clcook2000

How can someone take a great idea that worked fine in two previous movies (the original and a remake) and with another remake turn the movie into such utter pap that even the least critical moviegoer will wonder what went wrong? Well, I dunno. But they sure did it with this flick.

Actually, maybe it's because Joel Silver was involved in the project as producer. The guy used to do some interesting work, at least now and then, but I can't recall the last time he was involved in anything worth watching.

I don't want to list all the problems... but you know when a remake resorts to silly car chase & car crash scenes to juice it up, then the whole project is in trouble.

Don't bother with this movie. See the original instead. Or the 1970's remake, which was good.

About 20 minutes into this flick, I nervously thought to myself, "Man, I sure hope this isn't gonna turn into an over-the-top manipulative piece of bad film-making." Because it became clear at that point it could go either way, and being a fan of Pierce Brosnan, I was hoping it would rise above my fears.

But it didn't. It just got worse and worse... and worse, and finally resolved itself with exactly the manipulative end-game that I'd feared.

The plotting is mostly crude artifice (as opposed to the carefully crafted artifice of a fine movie). The acting is overdone, but only because they stayed with the overblown script. I'm curious how or why an experienced actor like Brosnan didn't see that before filming even started.

Apparently, this film was never released into cinemas. That's no hard to understand. It is, really, a hateful mean-spirited film, with no redeeming virtues. I do not recommend it to anyone.

I notice on the rating chart that the younger a person is, the higher this film gets rated. Well, I'm 53 years old and I'm giving it a 9 because it's brilliant. Maybe most "older" people simply aren't intellectually equipped to understand this film's blending of sci-fi, virtual reality, classical mythic archetypes, and terrific film work. Too bad. And I suppose the movie poses a challenge to most Americans with their aversion (provincial fear) of subtitles.

In any case, this is a Japanese production filmed and set in Poland, using Polish actors. And it is strangely wonderful in all respects: story, theme, characters, style, cinematography. It explores a virtual reality, William Gibson sort of story and theme. The protagonist is a young woman named Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak) who dons a headset and plays virtual reality games. And we, the viewers, go inside the games with her. What is real? What is virtual?

The director uses special film stock to get dream-like tones and visuals that will knock you out. In that respect, the images often remind me of early B&W American films. Lovely.