Sleep Dealer (2008)

good back-story, and good acting

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

It's great to finally see a sci-fi that does global injustice right. Elysium was pretty good, but it doesn't capture the gritty realism the way Sleep Dealer did.This drama is effective because it hits close to the reality between US and Mexico. It takes that godawful situation and built a very interesting story intertwined with a technology that could one day exist. The combination of poverty with technology makes for some awesome cyberpunk.The CG is a bit on the crappy side, but I could overlook it because the movie was story driven. It didn't rely on special effects. The visuals that did work did awesomely. They helped build the tone and didn't function as cheap shortcut.Say adios to high budget garbage.

Pretty good movie. I did not expect it to be in Spanish, but it was, so I had to read thru out the movie, but it was pretty good. I liked the message of the movie especially me being a computer geek & all. I like technology & I have been using it since the Commodore 64 & Apple II & TRS-80 days, you know BBS then CompuServe 2400 baud modems, but I do not think that we should go all tech, but only some & without damaging our living earth because if the earth stays healthy & alive, then so do we. I use Technology as a tool others think of tech as the end all & I think us the earth & tech can get along. Plus I to build on to our earth & never damage our earth with our advancements because that is not what any of us with good sense want. We want harmony between tech, humans & the earth & future tech & with a-future nature to use it for good, to help people & not to hurt people like most Sci-Fi movies that I have saw.. I hope in the future that people can live where they choose & not be judged by there ethnicity, language barriers or how much money one has because that to me does not matter & will never matter. I will always be for humans & all of them & not a selected few. Great message & great Movie. Go Watch It!

Sleep Dealer is a science fiction film. Memo works in a factory but tells his story through flashbacks. His father owned a farm which shut down due to a dam built nearby. Memo becomes a hacker and is able to break into a military computer system. He intercepts communications and is almost caught. A drone detects him and attacks their trailer nearby, killing his father. He takes a bus to Tijuana and meets Luz, who has nodes on her wrist which taps into a network. She uploads memories to a trading company, and she tells him how to get the nodes on the black market. Nemo is robbed and later has cyber sex with Luz and discovers that she is selling memories of him to the network. While online, he finds Ramirez, the pilot of the drone that killed his father, and they partner up to take on the evil global government. Sleep Dealer is sci-fi with a conscience; the story is good, with solid acting. Alex Rivera had previously made documentaries detailing the struggles of immigrants. He shows promise as s director and I look forward to his next movie.

This is a better sci-fi than "Surrogates." The same weekend (June 20-21) that I saw Duncan Jones' "Moon", I was fortunate to catch the indie sci-fi "Sleep Dealer," an outstanding debut film by Alex Rivera, who also co-wrote the script. The movie poster image was impressive: a human body with several wired plug-in nodes (somehow it gave a chilling memory of "Maria Full of Grace" 2004, where Maria the carrier consumed pellets into her body - similar body for sale aspect). It briefly reminds me of William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" (1995, with Keanu Reeves and Ice-T).A presumably simple story yet it will absorb you to attentively follow the plot and be anxious about what will happen next. The script is full of global diversity awareness and touching on current social issues like outsourcing by corporations, 'cheap labor' and satellite communications, technological connections by downloading - "nodes plug-in's for remote work order." In the center of it all, a family-related human drama is not forgotten - providing possible clues to story threads and a pensive ending (depending on how you view it, of course). No wonder Rivera won the screen writing award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, besides winning the feature film prize.Director Rivera made a point to include both English and Spanish credit titles with each name listed at the end credit roll - appreciate his inclusiveness and being cognizant of diverse and global sensibility in "Sleep Dealer." At the opening credits, noted interesting production company names: "Likely Story" (indeed!) and "This is That" Productions. Check out the official web site 'sleepdealer.com' for more on this gem of a sci-fi.See "Surrogates" unless you're a 'die hard' Bruce Willis fan. See "District 9" for aliens premise and glorious sci-fi action (and storyline with a twist). But do not miss "Moon" and "Sleep Dealer" - remarkable sci-fi films released this year of 2009, both directorial debut features from two talented and promising filmmakers: Duncan Jones and Alex Rivera respectively.