Subject: Review: Dark City (1998)

From: "David Wilcock" <[email-masked]>
Date: 6 Jun 1998 16:30:14 GMT

DARK CITY
(NEW LINE CINEMA)
RUNNING TIME: 1 HOUR 40 MINUTES.
STARRING RUFUS SEWELL, KIEFER SUTHERLAND, JENNIFER CONNELY AND WILLIAM
 HURT.
 DIRECTED BY ALEX PROYAS

The director of The Crow (1994) returns with this happy epic, set in a
world where the sun is always shining and everyone is cheerful. Only
kidding. As you could guess by the title, Dark City is a dark,
depressive, but somewhat entertaining picture. Set sometime in the
future, the film begins when we see John Murdoch (Sewell) wake up with
no memory. He can't remember his wife Emma (Connely) or the murders
that he has been framed for. And when he encounters strange, tall
people wearing silly hats trying to kill him (called 'The Strangers'),
he tries to get answers. With the help of Dr. Scheriber (Sutherland)
he tries to work out what the hell is going on. Hot on his tail on
this time is world weary cop Inspector Frank Bumstead (Hurt.)

Despite the dark setting, and the depressive mood the picture has,
Dark City is entertaining. The first thing that makes the film fun is
the cast. Director Alex Proyas has managed to assemble a pretty good
cast for what is essentially a very silly sci-fi movie. Rufus Sewell
does a good job looking confused, and also does the action scenes all
right aswell. Sutherland appears to be having fun as the doctor, even
if he is overacting just a little.  His delivery of his lines really
started to annoy me, though. (He pauses every two words.) More
worringly, he's looking more like his father every day. Connelly fine
in her role, although it dosen't require much. Her singing voice, by
the way, is Anita Kelsey, so don't expect any Connelly hits in the
chart's any time soon. William Hurt is not bad, even though he dosen't
really appear to be trying. Also popping up is Ian Richardson and
Richard O'Brian as two of The Strangers. Both are good english actors,
and watching them dress up in the most stupid costumes, blurting out
lines which a B movie screenwriter would be proud of is actually quite
amusing (if you're British, that is.) Then again, O'Brien dressed up
stupid in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) so looking silly is no
stranger to him.

Like The Crow, the film is directed like a music video with a large
budget.  Proyas uses fast cuts, quick zooms and a dance soundtrack to
great effect, as they manage (along with the acting) to drown out the
poor dialogue (written by Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer and Proyas
himself.) The fast paced directing helps the movie bound along. The
dialogue just slows it down. It's clumsy, stupid, and in the end, just
boring.

The best thing about Dark City, however, is the look of the film. The
city is impressive, it's look the place The Crow (and Deckard from
Bladerunner, 1982) would live. The special effects are also
impressive, especially the ones in the overblown finale. Dark City is
a definite case of style of content. If you get bored of the movie,
just sit back and enjoy the great scenery, the great directing, and
the soundtrack. This things alone probably make Dark City worth
watching. It may not be the best film of the year, but Dark City is
worth watching, and is ultimately just good fun.  

OVERALL RATING= ***
OUT OF ***** REVIEW BY DAVID WILCOCK

DAVID WILCOCK
[email-masked]
Visit the Wilcock Movie Page!
http://wilcockmovie.home.ml.org -OR-
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9061
Recieve Wilcock Movie Page Reviews via E-MAIL
Send a blank E-MAIL to [email-masked] to
join the mailing list!