I'm not going to totally dismiss this box office dud as "bad," because I find it quite engaging, in a guilty pleasure sense. This is one of those films that is so flagrantly horrible that it's actually good. You can watch it on a Saturday night with a group of buddies and laugh your butt off. All in all, not an awful movie. If you end up watching this, you will probably be like me in saying that it starts off great then gradually begins to suck. Holds the attention but demands complete suspension of logic. This is one of those movies that had bad timing when it came to its release. This film really has no good merits, pretty much at all.

The basic plot: a group of soldiers and their gamer buddies play a haunted video game, where if you die in the game, you die for real.I didn't have high expectations for a movie titled Ghost Machine, and, when I read the synopsis, I lowered my expectations even further. If all you're looking for is a cheesy, derivative movie that looks like a video game, then I'm sure you'll be satisfied. Otherwise, I'd say you should avoid it, because it's only going to annoy you.The writing was a bit stupid, but any bad writing was dwarfed by the monumentally bad idea of a haunted video game. The acting and special effects were alright. There's a bit of gore, titillation, implied torture, and an attempted rape. If the story had focused on these elements, instead of recreating a generic console game, maybe this would have been a better movie... but I kind of doubt it.

The military is using a virtual reality machine to train soldiers for a variety of situations. When a bunch of the soldiers sneak in one night to use it for their own ends they find that the virtual world is haunted by a female ghost looking to kill them. Will they be able to stop her? You've been here before, any number of times the question is do you want to see the same story yet again. To be fair it's well done but way too familiar to work, especially when you can pretty much guess what the ending is going to be. Worth seeing, but I'd wait for cable or some other "free" means of seeing it. 5 out of 10

Just watched "Ghost Machine" with a few friends (all nerds) and I actually quite enjoyed it. It had some weak points but overall was a interesting and enjoyable movie. But if you don't like sci-fi and horror combined - stay far away from this one. The horror elements are not that scary and the sci-fi is not that convincing. But my friends and I still enjoyed it - especially because of of a lot of action/soldier/cool moments.So, yeah. Objective it's not that good a movie - but I still enjoyed it. So watch it with a few friends (and preferable some beer) and you will have a good time.