Rating: 
Summary: Sci Fi Film Noir
Review: A remarkably well done story and a giant in it's genre.I rate this DVD number 1 in my top 10 list of greatest, must own sci-fi and/or film noir."The Matrix" was a badly done rip off of this very idea,but it can't compete.I do own "Matrix" but for completely different reasons and would not put it in the same category.One of my favorite parts was the ending,which was a good one AND came off well for a change.My favorite scene:when shown exactly where the "city" existed in "space".Great stuff.No one's collection can be complete without this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT!
Review: I am not a huge sci-fi buff, but I do happen to like a lot of the movies in that genera. When I put this DVD on, I had no idea what to expect. "Dark City" was a refreshing and brilliant movie that really had me in awe. This is a visionary experience that shouldn't be missed; stunning in both the story and visuals.In a strange and mysterious city where the sun never shines and time seems to stop moving and where strange and creepy figures walk around and dressed in nothing but black, a man wakes up to find out that his memory has been erased. To make matters worse, he finds a woman brutally murdered in his hotel room. This man happens to be John Murdoch, the main character in this labyrinth who wants to know exactly who he is and what is going on. He wants to know why people think he is some sort of killer and why the cops want him. He also wants to know why strange figures, he can't figure out if they're human or not, want him dead. John is determined to find out just exactly who he is and what is going on in an evil and dark city where sunlight never enters and where time stands still. However, he is about to learn that the truth just might be the ultimate illusion in this dark puzzle of a movie. This film cleverly mixes sci-fi with film noir and pays off by telling us a magnificent story and showing us the most stunning visuals that special effects has to offer us. Some have compared this movie to "The Matrix," and complained that it wasn't that good and that "Matrix" was better. Although I really like "The Matrix," I have to say that I think this movie is better. The story was so mind-altering and surprising that you really can't comprehend what you are watching. This film is also very fast-paced, but the length of the movie is perfect. The acting was outstanding and really enriched the movie. It was also brilliantly written and directed. I have to warn you, this movie seems very confusing at first. I was watching it for the first twenty minutes and I was thinking, "Oh no, this is one of those movies I'm not going to get." You will get it. As the movie goes by, it really does explain what's going on, so don't get frustrated. Give it a chance. The only thing I cannot figure out is why this film didn't get so much recognition? How come it wasn't nominated for anything, or WIN anything for that matter? I know that Roger Ebert absolutely loved this film, but he was the only critic I heart talk about this movie. It really should've gotten more recognition. I'm sure there are some sci-fi buffs who have never even heard of this movie. It's up to us to make sure that this movie gets all the recognition that it deserves. There are also some special features on the DVD. Not a lot, but they are there. I've only watched the trailer, for I was more interested in the movie than the special features. I have a feeling they might reissue this movie on DVD with far more special features. Maybe it'll be in DTS by then. "Dark City" is a wonderful film that really opens the imagination. Keep in mind, you really don't have to be into sci-fi to enjoy this. I think this film can be enjoyed by many different people. It really all falls on the type of mood you are in. Again, I make no promises if you will like this film or not, but why not give it a shot? It's not even that long, so it won't make a difference if you don't like it. This is a movie that shows us movies can still be creative, yet loaded with special effects. This is a great film and I look forward into watching it again very soon.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I saw this movie when it was in theatres, and I was astonished by the negative comments people were making about it while we were heading for the exits. Had they seen the same movie as me? Did my mind wander at some crucial moment that, had I been paying attention, would have ruined it for me? I didn't think so. When Roger Ebert made it his top pick for 1998, I was surprised, but I kind of agreed with him. I got the DVD for Christmas, and I watched it the first chance I got. It's incredible. It's rare to find a movie that is at once as entertaining, thought-provoking, and amazing to look at as this one. The performances are fabulous right across the board -- Kiefer Sutherland had his detractors, but their criticisms are without merit: his performance here is quite brilliant, and even better the second time around. I haven't had a chance to look through all the DVD special features yet -- there are TWO audio commentaries, which is something you don't see too often. I can, however, comment on the sound and picture quality, which are both excellent. I expect that this is going to be one of my most frequently viewed DVDs.
Rating: 
Summary: Great looking, if a somewhat empty story.
Review: Going against the grain, I was disappointed by this film. It looked like a million bucks, had outstanding art direction, set design, and special effects. In that, there was vision. But the story is convoluted, and often has nothing coherent to keep it driving forward. Like it suffered from an identify crisis. I often felt like I was watching something impressive (and expensive), but with nothing in the story to keep my curiosity going or my anticipation up I had a hard time keeping interest.
