Customer Reviews

Strange Days (Widescreen)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

One of the sci-fi masterpieces of the nineties, "Strange Days" is a movie that has a bit of everything and ends up being a terrific cinematic experience. Set in a near future, the story deals with classic themes like virtual reality, thought control or the share of memory, providing and exciting and engaging cyberpunk adventure.

Director Kathryn Bigelow creates a futuristic LA that manages to be both sophisticated and believable, avoiding the over-the-top, utopic and not very realistic depictions of future societies presented in other sci-fi films.

Although "Strange Days" is basically a thriller, it is way above many run-of-the-mill movies of its genre, as it suceeds at combining its key elements perfectly. The direction is dynamic, unique and fast-paced, adding style and energy with an excellent sense of rythm, flow and tension.

The acting is also a plus, since Ralph Fiennes is unforgettable as the flawed anti-hero Lenny and Angela Basset shines as his sister-in-arms Mace. This duo makes for an odd, yet original and memorable couple, delivering some enticing and moving scenes. It`s also interesting seeing the female character protecting the male for a change, making for a clever reverse of the predictable and typical scenario of most action flicks. Juliette Lewis is also convincing as the dark and feral femme fatale, especially when she sings a P.J. Harvey song to perfection (one of the many excellent and remarkable moments of this movie).

"Strange Days" is much more than a futuristic thriller, providing a rich cinematic experience that brings issues such as isolation, trust, friendship, love and life in general. Every scene is compelling and intriguing, and the plot is very well developed, culminating in a tense, dynamic and huge finale with a superb climatic ending. Kudos to the soundtrack, by the way, especially the Skunk Anansie live presence during the last scenes that adds a lot of edge, mood and atmosphere to that peculiar chase sequence.

Overall, this movie is definitely an underrated classic and a must-have. Forget overrated stuff like the boring and very flawed "Blade Runner", since "Strange Days" is a much more compelling and solid sci-fi masterpiece.

Highly recommended.

It's a great movie about a guy who sells illusions through some kind of a headset to people who want to feel a variety of different feelings. Danger, Happiness etc. The problem is it is not only forbiden but it gets in the hands of the wrong people and then the problems begin! Don't hesitate! Buy this movie!!!

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.

I saw this originally in the theater in 1995, and even then I thought they did a very poor job of creating a convincing "futuristic" environment, although the millennium was only 4.5 years away at that time. Except for the gimmicky memory-recording-cd- headgear (stolen from a very similar but more thoughtful movie in the 80s called "Brainstorm", Natalie Wood's last film), there is nothing science-fictionish about this movie AT ALL...neither does it have anything interesting to say about life at the turn of the new century.

Only 8 years old now and STRANGE DAYS plays as very dated and very creaky looking AND sounding. No mention of the internet although it was very much there in 1995. Cars, music and (very bad looking and unflattering) costumes scream 1995, and make no comment or interpretation about the near future.

Ralph Fiennes -- an otherwise fine actor -- is horribly miscast. Does no one even question why a former LA cop would have a British accent? He is totally unconvincing. Juliette Lewis, also capable of good performances although her overall screen career is terrible -- so horribly annoying you just want to slap her -- there is nothing here to suggest why Lenny Nero would be so obsessed with her except that she has a hot body and looks about 17. Ms. Lewis should have sued Kathryn Bigelow or James Cameron for presenting her in such a wretching unflattering way -- the film just makes her look awful with a bright red fright wig and unbecoming clothing.

A lot of really fine actors, including Michael Wincott, Tom Sizemore, Vincent D'Onofrio, etc. are utterly and completely wasted in this dreck. Their characters are not developed in the slightest and they basically play stock stereotypes, i.e., the venal rock and roll manager, the crooked cop, etc.

Only gorgeous Angela Bassett comes out of this spelling like a rose -- she looks beautiful and plays a really tough, physical character. It's interesting to see the idea of a passive, weak male character being protected by a strong physical female protagonist, but it isn't explored in any interesting way here. You do get to see her kick some serious butt but that's all. The romance between Mace and Lenny feels tacked on, and has no erotic charge at all -- they only kiss briefly at the very end.

Horrible production values! The film is dark and not in some clever "noir" way but as if the director hoped she could hide the boring sets and ugly costumes this way. No interesting special effects or CGI. Violence is constant and gratuitous and adds nothing to the storyline but cheap shocks and a feeling (odd in a film directed by a WOMAN) of misogynism. The music -- a few bits of legit rock music (not much) and to pay for it, you have to listen to Juliette Lewis SING...aaarrrggghh.

Worst of all is the script, totally lame, violent, unoriginal. My first thoughts on seeing it in the theater was that there was almost nothing of science fiction here, just a cheap exploitative serial killer type of film with a gimmick (and not an original one, either), and that it has nothing to say about the millennium, which it SHOULD HAVE, being that it was filmed at the end of the 20th century. It's even more lame today considering all we have seen happen (the internet, 9-11, etc.).

Don't even bother to rent this one, let alone buy it. I am sure all the actors who particpated in this mess are sorry they did so.

