Subject: Review: Dark City (1998)

From: Matthew Brissette <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Feb 1998 06:35:31 GMT

For about five minutes , Dark City is the most boring experience of
your life: A narrator explains how beings from a distant galaxy are
experimenting on us poor humans to gain better understanding of the
soul. These beings , called strangers , use a technique called "tuning"
to shape reality into whatever fits their purposes. Following this corny
intro , we are introduced to our heroes and villains at such a rapid
fire pace that we fail to become immersed in this film. So yeah , for
five minutes Dark City left me wondering if i should abandon my jumbo
tub o' crispy , threatening to establish a permanent home in my throat
and foul tasting pieces of dried up boogers ( commonly known as popcorn
) to the mercy of the kid kicking the back of my seat.

	Then the fun began...

	Let me tell you , Dark City is the real deal. An expertly woven story ,
more twists and turns than Ronald Reagan 's brow , acting ranging superb
to good , a creepy music score and the coolest special effects in recent
memory. Now i know what you are thinking , that any second from now i
will start singing a song praising the glory of this movie. You might
even suspect i think that Dark City is the second coming of movies.
Eeeenh! Wrong , i am not trying to get more people into theaters to see
this flick , as a matter of fact i happen to think that some people
should stay away from it and stick to more healthy flicks like Titanic
and Good Will Hunting.

	Movies like this cater to a very small audience. Let me put it this way
, if you hated Event Horizon because of it's religious overtones , hated
the Devil 's Advocate because you thought that "it was all a dream" like
some idiots i know and had trouble swallowing Contact because the
possibility of alien life is way over your head...stay away from this
movie. All you will do is walk away from it and tell all your friends
that "it 's so darned stupid". That 's how closed minded most people
are. 

	End of rant.

	If you liked to movies mentioned above then you will enjoy Dark City.
Not that the Devil and religion in general are important in this story
but if you can buy that the Devil is here on earth , you have the
necessary requirements to appreciate DC. 

	I will not give away anything more of the plot , just like the trailers
for the movie. If you know too much it will ruin the half dozen
surprises scattered throughout the movie. Suffice it to say , your jaw
will drop to the sticky theater floor more than once. ( Just watch out
for the green stuff on the floors , i hear it 's radioactif. ) In fact ,
i felt that the less than talkative trailers added to the fun i had. Who
needs to see Wesley Snipes jump from the building in the trailer for U.S
Marshalls? Or Bruce Willis save the kid from Mercury Rising before the
train crushes him? 

	But i am moving away from my review. Rufus Sewell stars , for some
reason he reminded me of Luke Skywalker. Especially during his final
confrontation with the head stranger ( strangest stranger? ) who looks a
bit like an unmasked Darth Vader. ( You know , the old dried up prune
look. )

	Anyway , i recommend Dark City over most movies now in theaters ,
except for most of the oscar nominated ones. All in all , one heck of a
good time. 

	Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 4 for creepy bad guys , the best
morphing effects ever , several "now i get it" moments and the single
best , explosive , pulse pounding , Luke versus Vader round three and
there will not be a round four , awesome ending ever.