Rating: 
Summary: Can you tell me how to get to Shell Beach?
Review: When I watched this movie, I couldn't help but see the similarities with the Matrix. John Murdock wakes up and he can't remember who he is. A caller warns him that people are looking for him and that he should run. It turns out that he's special... can influence "the machine" with his mind. He discovers that his memories have been influenced by "the strangers" and reality is not what he thought it to be. Sound familiar??? This movie is worth having in your collection, and at the least deserves a spin courtesy of your local video store. This movie is a race from the very beginning and it not only foreshadows the Matrix, it recalls a little bit of Total Recall. If Blade Runner, Matrix, and 12 Monkeys are your type of movies...this is a must see.
Rating:
Summary: smarter than the matrix
Review: It took me almost three months to get up the nerve to rent this movie. I hate horror movies and Dark City was in the horror section afterall, but my love for Rufus (and psychological thrillers) won out in the end. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is neither gratuitously violent or excessively stupid or corny (some parts of the climactic battle were a little dumb, but nothing's perfect). The acting, though the roles don't ask for anything extraordinary, is pretty good. Sutherland pulls off creepy and Sewell pulls off tortured (he has the perfect looks for tortured/psycho). The noir atmosphere is absolutely perfect, and inffuses the movie with a hauntingly real feel. The special effects, for the most part, are very good, and at some points, even superbly original. If you liked the Matrix, you won't necessarily like Dark City. There are no cool kung fu battle scenes, or 'bullet time', and compared to the action packed, moronically fast paced Matrix, Dark City will feel very slow and brooding. It's this slow pacing that makes Dark City so effectively chilling. The Matrix is for the masses, but if you like anything remotely sci-fi/thriller/noir, slow paced and infinitely more imaginative than the Matrix (plus Sewell is a far far better actor than Reeves, although both have it going for them in the looks department), then...........Dark City might be the movie just for you!!!! *I saw the VHS version (which has no tailers), but the DVD has the theatrical trailer for Dark City, which is just as amazing as the movie and is totally worth owning.
Rating:
Summary: Words are hard to describe...
Review: The first time I saw this movie I was so blown away that I didn't catch everything. I have seen this movie probably seven or eight times since seeing it in the theater and it still leaves me feeling the same as the first time. It's almost a magical feeling.
Rating:
Summary: a greatly under-rated film
Review: This movie is one of the most under-rated films I have seen in awhile. I saw this for the first time in Film Club last semester. I own it now. This film bursts with creativity. To me, it seems that Star Wars had set the standard for space ships (i.e. they look like boats, planes, things we drive). The space ship in this film is nothing that I've ever thought of before. I will not spoil it, you will see. You have to see. This film is not one to be missed. Look up the reviews from the critics from when it was released. Roger Ebert for one praised this movie. That should be credibility enough. If not, my input is 5 out of 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: creative
Review: this movie was very well done and very creative. A little like
the Matrix.
Rating:
Summary: The Matrix meets Kafka
Review: The best way I can describe Dark City is ominous. As other reviewers have mentioned it is stylish with Kiefer Sutherland and William Hurt turning in excellent performances, Sutherland's portrail as the erie psychiatrist and his pronouncement of being a "traitor to his species". Start the film off with a bang. The world of Dark City is Fritz Lang's Metropolis meets film noir 40's grit. Although there is not a lot of overt violence the implied violence is truly ugly. In fact everything about Dark City is ugly with the exception of the mysteriously bright and hopeful ads for Shell Beach. The special effects are beautifully rendered with entire city blocks remaking themselves. The spooky gloom of the seeming perpetual night and the hero's quest to find out who and what he is drive the plot.
The premise while promising has some overused science fiction elements. However, this is forgivable in a film that manages to grab your attention even after giving away it's major premise well before the 2nd act. The sets are striking. The existential nihilism is striking. The acting is striking because it is convincing. William Hurt's sad but stoic detective character is nicely played because he is subtle. The main characters do their jobs well to advance the plot. But Kiefer Sutherland steals the film every time he is in a scene. His voice almost otherworldly and ghostly, a choked series of four or five words before gasping for breath. It's some seriously creepy stuff. The downside are the antagonist characters. They are creepy and demented in a typical sci-fi way which is at times brilliant but sometimes hackneyed. Still, they are entertaining and the philosophy behind this Kafkaesque story makes one wonder about what reality is. Despite it's few faults Dark City looks like and quite possibly will be a classic that essays will be written on. Atmospheric, inventive, stylish and sexy but most importantly worth several viewings. One of my favorite films.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film
Review: As others have said, it's basically the same story as The Matrix w/o the cheesy kungfu fight scenes. John Murdock wakes naked in a bath with no memories and no idea why there's a dead/mutilated hooker in the next room. He's hunted both by the police and strange, superhuman denizens of Dark City, the city that never sees the day and there's no way to leave. Along the way he discovers the secret of Dark City and why everyone seems to change nightly.
