Bizarre. Its dog eat dog for power in the place of online porn markets. Who knew? But it's a lot more serious than you'd think, because what secret is at the heart of the movie is very dark. Some say this movie is a message about capitalism. Maybe a little. The events in this film don't represent everyday capitalism (they're not supposed to), and I suspect some of the personalities are accurate to high level corporation decision makers and criminals. Where the movie lost me is after a scene with a fight just after half way into the movie. We all wake up dazed from that experience. All motives and character relationships get thrown out of the window and we're completely clueless. It makes sense in the end, but for a major portion of the movie you're watching a large proportion not knowing what was going on, and that wasn't a nice experience. I don't know whether it was meant to be mysterious or suspenful but it didn't work. The ending was predictable but still decent. A movie with problems but also a lot of amazing things. If anything, and once you movie ends and the morals of each character are known, it probably needs to be watched again.
SPOILERS
Made in 2002 it kind of predicts the future. So this was made before the the deep web, which let's face is mostly a controlled crime network, however you can draw comparisons. For example, on the deep web there are meant to be places called red rooms which are simular to the idea in this movie of bidding for fantasy, torture or death. And who buys it? A kid with daddies card. So at the end you get a social issue to deal with. All that make the movie a bit more chilling and relevant than it may thought to have been.