The Experiment

This film is based loosely on (a) US sponsored psychological experiment in which a prominent psychiatrist ran amok creating a prison in the basement of a noted liberal University. It follows in the steps of a German film Das Experiment (2001), highlighting lack of originality in the US theatre.

Very different from from the real life experiment in which the participants, recruited from students between semesters received rather chincy emoluments, the movie version claims that the test subjects, were offered stupendous incentives for their collaboration.

The film correctly states that volunteers were assigned roles and that as the experiment went on the participants fell into the roles that were given them. Like the German film, the experiment devolves into ever increasing dosages of violence.

In the US version, the feel good ending is even better than the German version. Travis (Adrien Brody) one of the prisoners has such a will to resist the torture and degradation that he busts out. Everyone follows him and they all receive their handsome checks.

In real life, there was no busting out but there was some busting back in. Some who had under intimidation quit the experiment returned and applied to be re-instated. They had formed a camaraderie with the others in the project and wanted to see it through.

In the film version the consequences for the authors of this fiendish experiment was severe. In an investigation that follows, the mad scientist, a rather small and squat gnomish sort behind the experiment, is indicted.

In real life nothing of the kind occurred. Jocularly speaking of the escapade a quarter century later, the real life psychiatrist hosted a US sponsored college course on psychology.

This looks like a shot for shot remake of the original film that came out of Germany in 2001. The original had tension and great dialogue but no American star so ''of course like, we had to redo it! ''

I just hate it when movie companies shell out the exact same story that we've already seen. Why? Cause now we got Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker? Come on...

a) Infernal Affairs (2002) = The Departed (2006) b) Ringu (1998) = The Ring(2002) c) Funny Games U.K (1997) = Funny Games U.S (2007) d) Das Experiment (2001) = The Experiment (2010)

Are you starting to get the picture? e) Let the right one in (2008) ( excellent movie that shouldn't have been altered ) = Let me in (2010). That's 2 years. Yes. Two years.

They don't even wait ten years nowadays, they can't wait to shove the same thing down your throat. Don't encourage them. Please.

Don't mind the bad review up there, whether you've seen or not the German original version, The Experiment still remains an excellent movie with two great actors (and a great plot): Forrest Whitaker and Adrien Brody. Interesting movie that shows that even if we all pretend to have some kind of moral, we all still remain animals that will bite to defend our pack. Sometimes you watch a 96mn movie and it feels like you were watching The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston (don't mean this is a bad film, it's just very long), but this one is the total opposite! you'll be annoyed when the credits will appear at the end. Also, if like me you're a bit sick and tired of the current Hollywood buzz which consists to make many spy movies with a huge budget, you will enjoy that film, because it's quite simple, only few rooms needed at location. So the question is: are you a prisoner?

Could've been done more with this one. Interesting story, slowly built, tensed, well portrayed characters (not just the main two), excellent acting (Brody and Whitaker especially), but in the end unfortunately fails to materialize all that in to something more. Apart from the plain ending and unnecessary undeveloped female character, everything else was done right and it is a gripping thriller indeed.

Probably the most important is that the movie succeeds in the main idea, catching the human nature and its transformation placed in certain conditions. As expected blinding of power and rebelling makes the violence slowly but surely spreads and the movie becomes more disturbing, answering my question why is it going straight to DVD.

The Experiment has an intriguing premise. Human behavior, group dynamics; what will happen when you put a group of people (all with very different personalities) in a small, stressful environment for a long period of time. As this is a straight to DVD movie it surprisingly has a good cast and doesn't suffer from small budget diseases.

The Experiment has the potential of being a great movie but never reaches it's full potential. To me it felt like certain events were rushed. This could be by the lack of explanation of the motives and the background of certain characters. Ultimately, The Experiment is watchable but forgettable. 6/10