Dark City (1998)

reviewed by
Jason Overbeck


DARK CITY
**** of **** grade is A-

I always react more to films which contain endless imagination and thought. A movie like Dark City, that roars by you with images you have never seen or dreamt, like experiences David Lynches paintings. People call this a comic book movie but that is nly part true. This film is detailed and enigmatic enough to make a great comic book but few comic artists have as much energy as is shown in this film, one of the years best.

A man wakes up finds a dead prostitute and soon discovers the dark side of the world. He encounters the Strangers a bread of aliens (I suppose) who live under the surface of everyday life and conduct experiments on humans whiule they cause us to sleep.

The Strangers will always be remembered as a true horrific detail, almost like extras from a Marilyn Manson concert. The are tall, looming figures who wear all black and have dead, pale skin hugging their bones. It seems that movie dreams are never like dreams that real humans might have, but those Strangers are creepy, and look as though they walked out of my nightmares and onto thbig screen.

I have neglected much of the movie other than the look and that is a shame. We get good work from William Hurt, Rufus Sewel and Keifer Sutherland. The plot is also genious with ticks of sci-fi, film noir, and horror. The end scenes ae masterpieces in there own right. When we finally see what we inhabit, something comes over us, allowing us to question theworld that we know and the peoples words we take on it. It may sound like I'm nuts, and I am - about this film. Great work from the director of the under-rated THE CROW Alex Prowles.


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