Subject: RETROSPECTIVE: STRANGE DAYS (1995)

From: [email-masked] (Tim Voon)
Date: 26 Jun 1997 16:34:45 GMT

STRANGE DAYS
                       A film review by Tim Voon
                        Copyright 1997 Tim Voon

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore,
Director: Kathryn Bigelow Screenplay: James Cameron and Jay Cocks based
on a story by James Cameron

Strange Days is a strange movie.

It is the eve of the coming century, the 31st December 1999. Humans have
developed the technology to record memories (I know, take it with a
grain of salt). Lenny (Fiennes) an ex-cop, now street hustler, supplies
these 'stolen dreams' in the black market. He becomes involved in the
schemes of a psychopathic rapist who is recording 'black jacks' (death
experiences) of his victim, and needs to stay alive to see the New Year.

This movie only gets from weird to worse, with nothing to slow it's
descent into utter ridiculousness. The plot promises unexpected twists
and turns, but produces only a convoluted mess.

Whenever Lenny is in a jam he tries to trade his rouleaux watch to the
villains to save himself a beating. What a wimpy ex-cop? He constantly
relies on his best friend (Basset), ex-housewife turned body guard, to
come and save his arse. I was so annoyed at Fienne's anti-hero,
wimpiness, that I thought that perhaps he should have played the
housewife, and let Basset play the lead.

This is an uneven offering from Cameron, who is normally very precise
with his characters and plot. Perhaps he should have directed the movie
himself, after all it was his idea to begin with.

Comment: This bad dream is over.

Timothy Voon
e-mail: [email-masked]