Rating: 
Summary: Nobody's heard of "Dark City"
Review: On the recommendation of Siskel and Ebert, I rented this movie several years ago. I enjoyed it so much, that I purchased it shortly thereafter. Funny thing is, it's the ONLY movie that I have ever purchased. The majority of movies are just mediocre and subsequently never been worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: #1 film
Review: Completely unique, imaginative, stylish, and an atmosphere that is not going to be easily surpassed. Amazing. This movie is a classic. Fantasy/Sci Fi is my favourite genre, and this film takes the lead as #1, the matrix #2. The effects are absolutly beautiful, the acting is superb (and in my opinion the characters are by no means "flat" as others will try to have you believe) and the story and developement are intensily smart. This movie is more than a movie.
The DVD version is great. No flaws.
Rating:
Summary: Look up "Underrated" in the dictionary...
Review: If you look up the word "underrated" in the dictionary, you'll find a still from this sci-fi masterpiece that nobody seems to notice. Rufus Sewell stars as a man trying to solve a mystery -- that of his own life. He doesn't remember who he is or where he came from, but he knows that he may be a murderer... If director Alex Proyas ever wanted to do a Batman movie he's got my vote -- he's got the atmosphere DOWN. Kiefer Sutherland is good as a scientist who gets roped into events beyond his ability to fight, and Jennifer Connelly... dear Lord, what can I say about Jennifer Connelly? That she's perhaps the most beautiful creature God ever placed on this Earth? That she's got the sort of classic beauty that's just not appreciated anymore, but that if she'd been born a few decades ago she'd have been up there with Vivian Leigh or Audrey Hepburn? It's all true. But this is a SMART movie (perhaps what scared so many people away), one that requires you to think. It's worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: All The World's A Stage
Review: This overlooked film from 1998 invites obvious comparisons to the Wachowski Brothers' "Matrix": a confused, pretty-faced young protagonist learns that the world he inhabits is a fake environment controlled by supernatural forces, and squares off against said supernatural forces to seize control and liberate mankind. From Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland, doing his best Peter Lorre/Ren Hoek), we learn that a dying race of aliens named the Strangers have imprisoned a portion of humanity in a vast artificial city in an attempt to determine whether a human soul exists, and if so, to harvest it and ensure their race's survival. Each night, the experiment is reset: the Strangers use their telepathic powers to physically remake the city, and the people in it all have their memories swapped via Dr. Schreber's injections to the forehead. During a routine reset, one of the city's inhabitants, John Murdock (Rufus Sewell), proves not only to be immune to the memory transplants, but also to have developed telepathic powers equal to those of the Strangers. Before he can unravel the mysteries posed by the Strangers and the city, Murdock must reconcile with his cheating wife (Jennifer Connelly) and evade the investigation of an earnest police inspector (William Hurt) who thinks that he is responsible for a murder. Proyas may have miscalculated the zeitgeist in giving his film a gothic '40s film noir treatment (complete with period automobiles, fedoras, automats etc.) instead of wire-fu razzle-dazzle, but the film will probably age better than the "Matrix" once we're all sick of bullet-time special effects. "Dark City" relies primarily on model work, sets and makeup to flesh out the sci-fi elements, lending the film a solidity that's missing from a lot of CGI-overdosed sci-fi these days. Once you strip away the production design, there's not much in the way of story, but I like the movie's central conceit. Is the human soul merely the sum of one's experiences? If you give another person your memories and past, will they behave the same or differently? The film provides no answers, but the question is presented handsomely. Worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Night and the "City"
Review: Why was this movie panned? It could have been several things. Lack of backing by New Line Cinema, the fact that it was a dark science-fiction film, lack of press, lack of decent release-scheduling, a slightly "unattractive" cast...where do you begin??? Well, plain and simple fact is, you have to forget all that and watch this movie. I found it by complete accident while doing some trailer-searching on the 'Net. I had seen this trailer kinda sitting on its own in the dark(how convenient). After downloading every trailer but that one, I finally gave it a try. I wasn't disappointed. It looked like a cross between a dark fairy-tale and Clive Barker's HELLRAISER. Beyond that, it featured a really cool trailer-score(done by Hughes Howard called "Sleep Now") that thumped ominously in the background while dark visions of noir-ish heroes and gravity-defying villians took to the foreground. The movie is actually JUST LIKE THE TRAILER. This means you pays your money and ya' gets what you pays for. This is good. This is very good. Trevor Jones's awesome ambient score is his best since THE DARK CRYSTAL and MERLIN as we are told the story of a city inhabited by total and indefinite darkness. The four main(human) characters are integral to the movement of the plot. Rufus Sewell plays his character, John Murdock with a brilliant paranoid edge. We see his character grow as his journey of discovery begins with a mysterious re-birth. He knows not why he lives or breathes but he does. The only clues to his identity are a broken syringe on the floor, a bloody knife, and a dead prostitute, and they