Strange Days
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Movie Reviews of Strange Days
Movie Review: Much more than you might expect
Summary: 4 Stars
Obviously, this is a movie people either love or hate. Put me in the "love" category. I'm no James Cameron fan, and I found the first hour or so of "Titanic" so pretensious that I almost couldn't get through it. So I was shocked to find how much I loved "Strange Days." This is a gutsy film that takes a lot of chances in terms of plot, performance and presentation -- American critics claim that's what they want in American movies and, yet, when such a film comes around, they berate it for such.
At its most basic level, "Strange Days" is a thriller -- futuristic film noir, with all of the traditional characters. But don't let the title or the plot summaries fool you -- this is a film that is less about new technology, science fiction and the future, and much more about the volatility of race and police relations in the USA, laced with strong athemes of unrequited love, trust, and the darker side of massive urban cities in the USA -- all presented in a frighteningly authentic manner. This is a character-driven movie, not an effects-driven one.
This is also an ensemble piece, where even characters with just a few lines are essential to the mood and presentation, as well as giving the main actors juicy moments to play off of. Director Kathryn Bigelow maintains a frantic, claustrophobic pace in this film, never going for the obvious -- every scene has a point, big or small, which you know in the moment or that you will learn about later. The soundtrack enhances the visuals in a way rarely experienced in a modern film.
If nothing else, you will love Angela Bassett. She's amazing not for the kung fu moves -- her character is the voice of reason, and her performance is stunningly genuine (and heart-breaking at times).
This movie is as flawed, and as classic, as Bladerunner. Time will tell if it gets as much respect.
Movie Review: Film noir of a brutal and unrelenting sort
Summary: 4 Stars
Most of the negative reviews of this film have centered on brutality of certain scenes, and less than ennobling characters who (in some minds, at least) represent disrespect to an entire race or gender. This film has some unforgiving scenes, particularly one horrific rape scene that ends in strangulation. If you think of a society as a perfect mime of all bad things that occur in films, then you might well be disgusted.I don't.
Many stock characterizations are used to great effect in this film, since film-noir essentially repackages the same feeling of mystery and danger every time. Ralph Fiennes plays a former vice cop turned pusher, and what he markets is the recorded memories of street life and sex - i.e. the stuff that the middle class wants without the risk of offending the law or their popularly held ethics. With all down-on-their-luck detectives, it's the personal relationships that provide the drama once things begin to turn dark. Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis are the women in his life, the former being the one who wants him in spite of himself and the one who he wants without the faintest glimmer of love returned.
It's an excellent mystery, and it never failed to keep me wondering about the resolution - which is what makes mystery entertaining. Never doubt that you are watching a film about people who regularly perform criminal acts, attempting to solve a mystery with which the police cannot be bothered. It's not a pretty or conventionally moral world that this film depicts, and the fact that it almost exists already adds to its impact tremendously.
Restrain judgment until you can appreciate the wondrous sleaziness and imaginative use of noir conventions. It's suspenseful, hits hard and ends better than the plot usually plays in reality.
Movie Review: Strange Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
I have a feeling this movie was very much overlooked by the movie goers when it was released. It was unjustified.This movie is about a new technology that puts your X-Box, Game Cube, PS2, and PC to shame for entertainment. You get to see, feel, exist in whatever the program is. Why? because the program was made using impulses taken directly from the brain of the person doing the deed, whether it be robbing a store, doing something a bit kinky, or commiting a murder. The tech is illegal, so it is all underground. That is where the fun starts.
The movie is set in the last few days of 1999, so you get a glimps of the future as seen from the past. The movie surrounds this one disc that contains something that everyone wants, something that can change the way things are. Sorry, no spoilers, folks. However, it is most likely NOT what you are thinking it is; it was not for me.
Very well made, much in the style of Dark Angel, which makes sense as Cameron wrote it. Cameron may have been thrown into the forfront by Titanic, but his best work in in sci-fi. Works like The Terminator, T2, The Abyss, and Aliens, just to rattle a few off. Do keep in mind, though, Cameron wrote and produced this only, the camera work was done by a very able Kathryn Bigelow, who has also done Point Break. This movie is far and away a better film than Point Break.
Movie Review: PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999
Summary: 4 Stars
STRANGE DAYS requires a little patience; it's first quarter is chaotic and doesn't seem to be taking us anywhere. However, once its basic storyline takes focus, the movie turns out to be an entertaining if disturbing look at violence and man's destructive and obsessive tendencies. It's the end of the 20th Century and the "drug" of choice is a virtual reality type of device that allows its user to experience not only the activities of someone else, but the emotions that person feels while experiencing it.
Ralph Fiennes plays a former vice squad cop who sells these tapes to people and finds himself involved in a murderous situation. Angela Bassett is very good as Fiennes' driver and apparent lover whose moral code surpasses Fiennes and who refuses to experience these tapes. Michael Wincott is a sleazy record producer and a sorely miscast Juliette Lewis is Fiennes' true love. A long haired Tom Sizemore is Ralph's best friend and also a former cop. Vincent D'Onofrio and William Fichtner have early roles as renegade cops who murder a controversial rap star.
Director Kathryn Bigelow tries some interesting point of view camera shots but should have trimmed some of the excess fat; it might have made a much better movie.
Movie Review: Good action movie. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett shine.
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed Strange Days. At first I had to get over their depressing view of a present-future New York that is essentiall a police state where people getting shot in crowds hardly makes people pause. I thought Ralph Fiennes was excellant as Lenny(not to mention very pleasing on the eyes and ears- he is aptly named). At first it was hard to care about his character, but as the movie progressed I began to empathize with him. Angela Bassett was also wonderful as Mace, his friend who becomes his love interest. It was nice to have a female lead in an action film that did not need a knight in shining armor, but actually rescues the hero. To be honest, I was more into the romance between Mace and Lenny. Their history together could have been better developed, like how Mace went from grieving single mother who waits tables to a limo driver that kicks ass on the side and how Lenny got kicked off the LAPD and became a wire head. Despite their sketchy past together, the romance comes to a satisfying end complete with a bloodied but still oh so fine hero laying a nice long smooch on his woman. The action was also a bit more unpredicatable than most action films which was nice.