Strange Days
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Movie Reviews of Strange Days
Movie Review: Marvelous
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a masterpiece. Great characters, great plot, a lot of action and imput for a deep reflection about our future and our nature. And a marvelous love story.Movie Review: Bigelow's the best!
Summary: 5 Stars
I find Kathryn Bigelow's work is really amazing and she proves once again directing STRANGE DAYS that she controls her own pictures perfectly.Movie Review: Great premise!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is very suspenseful with a really neat premise. It's got problems, but who cares.Movie Review: Flawed, yeah, but a better movie than "Titanic"
Summary: 4 Stars
I missed Strange Days when it first came out, and I regret it. James Cameron has almost always been a sentimental fool, and his story for this film is no exception. However, his decision to farm it out to Kathryn Bigelow was inspired, because her films have always been wilder, more worrying and more extreme than his - with the noble exception of "The Terminator", the only Cameron film with the courage of its altogether ignoble convictions.It's sort of funny watching it now, in 2001, considering that the hi-tech-driven action is supposed to take place at the end of the last century. A lot of people have a problem with Ralph Fiennes as the hero, but I have a soft spot for old Ralphie - his whole schtick as an actor is about playing morally ambiguous characters who nevertheless have high ideals. He honed this doing Shakespeare on stage in the UK, and perfected it with his lover/traitor figure in "The English Patient". This is a test-run, as it were. Lenny Nero is a dealer in other people's memories who, god help him, believes in the product. His greasy hair, wheedling grin and obsession with his Armani suit are all beautifully of a piece, and his white knight complex is well-suited to his nervous charm and softly polished voice. It's a strange, lovely performance, in my opinion, even if some of the more baroque bits of tech-explanation are no more than perfectly competent. (Fiennes is great at the enjoyment of the memory technology, not quite so fluid at the exposition of it, but part of this is due to a more than slightly corny script.)
Tom Sizemore has a frankly alarming wig and a reliable turn in Dubious Friend, and that's all we want from him. Richard Edson - the original drummer for Sonic Youth, trivia fans - does a nice jittery job as Fiennes' techie contact. Angela Bassett is nothing less than splendid as Fiennes' protector, walking conscience and eventual...well, you'll have to see it, but you'll guess it pretty early on. She has at least one great line to deliver: "Memories are meant to fade, Lenny. They're designed that way for a reason."
Michael Wincott, as a sleazy rock manager to go with the gallery of other sleazy people he's spent a career bringing to the screen, and Juliette Lewis, as his protegee and Lenny's glamorously wasted Ex, are more than OK. Vincent D'Onofrio (one of the best actors in the world) carries off the psycho cop excellently, although any number of lesser actors could have done a comparable job.
The only problem is the script, which in its determined liberalism (the LAPD isn't really rife with racism, oh no, it's just a couple of loose cannons here and there) is at odds with the basically scary premise. In the end, it relies on the concept of The Good Cop and Real Love Conquering All. I don't suppose it could've been any other way, but...really.
The whole thing is executed (sic) with characteristic Bigelow panache. One nice piece of support casting is the Quebecois dancer Louise Lecavalier as one of Wincott's bodyguards - a genuinely scary presence, six feet of muscles, blond dreadlocks and an enigmatic smile. In all, it's a gutsier film than most, but the script veers away from its own momentum, and it ends up as just another potentially incredible movie gone respectable. Good to watch with a loved one, slippers, hot chocolate and a bottle of frozen vodka.
Movie Review: First Rate Thriller w/ a touch of Sci-Fi
Summary: 4 Stars
There are aspects of this movie that are sure to offend some people and it's obvious from the 1 star reviews that certain individuals were offended by those aspects of the film, which clearly clouded their judgment and precluded them from presenting an objective and accurate review.
The basic storyline is as follows: There exists a technology that was created by the government, which found it's way on the streets and has since been outlawed. Due to the emotional need for this new tech, it is created and sold on the underground (much like the situation with LSD in the 60's).
The technology is a device that allows the user to experience sequences that were recorded so that it is like they are really there in the scene. This is not virtual reality where you are the one moving around, you experience what was recorded exactly as it happened. The device works through sending the signal or whatever into the nuerotransmitters of the brain so all the senses are affected.
Most of the sequences are thrilling and allow people who live ordinary lives to experience certain behavior that they otherwise would never know, or people in relationships to experience sexual fantasies wherein they feel as if it is actually happening when it is not, hence they are not actually cheating. Then there are the more immoral sequences, the misuses, etc., that are the cause for the conflict in the film.
Feines is a dealer who is obsessed with his ex whom he has several sequences of which allows him to relive his past when they were together. He happens upon a sequence which is quite illegal, actually two of them, and he, along with a potential love interest (Angela Bassett), tries to find out who was responsible. What he finds out is a shocking cover-up that puts his life in danger.
Ignore the negative reviews, this movie is thrilling with a fascinating look at a riveting form of entertainment technology. It is not a straight-up sci fi flick, it is more than that. I would label it as a thriller with some sci fi aspects to it, not the reverse. The acting is well done and since it only takes place about 5 years in the future (from the time it was made), the setting does not look radically different than the present. To say it should is stupid. It is 12/31/1999, not 2050.
The best part of the film are the 'sequences', which are, of course, shot in the 1st person, and allows you to imagine what the person is feeling as he is hooked up to the device. As I mentioned, there are some disturbing scenes, including a crime involving a woman, that some people were upset over, but to ask how a woman could direct a movie that has a scene involving a crime against a female is insulting to any woman in the industry. What do you think, women should only be allowed to direct movies like Bridget Jones Diary? That is the more misogynistic view, in my opinion.
Regardless, Strange Days is a fascinating thriller w/ a great plot and riveting action, not to mention a brilliant opening scene, that will leave you fully satisfied.