Arcade (1993)

"Kiss reality goodbye...FOREVER!"

A cinematic mulligan stew that just SCREAMS early nineties with elements of: Tron - check out the copyright infringing original footage here: Not a fan of the House of Mouse's habit of litigation, but I begrudgingly admit they had a case here.

Also see: A Nightmare on Elm Street (BITCH!) Labyrinth (oddly enough in a gatekeeper scene involving truth and lies)and echoes of other Charles Band sci-fi productions (Shadowzone, Crash and Burn, Dollman, etc.)

Of course, there's also The Lawnmower Man thanks to the virtual reality plotline and laughably terrible but kinda endearing CGI effects, but Arcade predates that film as well as other productions around the time including the disastrous (and big-budget) Super Mario Bros...

Additionally intriguing is the coincidental controversy surrounding the release of Mortal Kombat in 1992 and the Video Game Ratings Act of 1994, making Arcade not only prescient about adults' unfounded paranoia regarding the effect video games were having on the youth, but a spiritual cousin to the similarly-themed Brainscan, released soon afterwards.

In nearly every film he's made, Albert Pyun's main issues are budgetary. Working from a very early David S. Goyer script, Pyun's grandiose flourishes may have worked had he been working with a healthy, multi-million-dollar budget, but alas, for now Arcade stands as an antiquated relic of a bygone era full of arcade cabinets, floppy hair parted down the middle, and post-Nirvana grunge fashion. It also resembles an Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, which is strange.