Strange Days (1995)

Powerful

Please don't spend money on this.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

With SQUIB (Super Conducting Quantum Interface Device), we have a heightened version of virtual reality in which the wearer of the unit experiences pleasure or pain as if he were taking part in the scene he's witnessing. The images presented are from real life rather than simulated, and often create a visceral response in the participant, which is one of the reasons the technology has gone black market. The stuff Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) deals in goes by the name of 'wire tripping', somewhat of a misnomer unless you consider the makeup of the headpiece worn by the user.The film has a futuristic feel even now, though the way distant future of 1999 was only four years down the road from it's release date in 1995. I have a particular fondness for New Year's Eve 1999, because that was the last day I served in a job that I really came to dislike. I'd say hated but I enjoyed most of the people I worked with, so that's my only reservation. So I like to say that I began the New Year, new decade and new millennium self employed, though sticklers would point out that the new millennium didn't begin until the first of the year in 2001. But it's a moot point for most people and easy enough to get away with.Juliette Lewis surprised me in this film, not so much in the portrayal of her character Faith, but in those night club sequences in which she sang. The trivia section for this film states that she did her own vocals, and if that's the case, I have to wonder why she didn't take up performing as an adjunct to her movie career. I thought she conveyed the raw emotion of Janis Joplin, who remains to this day as my favorite female singer. Maybe it was the setting and the way Lewis was captured on camera, but I thought she did a tremendous job.The other surprise was Angela Basset in her role as Lornette 'Mace' Mason, limo driver and part time bodyguard for Lenny Nero. Her buff physique made her actions scenes look credible, though I didn't quite understand the fascination she held for Lenny as a romantic interest. Yeah, he was an ex-cop, but conducted his life pretty much as a sleazeball whereas she had a touch of class Lenny couldn't aspire to. But then again, it takes all kinds.As for the story, it got rather cliched after a while, with events ratcheting up once the clip surfaced of the two corrupt cops (Vincent D'Onofrio, William Fichtner) murdering rapper Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer). The twist I was expecting didn't happen though. I was pretty sure that Commissioner Strickland (Josef Sommer) would turn out to be at the top of the bad guy food chain, but that wasn't the case. The inevitable ending for Lenny's 'best friend' Max (Tom Sizemore) wasn't one of your more original outcomes, but did prove once again the old adage that it's not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop.

Probably one of the best big-budget sci-fi films to never reach a big audience. Written and produced by James Cameron and expertly directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this film is more noir than actual sci-fi - although the sci-fi elements are important. With a great cast and an amazing atmosphere throughout, this is one not to miss for fans of thrillers, film noir, sci-fi and especially the subgenre knwon as cyberbunk. 8 stars out of 10.In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's a list with some of my favorites:imdb.com/list/ls070242495