"Strange Days" stars the incomparable Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Lewis as former lovers in a futuristic, bent-for-hell society. Fiennes plays Lenny, whose career is selling vicarious, virtual reality experiences to people. They experience these by putting on headsets with tapes that Lenny has culled from his underworld contacts. Things turn even uglier when a serial killer gets turned on by making his own tapes of his murders, while they are being committed, and sends them to Lenny. Lenny tries to rescue Lewis from the even darker underworld people she now lives with but it is an uphill battle. This is one of my favorite Ralph Fiennes performances plus Bigelow at the top of her game.

Where was I when the film "Strange Days" was released? Where were you? Do any of you remember it?

It's awesome...electrifying...superbly cast...well edited...a riveting soundtrack...and a must-see for thriller fans.

No! This is not another review of one of my horror flicks. This is simply a thriller...non-stop from start to finish. It's sci-fi theme is so subtle, you really don't feel like it's unreal.

If you liked "Natural Born Killers", "The Salton Sea", "Blow", and other riveting classics, this one's for you. How can you go wrong with a cast like this?

It stars Ralph Fiennes. Ralph, who is also the Red Dragon in last year's three-quel of "Silence of the Lambs", smuggles SQUIDS. What are SQUIDS? As you know, I don't give away plots. Let me just say that Ralph is "the Santa Claus of the subconscious" and peddles real-life cerebral clips (I'll leave it at that).

He's joined by Juliette Lewis, who starred in "Natural Born Killers" and is just as dynamic in her role as a rock star in this gem.

Add to that Angela Bassett, who is (to me) the best African-American female actress on the planet. You will agree when you see her this time.

Not to mention Tom Sizemore, who starred as the police investigator in "The Salton Sea".

Then there's Michael Wincott, who starred in one of my all-time classic films, "The Doors".

And how about Vincent D'Onofrio, who also starred in "The Salton Sea", "Men In Black" and "Full Metal Jacket"?

Needless to say, the film also cast Glenn Plummer as a rock hero. Glenn also starred in "The Salton Sea" as the dealer with the "crossbow"...remember?

Add to that the bizarre twists and turns that culminate with a shocking ending. This movie never ends. It takes you down a road map filled with lefts, rights, u-turns and rollovers.

And yes, for you guys (and gals), it is sexy. The thread that holds the movie together is the passion of a man yearning to keep his woman...a woman wanting his man to understand "love"...an underground populace searching for fantasy and surreal "clips".

This film will take you on a journey you've never experienced. The cover of the DVD box reads..."...anything is possible. Nothing is forbidden." Right on! If my review helps you decide, then don't try a rental. Go buy it! I guarantee you'll watch it more than once, twice, thrice.....

On a scale of 1-10 in this genre', "Strange Days" gets a 10. It was a 9 until I realized how hypnotic Juliette Lewis can be. She has a raw talent to be rough, sexy, real, passionate and spoiled...all in one breath. Her appeal should be a standard in Hollywood these days. She's totally believable and uncensorable. ENJOY!

I wanted to like this. Really, I did. I worship both Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett. But this just turned out to be another dark, muddled virtual-reality fantasy.

Film noir is one thing, but this was just too damned dark. I'm sorry that technology has gotten to the point where directors feel that they can shoot dark scenes without additional lighting, because they abuse it. I spent most of this movie wishing that I had a pair of US Army-issue night goggles, just so that I could follow the action. Because, honey, I could barely see half of the movie.

This film had nothing novel to say about virtual-reality; in that respect, it was just a warmed-over version of "Total Recall" and a half-dozen others of that time.

Another reviewer noted the fact that this "futuristic" movie, which was made in 1995, made no mention of the concept of the Internet. That's the problem with these "a few years in the future" type movies - by the time they actually come out, they're out-of-date, and within a few years they're almost quaint in their datedness.

The only thing that made it worth watching was the kiss at the end.

This is a fun and interesting movie, which is a sort of Film Noir about a not-too-distant future (well, technically, now passed). The film takes place in 1999, and a kind of mind recording device has been created which allows experiences to be replayed verbatim. The main character is a really sleazy pusher ex-cop, who gets caught up in a murder mystery. The murder victim is one half Malcolm X and one half Tupac Shaqur.

I found the racial subplot interesting, and the surprise ending was fun. I highly recommend this movie.

I love movies I can identify with. Lenny is just one of the guys in this movie that helps me do that. An ex-cop thrown off the vice squad for falling in love with a prostitute he later burns for. He spends his days dealing illegal clips to make ends meet. He goes from club to club. His sleazy, slacker and loser image is what makes him so admirable in this movie. He is a man that his lost the one thing that makes him happy.

A great sci-fi type film that is perfect for the single, loser, stay at home friday night type of guy like myself.

This was a sub-par bit of sci fi that recycles the 'future is desolate' idea of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and the 'wouldn't it be interesting to explore the thoughts and experiences of someone else?' idea of Dreamscape. People in a gloomy almost Y2K LA jack into other people's lives. A couple of the life experiences available for public consumption turn out to be killings. The talented actors waste a lot of time flailing around trying to figure out among other thing who the killer is.

The voyeuristic... murder mystery portion of the plot is an interesting idea but so it's cluttered with a bunch of cheap false leads and worse Ray Fiennes character mooning over Juliette Lewis as to kill the story idea. The actors do their best and the special effects are little more than good film editing. Mostly it's a way to [spend] two hours but you can definitely get better science fiction for your money.