Darkdrive

A few years ago I had an opportunity to talk to Claire Stansfield about this film. I said that I was confused about the plot and hoped she could explain it to me. She said that she was also confused, and hoped that someone would explain it to her as well. We both agreed that the film's plot made absolutely no sense and left it at that.

Perhaps this was someone's attempt to fill in the prison back story of Demolition Man (remember the VR deep freeze in that one?). The Sci-Fi premise of a VR prison has plenty of merit (c.f. The Matrix), but this movie lacked any semblance of credibility or even of continuity.

In any case, this movie is one to miss unless you are a die-hard fan of one of the actors involved. Even so, prepare to be disappointed. I was.

I don't see enough of this genre to properly make any comparisons, but this film certainly had very little analytical thought behind the script. It takes place in some future when people are all driving black 97 Ford minivans, but penal reform has reached the point at which prisoners are banished to a virtual reality, furnished with, among other things, abandoned Pintos and Vegas, as well as the other prisoners in a similar plight. The banishment, of course, is accompanied by sustained, blinding flashes of intense white light. The general story line is told through closeups of computer screens the flash up-dating messages like "Transformation Complete" and "Program Compromised". The film abounds with non-sequiturs, which I suppose is de-rigeur in a world where the final outcome cannot possibly have any link to the premise. Needless to say, it has its standard complement of beautiful babes, and Claire Stansfield is kinda cool.

I get 25 cable movie channels, and this was the best thing on at not-quite-bedtime, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

I always aim to be fair to movies in reviews and ratings, I always try to know what to expect before viewing, I never bail out after a certain amount of time, I try to be as succinct and unbiased as possible and be understanding of other people's opinions instead of generalising or attacking(on a side note, people can do with this and they'll be surprised at how easy it is). I gave that treatment to Darkdrive and while I have seen much worse I still didn't like it. It is not entirely irredeemable, the music manages to be memorable and fitting, Julie Benz has a beautiful face and appealing presence that really shines through and Clare Stansfield is very cool. However there is so much that is wrong. The worst asset was the story which I found impossible to follow, in fact I don't think I have ever been this confused by a movie before. As a consequence of that, and the turgid pacing too, I never had any engagement or emotional attachment to the action or characters. Any suspense, memorable action move or humour just wasn't there in Darkdrive, there were probably attempts that didn't come through, at least to me. The dialogue is clichéd and stilted while the rest of the acting is at best dire. The camera work and angles get too much, there was an attempt to tell the story through them but with that tactic everything just felt incomprehensible, and the special effects look as though they belong in a very cheap-looking movie from the 80s. All in all, not the worst I've seen but lame. 3/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is one of, if not the absolute worst movies I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I only rented it because I happen to like Julie Benz, but she couldn't save it for me. The plot is hopeless, and the acting is worse. The special effects are dated, so you really have no excuse for seeing this, unless you like to suffer.

It doesn't even fall into the so bad it's good type movie.

A weird tale of a guy sent into a virtual reality penal colony, where he finds his dead wife singing in a night club, fights Alti from Xena, and tries and fails miserably to be a noir matrix wanna be, without the plot, special effects, or acting. One bright note is an appearance of pre-Buffy The Vampire Slayer Julie Benz, who gets killed several times and has a love scene, and a unexplained kid by the end. So it's a lot like her character of Darla. We even get to see Julie totally topless for her love scene, but sadly they voice over exposition while she sings in the night club. I'd have prefered to hear her sing.