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 david.wilcock@btinternet.com 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 wmp-reviews-subscribe@makelist.com to join the mailing list!
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