I just got done watching the 1995 sci-fi film "Strange Days," which IS science fiction, per se, but in some ways it really isn't. It's really more of a film-noir thriller with a strong cyberpunk ambiance that happens to be set in the then-future 1999."Strange Days" in a lot of ways is a time capsule of sorts. Reportedly inspired by the Lorena Bobbitt case (which happened to occur in my home town) and the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict, "Strange Days" takes the social unrest and unease that surely pervaded the psyche of most people living in L.A. at that time - and combined it with elements of the emerging sci-fi cyberpunk sub-culture and speculations on the future of virtual reality technologies.This all makes for an emotionally exhausting head-trip for those that aren't ready for it. While its screenplay was ultimately credited to filmmaker James Cameron and Jay Cocks (based on a story by Cameron that was conceived sometime around 1986), the real show of force here is director Kathryn Bigelow, Cameron's then-wife who at the time was best-known for the vampire film "Near Dark" (1987), and the action films "Blue Steel" (1990) and "Point Break" (1991). That Bigelow, a woman, was able to direct some of the more notable, male-lead action films of the early 1990s, says something about her strengths as a filmmaker and her ability to make adrenaline-fueled thrillers that are as good as her male counterparts.I have a personal history with "Strange Days" that goes back to not long after the film was first released on home video. I was just 10 when this film was released in 1995, and remember seeing it late at night sometimes out of my parents' strict supervision. Although I didn't understand the film at all, there was something very tantalizing about the so-called "forbidden fruit" of a film laden with so much sex, violence, profanity, racial tension and anxiety, and even some well-timed black humor. I would see the film again years later, post-2000 and Y2K, as a teenager and young adult and now that I'm in my early 30s, I feel that I finally have a grasp of it and everything that it was saying about the direction we as a society were taking circa-1995.The film by itself is simply a technical wonder, especially with its first-person action sequences (which I'm surprised is something that hasn't been attempted more often, especially now in 2017, with such significant advances in camera technology over the years). "Strange Days" is worth the admission price alone just for its exhilarating first-person opening sequence, which was planned and executed with daring precision.Set over the last two days of 1999 in Los Angeles, the city is like a war zone with the military and police fighting the roving gangs 24/7 to try to maintain the peace and order. Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is a former L.A. police officer-turned-black marketer who deals illegally in virtual experiences. He deals in SQUID technology, which is a headset that records events directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex and those memories are then played back through a MiniDisc player-like device, which allows the user to experience the recorder's memories and physical sensations. When he's not dealing SQUIDs, he's lost in the recorded memories of his failed relationship with Faith (sultry Juliette Lewis), an aspiring rock singer, and drinking with his private-eye friend Max (Tom Sizemore).Lenny eventually comes across a particularly volatile SQUID recording - which he calls a "blackjack" and is basically a snuff film - that throws him into a vast conspiracy, and which several factions are willing to kill to get back. He brings Max and another friend, limousine driver and bodyguard Mace (Angela Bassett), to help him uncover the truth behind the SQUID recording and save Faith, whom he also realizes is in danger by those seeking to get it back."Strange Days," like "Blade Runner" (1982) before it - and with whom this film shares some common ground in influencing science fiction and cyberpunk - initially polarized audiences and critics when it was first released in 1995. But also like "Blade Runner," "Strange Days" became a widely popular cult film in its own right. Perhaps one reason is because "Strange Days," with its talk of virtual experiences and "jacking in" lingo (derived from cyberpunk authors as distinguished as William Gibson, of "Neuromancer" fame) would go on to influence "The Matrix" (1999). "The Matrix" pulled a lot from cyberpunk and science fiction films released in the '90s - "Strange Days" obviously being one of them, even if it isn't so obvious. And "The Matrix" was a culmination of these ideas and the techno-paranoia that suffused much of science fiction in the 1990s.Seeing this film 22 years after its release - which doesn't seem like that long ago and yet it is - "Strange Days" is quite a powerful experience (and I mean that in more ways than one). The performances are top-notch, especially Ralph Fiennes as the slick yet high-strung anti-hero Lenny, Angela Bassett as the tough and beautiful Mace, and Juliette Lewis as the endangered Faith (who actually sings in her music sequences and prefigures her career with her future punk band Juliette and the Licks). James Cameron is my favorite director of all time ("The Terminator" is my favorite work of his and is my favorite science fiction film), and this film's screenplay bears many of his usual trademarks, but again this is Kathryn Bigelow's film all the way. It's always been great to see someone like her do things as good, if not better, than the boys do.But still, these are some Strange Days that we're living in...9/10

It's the last days of 1999 in a violent Los Angeles. Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is an ex-cop who trades in clips of recorded memories. Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) records the wearer's brain waves which can be played and experienced. The technology is illegal and he works in the black market. Meanwhile, call girl Iris (Brigitte Bako) barely escapes from policemen Burton Steckler (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Dwayne Engelman (William Fichtner). They discover that she was wearing a SQUID. She finds her friend Lenny's car and slips him a clip. Lenny still misses his ex Faith Justin (Juliette Lewis) who left him for music producer Philo Gant (Michael Wincott). Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore) is Lenny's brash scraggly lowlife friend. Mace (Angela Bassett) is his more put-together friend.Fiennes has great jittery sleaziness. I like the idea of this gritty near-future including its campy touches. James Cameron may have stuffed in too much story. The movie needs to cut out something and I would probably pick Faith. Iris can instead be Lenny's ex. It would elevate the intense need to find her. The rest could be a great revenge film. The movie is so full that it doesn't really need the extra twist. Kathryn Bigelow's direction is good although she may need more substance to throw at the screen. She needs a bit more special effects and a little less of the cheaper looking real world stuff. A desolate street is just as effective as one filled with people. It looks like she tried to stage multiple riots which ends up looking cheesy. The money could be better spent with a trashed abandoned bad side of the town. The story gets a bit too complex and some simplification would be helpful.