Strange Days (1995)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.
9 connections found
View:
9 films that influenced Strange Days
What critics say influenced Strange Days
The basic premise of "Strange Days" rips off the 1983 sci-fi thriller "Brainstorm."
The single most punishing moment of Strange Days owes a specific debt to Michael Powell�s definitive treatment of voyeuristic pleasure, Peeping Tom (1960), and I could see couples huddling closer together and others slouching lower in their seats as a true high-tech perversion played itself out onscreen.
The supporting cast, which includes Tom Sizemore (Devil in a Blue Dress), a slimy Michael Wincott (The Three Musketeers), and Vincent D'Onofrio (Household Saints), is solid.
The movie paints a Los Angeles that stands midway between the futuristic nightmare of " Blade Runner " and the mean streets of 1940s film noir.
Anyone who has seen Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” or that film’s innumerable 2.0 follow-ups (“Strange Days,” “The Fifth Element”) will recognize this “Ghost” cityscape, with its jumbled forms, neo-noir shadows, patina of art-directed decay and its conspicuous Asian-Hollywood fusion touches.
Advertisement
Where Total Recall underused a similar concept, Strange Days takes the subject matter and runs with it.
Taking his cues from Ghost in the Shell‘s manga and anime incarnations, plus a host of cyberpunk media from Blade Runner to Strange Days and all points in between (Takeshi Kitano, here playing Section 9’s gruff chief, is a veteran of the Keanu Reeves/William Gibson misfire, Johnny Mnemonic), he gives us a near future tech-tropolis that feels new and intriguing even when it’s lifting directly from its source material – there’s just something about seeing these hologram-drenched vistas in “real life” rather than pen and ink.
Director Kathryn Bigelow (" Blue Steel ") and her designers and special-effects artists create the vision of a city spinning out of control.
The director has staked her turf in male preserves: Hell's Angelic bikers ("The Loveless," 1981), cowboy vampires ("Near Dark," 1987), tough cops ("Blue Steel," 1990).
For "Strange Days," co-writer/co-producer James Cameron (the "Terminator" films, "Aliens") and director Kathryn Bigelow ("Point Break," "Blue Steel") have stolen the device and upped the ante.
Besides being Bigelow's directorial debut, Near Dark is also her most satisfying film, largely because it has fewer of the ludicrous plot contrivances that mar Point Break, Blue Steel and Strange Days.
The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the director of the cult movie Near Dark and the Hollywood hit Point Break.
The director has staked her turf in male preserves: Hell's Angelic bikers ("The Loveless," 1981), cowboy vampires ("Near Dark," 1987), tough cops ("Blue Steel," 1990).
Advertisement
Thanks to director Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Strange Days), Point Break is an irrepressible action movie.
Needless to say, this particular perspective has given her some new angles on the genre as witnessed by this film and her previous Point Break in which she does some interesting things with an otherwise testosterone-injected subject.
And at any rate, this is miles ahead of her previous Point Break.
This is the premise of James Cameron's script for Strange Days, the technologically slick action/thriller directed by his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break).
The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the director of the cult movie Near Dark and the Hollywood hit Point Break.
For "Strange Days," co-writer/co-producer James Cameron (the "Terminator" films, "Aliens") and director Kathryn Bigelow ("Point Break," "Blue Steel") have stolen the device and upped the ante.