BEFORE: From a movie based on a story by Philip K. Dick, to one based on a story by William Gibson. I haven't read any of Gibson's books, but I know a little about them since my ex was into reading them. And we go from a film about a man with memory implants to one about a man with data-carrying implants. Linking via actors, Rachel Ticotin from "Total Recall" was also in "Something's Gotta Give" with Keanu Reeves (last seen in "Freaked").
THE PLOT: A data courier, carrying a data package inside his head too large to hold for long, must deliver it before he dies from it.
AFTER: Again, not knowing much about Gibson's work, this film doesn't appear to make much sense. This film was made in 1995, but the story it was based on was published in 1981, and both appear to be based on outdated assumptions about what the future would be like. Back then, people thought that in the 21st century we'd all be entertained by virtual reality, and our minds would travel around the net while our bodies sat in a room, hooked up to a IV drip or something. After all, the internet didn't even exist then, so we only had the view of futurists to tell us what it would be like.
Hindsight is 20/20, sure, but VR never really got off the ground. 3-D movies are not even close to the holodecks we were promised. For that matter, where's my flying car?
Computers have come a long way, as have phones and other devices. The human body, not so much. Sure, we've got organ transplants, but those have been around for years. Better artificial limbs, OK. But where are the data jacks for our brains? The phones that can be implanted into our skulls?
NITPICK POINT: You need to carry 380 gigs of memory to another city? Try a flash drive.
NITPICK POINT #2: If Johnny's brain can carry only 160 gigs, that's it. You can't just somehow load more than that capacity and have him struggle with it. If the data to be loaded is more than 160 gigs, then he just simply didn't get it all. Some screenwriter didn't seem to understand the word "capacity".
To say this film is confusing is an understatement. With so many parties interested in the data, it's tough to keep them all straight. I also wish there was some kind of point to it all, but I didn't really see one.
Also starring Dina Meyer, Ice-T (last seen in "3,000 Miles to Graceland"), Henry Rollins (last seen in "Bad Boys II"), Dolph Lundgren (last seen in "Rocky IV"), Udo Kier.
RATING: 2 out of 10 scalpels
I saw this one a LONG time ago, perhaps even in the movie theater.
ReplyDeleteI had played a video game which was set in a "cyberpunk" universe, and I wanted check out more of the "cyberpunk" stuff, so I read some of William Gibson's books. None of the books I read made much sense, and spent too long dwelling on fictional impractical technology, which is made worse now that it can be compared to current technological advances.
Your nitpicks certainly stood out when I first watched the film, which if I recall correctly, didn't make a lot of sense.
I remember when the Matrix originally came out, the first thing I thought was "why are they making John Mnemonic again?"