1995 - Rated R - 1 hr 43 min
Director: Robert Longo
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Henry Rollins
Pre-Matrix Keanu still hadn't earned his acting chops. In this movie, his talents are just one level up from his Bill & Ted days... not quite at their best yet. In other news, he stars opposite the chick from Starship Troopers, so that's interesting.
This movie takes place in 2021... sooooo long from now, right? And although we've advanced enough to download 80 GBs of data into people's brains (in exchange for their own memories), we're still sending faxes and dialing up with modems. Really? We can imagine memory chips in people's brains but digital phone cables are too much for us to think up in 1995?
Keanu's a "mnemonic courier" who moves info for people. In his head. He's got something big in there that's too much for his brain to manage so his adventures center around getting that stuff on out. When he discovers he's got the cure to a futuristic plague-like disease known as NAS, he might have to sacrifice some of himself to save the world. Dun dun DUN!
In its day, I'm sure this movie was pretty rad. Now, it's kinda lame. Some cool concepts executed poorly, but only because the technology of 1995 wasn't able to look this far ahead. As we approach 2021, I don't think we're quite where they wanted us to be in some areas, but I think we've made sustantial progress elsewhere. Somehow, we'll have to muddle through.
I know it's not a good movie but I actually kind of like this thing. There are little moments that work for me: Reeves and his "I want room service!" rant, Takeshi Kitano being sympathetic and creepy all at once and Dolph Lundgren giving what I think is probably his best performance ever ("Come to Jesus.")
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