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Summary: One of the best Sci-Fi Movies in years!
Review: Excellent movie. Will keep you spell bound like THE MATRIX for days after the film is over.
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Summary: Breathtaking.
Review: This is science fiction as it is meant to be made. A story that is worthy of classic science fiction, the movie the Matrix should have been. This movie draws the viewer in with its masterfull visial depcitions, and allows the imagination to run abound. This may not be the most originall story, but it is certianly not cliche, and besides that is beside the point. Like most great science fiction, this movie is driven by an idea, and that idea is what makes the story turn. To enjoy this movie the veiwer has to place onself within this world, and come to understand all of the things that this implies. This movie starts out disguising itself as a mystery, and then preceeds to unveil a vision much more interesting than anything Perot ever did. This movie is directed in a style of film noir. This results in a city that is darker and more moving than "Batman", and gives the movie more of an edge than "Blade Runner". This is a movie that can be easily mis-understood. I do not suggest watching this movie if you are not in the mood to pay attention, or think about what the movie doing. Unlike most of what Hollywood creates, this movie does not do all of its thinking for the viewer. This is what makes the movie so great. The greatness is in how it helps the viewer's imagination run wilde through this terrible and beutiful universe.
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Summary: Really weird movie
Review: I guess you could say 'The Matrix' got its inspiration from this movie. Or maybe it just ripped it off! Rufus Sewell plays a man who is being pursued by a bunch of very very weird people. As he runs through the very strange trying to escape from them, he discovers some holes in his life. It just doesn't add up. He later discovers that aliens have pulled a 'Matrix' on the whole city and he is the one who can save all the humans. The similarities of Dark City to The Matrix are staggering though Dark City is well darker, and definitely weirder. In place of scary agents, you have bald headed weirdos in overcoats who look like Pinhead from Hellraiser. An interesting movie to say the least. Very weird and has a rather satisfying ending. Watch it!
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Summary: Do you know the way to Shell Beach?
Review: Discover this gem of a film and you too will know the way to Shell Beach. I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Not THE best, but ONE of the best I have ever seen. An amazing story, great characters and a vision that is pure genius. Only a man who has nightmares as a child could dream up such an incredible movie. Alex Proyas, the film's director summed it up best when he said "I think being afraid of the dark is a very basic childhood fear. Whenever I'd come across that concept in a book as a kid, it would haunt me". He's taken that fear and increased it 10 fold. The bald men (the villans) chasing the hero in this film is also from Alex's childhood imagination ... "Dark City is a near-obsessive project based on recurring nightmares I had since I was a child, of being chased by pale bald men." How awesome is that? It doesn't get any better than this folks. A film of dark noir that reminded me a lot of an episode of the Twilight Zone, yet completely fresh and original. Visually stunning! I love this movie and I think you will too. Take a chance on a big film that did very little business at the box office. Rufus Sewell, a virtual unknown to American audiences is fantastic. Jennifer Connolly fits this role to a T and William Hurt is great as well. Keifer Sutherland could have toned it down a bit, but he does a good job too. Richard O'Brien will scare the hell out of you as one of the main villans!!! Roget Ebert named this his FAVORITE FILM OF 1998. Watch this film and you'll find out why .... INTERESTING UNKNOWN DARK CITY FACT In the beginning of the movie: John wakes up naked and in water, symbolizing birth. John's apartment number is 614, and in the bible, John 6:14 quotes: Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did said, ' This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world'. - Alex Proyas
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Summary: Are we who we think we are?
Review: Dark City was an excellent film which plays on a feeling that each of us has experienced at one time or another, that feeling that we believe we lived another life. Rufus Sewell as Murdock is excellent, supported by Hurt and Connelly in their respective roles. Sutherland overdoes his role slightly, but is overcome by acting of Richard O'Brian as one of the "Strangers." Excellent movie!!!!
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Summary: Dark City - Platinum Edition DVD
Review: This DVD contains two running commentary tracks that are gems. This is the first DVD I've seen that has an additional commentary track by someone totally outside of the production of the film, namely film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. Roger's commentary is a course in film history, showing this film's roots in *film noir* of the 1940's and back to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". Roger explains how he yearly takes a film to a seminar in Colorado and does a live commentary in a classroom / seminar environment -- he duplicates that effort on his commentary track of this film, and in so doing, provides a great amount of depth about how this film is true to its stylistic roots. In addition, by exploring the script in depth, he proves that this film is a milestone work, like "Metropolis", and like the more recent classic, "Blade Runner." In spite of mediocre box office, it is clear that "Dark City" has legs as a science fiction classic, a film that is not some copycat of another film, but as a unique conception, beautifully executed on the screen. This DVD is a *must* for any serious student of motion picture history. The film itself earns its five stars across the board. A tight script, right through the third act, very artistic direction by Alex Proyas, amazing special effects, and on-the-mark stellar performances by Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly and Richard O'Brien. This film is a keeper.
