. And he did, only later that year with what became the Muppets. His achievement was to create a sort of framework within which any content or message could be packaged and then delivered wholesale.Its how he sold it to "educational" TeeVee, as a vehicle for whatever they wanted to cram in there, and to change and test however wildly they wished.So, when you watch this, look for the deliberate dissonance among all the worldviews of the dozen or so episodes and marvel that such a wrapping framework could make them seem so unified and digestible. At least to most viewers.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

oz-64 Like so many others here, I too saw it, when it was first run, as a teenager - WOW. And yes, I too can't get it out of my head, and just today learned that it was Jim Henson!!! The man WAS a genius!!! And, like the rest of you - I want a copy!!! Just to prove to my friends that I'm not as crazy as you think I am.I remember the band playing "You'll never get out.. You'll never get out... you'll never get out of the cube.."Towards the ending, when he's shown the casket... and given the gun... oh man.. that scene is vivid in my mind right now, 30+ years later after having seen it that one time, in', as we used to say, living color.But really.. isn't life all just strawberry jam?