Strange Days (1995)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Bombastic assault on the senses disguised as a "brainy" sci-fi action film. Set in 1999, the film follows former cop turned fast-talking street hustler Ralph Fiennes, who specializes in selling disks containing the memories and emotions of people, which is apparently the drug du jour. When he stumbles on a disk containing the murder of a prostitute, he becomes embroiled in a police conspiracy, rape, murder and assorted sordid elements in order to rescue former girlfriend Juliette Lewis from peril.The premise for the film sounds a lot better than the execution and there is enough promise implicit in the material to give one the idea of what may have been if it had a director who could fashion a coherent narrative and sympathetic characters. As it stands, it is impossible to tell which element of the film eviscerates it first, or whether it is a cooperative effort. The film employs an ear-shattering soundtrack, chronic noise and flashing lights, and assorted irritating visual flourishes apparently believing that everyone in the audience suffers from ADHD.The storyline is convoluted to say the least and director Kathryn Bigelow seems to be on only a nodding acquaintance with it. Bigelow, whose entire directorial output could conceivably have been directed by a testicle in the throes of puberty, simply does not exist in the same zip code as logic or common sense, and often sacrifices it for the next big bang, which is never as exciting as she apparently believes it to be. She seems uncomfortable directing women and thus the misogyny is laid on with a trowel. The female characters in the film are on hand only to strip, be raped, be beaten or murdered. Even Angela Bassett's tough chauffeur/bodyguard is subjected to a graphic beating, which tastelessly draws parallels to the Rodney King beating of the era.The acting is a real mixed bag. Tom Sizemore and Vincent D'Onofrio trot out their stale sleazeball routines for another go-round. Fiennes, who seems to be jacked up on too much caffeine, has rarely been this aggravating on screen. Bassett fares best despite being badly directed, but still cannot make the last act attraction between her and Fiennes even remotely plausible. And just when you think things cannot get worse, Lewis comes on screen with a teeth-grindingly wretched performance that could single-handedly derail far better films.Bigelow and company try to tie up the film's voluminous loose ends in an unsuccessful final orgy of violence and exposition, but your patience will have long vanished before then. Despite attempts by Bigelow groupies to rehabilitate the film's image (it was both a critical and box office bust at the time), it still remains a shallow, unwatchable mess with entire passages so unappealing that your first instinct is to take a very hot shower and scrub away anything that might linger from having experienced it.

One of the best films of the 90s and this should be next on Criterion releases. Highly overlooked. See this film. Great job Katheryn Bigelow!! If any of you are fans of the first Matrix (an OK movie) you will notice that Neo tries to sell clips before he finds the Matrix. One of our finest actors gives her best performances in this film. Angela Basset plays the tough character protecting the weak clip dealer. A wonderful flip of gender strengths! I cant recommend this too highly but I can catergorize it under the file called "you had to be there". Seeing the teaser of this before it came out had everyone talking. "OMG, WHAT IS THIS? It set in 1999, thats so far away! What will happen!!!???" Id be ashamed if I did not mention it has another great performance by Michael Wincott. See this now and get the amazing soundtrack. "Are you beginning to see the possibilties here??"

Have you ever wanted to experience life in someone else's shoes? Wanted to feel what they felt? See exactly what they say? See what another sees through his/her mind? Strange Days takes you closer to this than ever before, turning adrenaline junkies into full-fledged addicts. Brand new at the literal turn of the century this highly addictive and as of yet unattainable type of Virtual Reality takes over the city. One in which Adrenaline junkies get addicted to the high of living vicariously through the memories of other people. Dealers deal "hardware" and "clips". The story follows Nero, one such dealer. While there are difficulties with the plot this film forces us to live the reality of that which entertains us. Rather than inundating the audience with random acts of violence as simple entertainment, we are forced to recognize individual acts of violence as memories in people's real lives. We are able to see our own death through the eyes of our killer. This Virtual Reality experience highlights the sordid reality of what entertains us as people.

Before going into this review, I was under the impression that this film was going to be an action-packed, futuristic, sci-fi experience when in reality it more closely resembled a "what if scenario" of the world (or apparently just LA) going down the drain. It plays on a lot of people's fears about the end of the world and conspiracy theories, especially back then with the uncertainty of ringing in the new millennium. With that out of the way, I found the concept of being able to record memories and loading them onto disks to be shared to be very intriguing because of the possibilities for asynchronous communication. While not being able to communicate instantaneously, it should be noted that the sharing of memories and even physical sensations gave users the sense of looking through another person's eyes (or living in another man's shoes). The film's take on virtual reality was something I'd never seen before played out. As seen in the film, this can and was easily abused, being illegally marketed in the form of a digital drug and using them as surveillance to spy on people.