Rating: 
Summary: Brain Candy Sci-Fi
Review: When I saw Dark City in the theater, I turned to a friend after it was over and told him this movie was either a triumph or a total disaster, I just didn't know which. After sleeping on it for the weekend, I finally came to the conclusion that this movie was indeed a triumph. If The Matrix did not upstage this movie a year later, I firmly believe people would still be talking about it. I do not agree with Roger Ebert that Dark City was the best movie of 1998, but I do admire director Alex Proyas' efforts to dare the audience to actually use their brains. Dark City is not filled with pointless car chases or endless gun fights. It is instead filled with something better - ambitious ideas that force us to question the very nature of reality. Are the memories we possess really ours and organic in nature? Or are they synthetic and subject to the whims of chance? For that matter, does reality exist in and of itself or is it an artificial construct? Is human consciousness real or do we just think it is real? Am I the same person I was yesterday or was I someone else? Do not get the idea, though, that this movie is the visual equivalent of a staid classroom lecture. Dark City also functions as an exciting movie in its right by combining the best elements of sci-fi and film noir into an engrossing mystery. Just think of Dark City as a good movie with more of a brain that you might be used to.
Rating:
Summary: Visually interesting blend of sci fi classics....
Review: If you're looking for a moody dark science fiction film that entertains pretty consistently you will be pleased with Dark City. The eclectic borrowing and blending from classic sci fi films(Brazil, Blade Runner, Dune, Nosferatu, Angel Heart) is interestingly done. We see some things that are familiar and yet the atmosphere of Dark City does not seem familiar. And that is the star of the show, the atmosphere. The acting is adequate enough. Perhaps the greatest performance given is by one of the Stangers(a band of aliens come to earth to experiment on humans) who is played by Richard O'Brien of Rocky Horror fame--he has one scene with Jennifer Connelly which is truly creepy. In that scene all of the various concepts/elements of this film come together but for most of the film they don't. William Hurt does a fine job as the noir detective. Less impressive is Rufus Sewell, though it may not be his fault. He is supposed to be the central character around which this sci fi mystery revolves but he is not a very strong presence and as a result the film doesn't have a very strong center. I say it may not be his fault because his character is not supposed to have anything in the way of identity, just strong human instincts with which to counteract the Strangers influence--the Stranger(Richard O'Brien) who tries to understand Rufus Sewell by injecting himself with Sewell's memories has much more character than Rufus Sewell. Kiefer Sutherland gives a very sophomoric performance which just makes you wish Hollywood still had great character actors. Jennifer Connelly looks great but she isn't given much to do or say and when she lip synchs 40's songs you just scratch your head and wonder whats this got to do with anything--it would have worked if these lounge act scenes would have forwarded the plot in some way but they don't. She and Hurt play noir archetypes in a city that looks like a noir nightmare, Sutherland does a bad Lorre impression, and Sewell just does the best he can within the limits of his role as confused man acting on a hunch that things aren't quite right in Dark City. The most interesting acting is done by the Strangers. The best dialogue of the film is when the Strangers come up from their underworld lair and discuss among themselves just what humans are. The dialogue between them is sometimes very funny and their peculiar mannerisms of speech really well written giving them a dimension and individiuality that they lack when they are filmed in their own underworld lair where they all act in collective unison. The Strangers were the great piece of originality this film offered and my favorite part of the film. My problem with the premise of the film is that we just don't know enough about the Strangers, we don't know exactly what they are hoping to accomplish with their experiments, apparently they need us humans(or knowledge of us) to live but why? No answer is ever given. The films premise sets up some very interesting plot possibilities but being a film which features special effects these plot possibilities and all of the characters take backseat to the computer graphics which are good and do offer plenty of entertainment value but don't make up for lack of those missing elements. I think for the undiscerning fan of science fiction this is a classic in the same way the Matrix is a classic as it really is a visual fantasy that is fun to take part in and anyone can enjoy it for that. For the more discerning sci fi fan of films like Brazil and Blade Runner this might come as a disappointment, however, as Dark City's story line is not quite up to that level nor are its characters. In fact the film is admired almost exclusively for its look not its substance. If you are someone who can enjoy a film strictly for its visual atmospheres and special effect theatrics you will love the ending but if you've been thinking while watching the films ending will be a letdown and a downer as Proyas "vision" is not all that flattering to us humans. I agree with others who say this is a film that could have been great.
