the thirteenth floor is <NEG> a bland , obligatory exercise in genre film-making </NEG> . if i hadn't recently watched the matrix and open your eyes -- both of which are similar but far superior -- i might have been a little nicer to this picture . craig bierko makes an adequate hero as douglas hall , the rich co-creator of a perfect human world simulation who is suddenly blamed for the murder of his boss ( armin mueller-stahl ) . everything that was subtle and smart about the previously mentioned films is <NEG> battered over our heads in this one </NEG> , and characters stare at each other for <NEG> maddeningly-long periods of time </NEG> and refuse to communicate on any realistic level . the acting is okay , but <NEG> the film suffers from every logical flaw one could think of </NEG> , and features a script ( co-penned by director josef rusnak ) <NEG> loaded with cliches and stock characters </NEG> . there are individual scenes and ideas that work -- i like the thought of a sentient computer program -- but none of the film's strengths are recognized to any meaningful degree . producer roland emmerich , based on this and his previous directorial efforts , <NEG> seems hell-bent on bringing us the ultimate standard in mediocre science-fiction </NEG> .
