Talk about an interesting backstory on coming to fruition, The Loft has it in spades.

Talk about a great movie, The Loft is a fucking joke.

This is the 2nd remake to the Dutch original from 2008.  Yes, you read that correctly...the 2nd remake.

The original was written by Bart de Pauw and directed by Erik Van Looy.  For some reason, the film was remade 2 years later in 2010, once again written by de Pauw, but this time directed by Antoinette Beumer...but Van Looy jumped into the Director's chair when Beumer had some sort of accident.  Then, a year later, it was remade again, with a bigger budget and American actors and American locales.  Van Looy once again directs, with de Pauw's script rewritten by Wesley Strick, who, if you're not aware, is a major screenwriting force.

Shooting was wrapped in July of 2011.  After numerous delays, it was finally theatrically released in January of 2015.  Oh boy...that's never a good sign.

What we ended up with is an erotic mystery/thriller with a $14 Million budget, starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, a few other recognizable faces, and a couple of total babes (Isabel Lucas and Rachael Taylor) that I'd like to see a Hell of alot more of, that arrived at the multiplexes dead on arrival.

Premise-wise, this is rock solid, and I understand why it was filmed 3 times.  What was delivered (here at least, and most likely in the other 2 versions as well), is a fucking joke on almost all levels.

The characters are all complete assholes with little to no redeeming values.  I mean seriously, no way anyone can seriously root for or care about anyone here...they're all that bad.

Dialogue is about as bad as I've ever heard.  Seriously bordering on a terrible amateur script that you laugh out loud as you read...it's that bad here.  Characters continually use each others names in almost every line...many times back to back.  Just awful.

Character actions and reactions are ludicrous.  Hell, the characters themselves are just terrible, and most likely, the biggest mistake of the entire production.

If we could look beyond the above problems, we'd have an interesting movie here.  But, let's not kid ourselves...that ain't ever gonna happen.

In a strange way, I found myself glued to the tube, waiting to see what was going to happen...half engaged, and half wondering how much worse things could actually get.

I wish I could rewrite this for a 4th film.  I know exactly what I'd change...pretty much everything except the initial premise.

This could easily be a very, VERY guilty pleasure, but my bet is that most will hate it, laugh at it, or wonder how anyone thought this was going to work, as written and filmed.

Grade - (as a movie) F  (as a so bad it's actually pretty good entertainment) B-

I'll keep it short.

I didn't like it as well.

After such glowing reviews... I think I'll swerve this one ;-)

The U.S. remake was indeed a load of codswallop. Mostly it bored me.

Perhaps the foreign version disguised a multitude of sins I wasn't aware of cause I really enjoyed the original. (Belgium)