Rating:
Summary: The story "The Matrix" left out
Review: Wow! A new film has entered the pantheon of my all-time favorites, and it zooms right into the top ten. That film is "Dark City" and I cannot encourage sci-fi/fantasy fans enough to see this film any way they can. It's superb! With its roots firmly planted in the writings of Serling, Dick, and Kafka, "Dark City" weaves a tale that successfully blends film noir, German surrealism, horror, and sci-fi with the vision of Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, and Fritz Lang. It tells the tale of a man who wakes up to a living nightmare in which he not only does not know who he is, but also finds a dead prostitute in the hotel room in which he has unknowingly been living for the last three weeks. His only possessions are the clothes he is wearing, a piece of luggage, and a postcard from "Shell Beach", a place that stirs childhood memories. As he tries to piece together the life he cannot remember, he it dawns on him that he knows more than the rest of the world around him. John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell - think a swarthy, young Christopher Walken) finds that he also has a beautiful wife (the lovely Jennifer Connelly - who seems to be making a living today playing women from the late Forties) and a companion in the mysterious Dr. Schreber (the unusually cast Keifer Sutherland doing a jarring Peter Lorre imitation). Pursued by an angst-ridden detective (the previously MIA William Hurt), and memories of a place he cannot reach, Murdoch tries to hold onto his love for his wife only to find that it may be an illusion. His desperate gamble to find the truth uncovers a horrific reality he could never have imagined. "Dark City" is a master stroke. Every shot of this movie screams quality. The special effects are outstanding and do not overwhelm the film. The characters speak plausible dialog. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski lensed this film even more capably than his work in "The Crow". Rarely, too, can a team work to create a world so timeless. The city and people of "Dark City" seemed trapped in an era-less reality, as portions of the Thirties, Forties, Fifties, and beyond disorientingly converge. Again, "Wow!" "Dark City" is a mostly Australian production, so it had little fanfare when it hit the screens in 1998 (which may have worked in the film's favor.) It's non-Hollywood production is evident in the concept and its realization on screen. Though it is not without its borrowings; it liberally selects the best elements of such films as "Brazil", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Metropolis", "Batman", "Dune", "Kafka", "The Crow", and "Hellraiser". The latter film is one of the few quibbles I have about "Dark City". The similarity in the costume design to the Cenobites in "Hellraiser" is too close for comfort. In fact, the very first time I saw the trailer for this film I initially thought it was a "Hellraiser" sequel. The villains' costuming in their underground city is perfect,... Otherwise, the production values are superb, creating a world and mythos that seem entirely plausible. And that is the power of this film. Its dystopian vision, plotline, and fully realized production make it totally unique despite its "where have I seen this before" elements. That the film industry still has original ideas bubbling under its worn surface is exciting to me as I look forward to the next film by "Dark City"'s creator Alex Proyas, who was also the vision behind "The Crow", a film this greatly resembles. Interestingly, "The Matrix" and "Dark City" are remarkably similar in their basic outline. "Dark City" was the earlier film, beating "The Matrix" to the screen by almost a year. Both films are excellent, but the nod goes to "Dark City" for its more fully realized plot, better acting, and overall sense of menace. It's a more gripping film than its rival, depending more on dialogue, characterization, and sense of utter foreboding that "The Matrix" counters with more physical action and its groundbreaking special effects. As a result, the story of "Dark City" plays out more effectively than "The Matrix". "Dark City" is rated "R" mostly for nudity, violence, and intensity. The murders are never shown onscreen, though the partially naked bodies of the victims needlessly are. And mega-kudos to the writers, who in keeping with the timeless nature of the setting, avoided ALL profanity! Again, as I have always contended, excellent writing never needs to stoop to that level in most films. Still, this is a film for adults. Buy the DVD, close the doors, turn out the lights and watch "Dark City" soon. It's a winner!
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