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Summary: Part science fiction and part psychotic dreamscape
Review: Part film noir, part science fiction, part fantasy, and part psychotic dreamscape, "Dark City" is a visual marvel of a cinematic experience. If not always coherent, it takes on the striking essence of a visceral nightmare, where images flood and pour into one another, all drenched in inky darkness. The film takes place in a city where there is no daylight, and no one is who he thinks he is. It is perfect terrain for Proyas, the Australian-born music video director who wowed movie audiences in 1994 with his comic book masterpiece "The Crow." More than anything, "Dark City" resembles Japanese anime films like "Akira" (1988), both in style and substance. It is fast-moving, very rapidly edited and makes liberal use of computer generated imagery. All of these have been ingredients for disaster in the past. Proyas controls it all beautifully though, and is particularly good on when and how to use big special effects scenes. The film lacks neither ideas nor imagination (though many of its elements are derived from familiar sources), and it usually has good reason for every twist and turn of plot. The investigative structure of film noir is applied on two fronts, with Sewell plunging through his Kafkaesque labyrinth and policeman William Hurt following the more conventional trail of the killer on the loose which leads him to a place he never expected. Emotional depth is provided by Jennifer Connelly as Sewell's wife, providing context and consequence for the action and upping the stakes when the aliens attempt to use her to get to him. It never allows itself to loose track of where it is going for the sake of a big moment, and though it consistently looks stunning and is loaded with memorable scenes, it holds together and hits home like no other recent sci-fi film. DVD: The 16:9 enhancement is amazing on this disc. I never saw one singal artifact, black were black and fleshtones were very natural. One of the best "literal" pictures that I have seen. This disc is loaded. The "Shell Beach" game alone is worth it, along with two commentaries (one by Roger Ebert) and the other with the director. There also fully animated menus, set designs, trailers......
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: The first time that I saw this picture, I was very entertained, yet somewhat disoriented. The second time that I saw this film, I picked up on things that I had initially missed, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. The third time that I saw this masterpiece, now with Roger Ebert's sagacious commentary, I was totally enthralled. What a shame that DARK CITY has been overlooked by so many people. Not by critic Ebert, however - he named DARK CITY the best picture of 1998. And he was right.
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Summary: original? no... but stylish as hell
Review: Dark City seems to me to sum up an entire universe of sci-fi and third-stream movies in which reality is not what it appears. This movie brings in influences from Blade Runner (the most obvious influence), Barton Fink (whence the seedy hotel), The City of Lost Children (the "strangers" are VERY similar to the "cyclopes"--I could almost picture their leader saying "j'ai vu un monde qui était un monde de chien!"--and they even use the phrase "lost children" at one point; also, the vials that contain synthesized memories look a lot like the probosces of Marcello's robotic fleas), Brazil (possibly the origin of Dark City's lost-in-time feeling), The Crow (same director, thus a similar direction style), Twelve Monkeys (one man manipulated by a faceless committee...), The Nightmare Before Christmas (Tim Burton likes spirals too), and even to some extent Lost Highway (notably in the cinematic treatment of half-remembered images), although that only came out a year earlier. There are also hints at earlier things--film noir, Peter Lorre. So while it's not original, and certainly not perfect, this movie seems to combine all those aspects into a single coherent whole, which is rather impressive. The plot is revealed well, and doesn't have too many holes in it. Certain scenes when John starts to figure out what's going on are really chilling. And the movie manages to have a happy ending that's not stupid! I couldn't believe it. And of course, the cinematography is beautiful. I'd also like to mention that the Matrix is very clearly a rip-off of Dark City, using the same basic concept (a group of superior beings that control our perception of reality), a lot of the same imagery (people who don't rely on gravity), and a very similar pre-climactic scene. The Matrix, however, undermines itself with a lot of pointless fight scenes, truckloads of inconsistencies, revealing everything too soon, and Keanu Reeves. Dark City is a far better movie.
Rating:
Summary: Always room
Review: There's always room for improvement otherwise I'd give it 5 stars. The acting was captivating and the edge of my seat was worn just hoping the "strangers" would die a terrible death. Actually I think the main message in the story is that of individualisim, the self wins out over the collective. Quite Ayn Rand-ish The "strangers" were of a collective mind and would die because there was no I, no me, no self, (no soul) and in the end the self-thinking individual triumphs, although it did start to become clear some of the way through. Even though, the movie was definitely worth watching and I will make the purchase to watch it again I'm sure there are subtleties that I've missed the first two times I have seen it. If you see it once, I think you'll be hooked.
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