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Strange Days (1995) Cert 18. Director - Kathryn Bigelow. Writer - James Cameron. Starring - Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis & Tom Sizemore. |
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Premise - It's the eve of the new millennium and clip (recorded memories downloaded direct into the brain) peddler Nero (Fiennes) is given a clip of a murder. It's a race against time to find out who the killer is and how it connects with the murder of race figure/rapper Jeriko One. This film is a strange one. It doesn't seem to know what it is. At some points it's a science fiction action movie, at other times it feels like a racial drama and sometimes it's a film noir. The film suffers because of this. In trying to fit all of these themes and plot strands into one movie it clocks in at a but numbing 140 mins. If they dumped the whole race story they could have shaved a good half-hour and kept themselves with a decent sci-fi action noir type thing. James Cameron wrote the script and he passed it onto Bigelow (Point Break) to go and make a little film called Titanic. You almost wish he hadn't passed because you feel that Cameron would have made a straight Sci-fi flick and probably a damn good one at that. The performances are good Feinnes is as always excellent and Basset shows a hard edge not seen before. Lewis seems to be there purely to look good and doesn't really have much to do apart from that. Sizemore again shows why he is one of the best supporting actors in the business. Cameron's script is tight and the various twists and turns are well handled and not obvious. Bigelow proved in Point Break that she can make a good looking film and Strange days indeed is good looking. I seem to remember liking this film more, it is a touch dated (clips are stored on Mini Discs!). It's just the whole race story seems to be tacked on and I think would have been better left out. It's worth a look though. Look out for one of my favourite bands Skunk Anansie at the end of the movie. |
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6/10 for Strange Days. Poster quote - Strangely not bad. |