don't exactly function as guides. Murdock later discovers that he has a wife played by the strikingly gorgeous Jennifer Connoly and that he was seeking treatment from a seemingly whacked-out doctor(Keifer Sutherland). But that's not all...he's got some sort of psycho-kinetic power that allows him to move, destroy, or create objects...but it seems to be mood-related and twitchy. Meanwhile, an open-minded detective(William Hurt) wants to know why the prostitute has turned up dead in the hotel room across town and where his suspect has run off to. There's also a group of mysterious people ALSO looking for Murdock. They're called "The Strangers". They dress in fedora hats and trenchcoats and have extremely pale skin...oh yes, they ALSO have the same telepathic abilities Murdock has...and the Strangers want Murdock BAD. Sorry for the long description. I just had to qualm the doubters who said this film has "style over substance". It has a LOT more than that. The big, beautiful, noir-homage sets are something to admire. Had Kafka been alive now, he would have been sleeping in the alleyways, rolling in the puddles of rain and mud to soak up the mood. Think METROPOLIS, only with more a tad more color and attitude. This is one of the coolest sets since Tim Burton's BATMAN. The DVD is a treat indeed. We get not one, but TWO commentary tracks. The best one is by critic Roger Ebert, who put this film on his "Ten Best" list and deservedly so. Another track features Trevor Jones's brilliant score. The rest of the disc features a cute little "game" where you get to find "Shell Beach", set designs, the trailer for the film, and news-clippings of reviews and comparisons to METROPOLIS. The movie also comes in Widescreen and Pan-and-Scan. The picture is perfect and as always, New Line does a great job with the sound. This movie is a science-fiction classic in my book and has what so many sci-fi tales lack: the search for the human soul among increasing technology. Pure brilliance. Let's hope that director Alex Proyas(THE CROW) can keep his winning-streak alive and going. --Matt
Rating:
Summary: If less is more, then "Dark City" offers very little indeed.
Review: Every night the Strangers stop time to edit reality. At the stroke of midnight, everything stops. Cars roll to a full stop in the streets, and the trains stand dead in their tracks. People faint, as if switched off. Then the Strangers rearrange them. They add and subtract from families, put up new buildings and tear down old ones, mix and exchange memories in order to find out what makes us tick, what makes us human. Then one day, a man named John Murdoch stayed awake at midnight and found out the truth. You have to admit that "Dark City" has a great premise. Too bad it reveals everything in the prelude scene: the shot pans the starry sky while a solemn voice reveals every secret in the movie, which seems a bit self-defeating. There is one thing wrong with "Dark City": it's too eager to please. Ideas spill out, and by the end of the first twenty minutes we realize that the movie has pulled all of its tricks and now has little to do but recycle itself, over and over, as it speeds towards the obligatory fire-and-brimstone special effects showdown. Somebody must have realized that the potency of a good cerebral thriller largely consists of its ability to tease, to keep the viewer constantly on edge, guessing. If the audience can guess the ending, the film is not only predictable - it has lost viewer interest and involvement. From that point on, only cheap tricks will work. A part of the problem is that the Strangers are inadequate villains. The narration identifies them as cold and alien, but in the film they seem petty. I'd have imagined that nearly omnipotent beings would be vastly unfathomable. Less human. But, no, the Strangers can only "tune" reality when the plot requires them to. The best and most entertaining aspect of "Dark City" is the art direction. The movie is filmed in dark, saturated pastels: here is the ominous, brooding city so many sci-fi flicks teased us with. Every texture, every crack in the yellowed plaster, every grain of slick asphalt, every strand of cobweb is tangible. The special effects, however, are less enthralling: the Strangers' underground halls seem to be exactly what they are - giant movie sets. The scene where buildings emerge from rubble seems to have been accomplished through claymation. "Tuning" is visually represented as a translucent blob of "force", which is the standard way of visualizing psychic powers in sci-fi movies. In general, the uses of "tuning" seem inconsistent throughout the film: at first, both John and the Strangers use their powers to form "invisible fists" that toss people around and collapse floors. Later, the Strangers make doors appear where none existed and change the shapes of objects (they turn a small kitchen table into a gigantic dinner table complete with candle holders). Then John uses "tuning" to levitate several objects. At last, during the showdown, "tuning" is used to send laser beams and bolts of lighning around. About the story I will say relatively little, in part because it hinges on acting (which is fairly good), and in part because there is very little to say. Much like "Total Recall," this is a flashback movie, but on second viewing I didn't see the movie in a wholly new light. I did not feel imbued with secret knowledge. There are a few good ideas, such as John's recurring attempts to find his way to "Shell Beach," a resort spot everyone seems to love but doesn't know the way to. "Dark City" is a style-over-substance film that is too timid to descend into the macabre and the surrealist. Despite some great sets, it largely adheres to accepted conventions. This doesn't make it necessarily bad, just..... disappointing. If only it took its time, it'd be much better.
| 
