The Experiment

I'm burning up while watching this i don't care if this is a remake i enjoy it, loved the concept the story built up.

Terrible movie. Frustrating to watch because it contradicts itself the whole way through. A drama that takes all manner of reason and throws it out the door. A group of men band together to pis.s on a guys face?? After what, 2 days of role play?? WT.F?? What kind of idiot story teller... Of course the prisoners lose all of their reason after 24 hours... Don't ever take a long flight across the world in a plane because apparently people go nuts if they are contained for a day. In fact everyone comes up with stupid ideas and no one in the entire crowd seems to notice how stupid it is... I signed up to review this just because it was that bad. I've never written a review but all of you artsy farsty people who vote well on it need to have your faces pis.sed on

A group of people, looking to earn a quick buck, sign up for a behavior experiment. But that may have been a really, really bad idea. The experiment causes even the pacifists to turn violent, and there is no one to stop them. This film could have been easily forgettable, but luckily they somehow secured a great cast, and I think that may have saved it from being just another American remake. Starring Adrien Brody as the pacifist (perhaps even hippie) Travis and Forest Whitaker as Barris, these two can carry the film on their own, with or without the ensemble cast. I have to give a shout out to Fisher Stevens, who plays the professor Archaleta. I'm saddened that after some bigger hits (notably "Short Circuit") Stevens has been reduced to doing bit parts. But even more sad is the inclusion of Maggie Grace as the hippie Bay. Not that she does a poor job, but that the character is completely pointless, has no development, and her scenes only add another five or ten minutes on to the film -- which would have been more powerful without her. The experiment shown in the film wouldn't hold up by standards today, as the safety of the people involved is now a top priority. This may have been indirectly addressed, though... I'm unsure. What I can say is that this was adapted from a 2001 German film, which was adapted from a book, which was loosely based on the Stanford Prison Experiment. I think it's safe to say that this film has nothing to do with the original experiment (it is very, very loosely based)... but I'm not sure how close it is to the other sources. While you might be able to rent better films, this is not something to automatically pass up. If you're into survival, or enjoy these cast members, or like prison stories, you may really like this one. I was pleasantly surprised, and of all the films I see, it was one of the best in recent weeks.

This movie was well acted and could have been good. Well, it had Adrian Brody and Forrest Whitaker in it, and they are body wonderful actors. This review has several spoilers in it, so don't read further if you are thinking of seeing this one and want to be surprised. The main problem is that the film did not define the universe in which it operated. If they really needed me to suspend my disbelief THAT much, they needed to give me some guidelines, like a good science fiction would have done. The three major drawbacks in my ability to get sucked into this film's universe were: 1) no lab personnel on the premises... NONE... AT ALL. They lost me right there. They were all in some isolated facility in the middle of a corn field with no supervising personnel, 2) we never even saw any lab personnel watching the cameras, commenting "no, don't stop it yet", and 3) even after the diabetic 051 got his skull cracked, they didn't flash the red light. After the guy was lying there twitching having had his skull cracked, and the red light didn't go off, I was done. I did finish watching the movie, but it really made me feel stupid for doing it. Adrian, Forest... do you need work THAT badly? Get a job at McDonald's... don't make any more garbage like this one, please. I want to be able to trust your name on a movie.

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

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" is a very disturbing film because it purports to show the true nature of humans. A scientist gets together a bunch of men, all strangers, all attracted to the experiment by the $1000 a day payment. All these men had to do was to get through two weeks in a prison environment, or else they would not get paid. At the onset, a few were selected to play roles of guards, while the rest became the prisoners. Within the next day, a power play among guards and prisoners ensues which then escalates into an uncontrollable "Lord of the Flies" scenario, a battle pitting the common good against individual needs. The central characters were well essayed by the Oscar winner lead actors. Adrien Brody plays the most outspoken prisoner, Travis, in an effectively gritty manner. Forrest Whitaker plays the shy and lonely Barris, who discovers the repressed Idi Amin within him as he played guard. The rest of the cast were also okay, but were mostly playing caricatures. I found out that this film was released direct to DVD, which was unusual for a film that features an Oscar winning cast. Maybe the producers were thinking that not many can sit through the difficult scenarios this film shows, and they may be right. I personally cannot believe that this experiment can turn out in this violent way in real life so quickly, but then again, we also know what people can do when desperately strapped for money. It would also be interesting to watch the original 2001 German movie about this same experiment.

The Stanford prison experiment was about group dynamics when people were assigned roles of prisoners and guards but the movie only revolves around the two main characters most of the time, with others being almost entirely absent. As group dynamics do not really get into play, they miss many opportunities for personality development, which is what made the actual experiment interesting in the first place. Due to the complete lack of character development (with one exception) the movie feels rather dull and the behavior of the characters, as well as their backgrounds, suggest that the researchers had knowingly picked individuals who had mental or other problems in the past. Even though the plot is about as linear as it can get, it is still full of holes. The German version is much better, not because The Experiment is a remake but because it is dumbed down way too much. A typical reality-watching simpleton may find the remake easier to follow, though. Even with its flaws, I give it 7/10 because the basic premise is interesting and the movie is refreshingly different. The set and the cast were certainly good enough.

Sadly, you cant vote 0/10 but signed up just to warn others if you have not already witnessed how bad this film really is! Das Experiment i have not seen yet however sounds much better than this. The problem for me in this film was not the acting, the acting was great to be honest. 26 men get sent to do a prison experiment over 14 days. Some are set to be guards and some set to be prisoners, and there is 14,000USD each at the end of the experiment. There are 5 Rules. The Main Rule: No Violence or the red light goes on and its off & no-one gets paid. There are cameras in all rooms bar one in this film. So why when a man died through lack of insulin for his diabetes and a series of beatings did the experiment not get called off. Why when a man got tied up, raped and another man urinated on & beaten. What an absolute pile of rubbish* this film really was. this happens about 25 minutes into the film so why watch the rest of it. Finally when the prisoners get sick of the bullying and mistreating, they fight back and beat the guards then all of a sudden, the lights go on and its game over. Strange that! And then for some reason, it shows only 1 man (forest Whitaker who plays the main guard), gets paid for it. Did the others get paid? How did they all get on after? Why were they all fine as soon as the doors opened with each other despite one person dying and everyone taking A beating. This film is quite possibly the worse film ever made, storyline makes no sense and its idiotically played out. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. This is why films like this go straight to DVD and don't get released into the cinemas. Its because Hollywood would go BUST! Biggest Waste of 92 minutes of my life. 8 Rubbish was an understatement as you cannot swear on the reviews!

I am compelled to encourage people to watch this movie, as I have been profoundly affected by the concept of this experiment. (Please note that I have never bothered to write a review prior to now). I understand that this film is a remake and also loosely based on a true story, however, the director/writer obviously put much thought into altering the concept to suit the understanding of modern day motivations. The Experiment is an anthropological study of the behaviour of 26 ordinary men that are confined to an imitated prison environment. Each is assigned the role of either prisoner or guard and given 5 basic guidelines to which they must adhere. This film was thought provoking and stirred up heated discussions among my family... I ask you one question; If Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker's characters in the film (keeping in mind that Adrien was a "Hippy" and Forest was a 42 year old man who still lived with his mother) were assigned the opposite roles of prisoner and guard, would the prison environment have been the same?