Rating: 
Summary: Imaginative and thought provoking
Review: When I see a movie, it's not often that I'm blown away by the sheer imagination of it. Most movies forget to be imaginative. Heck, most movies don't even make you think. This one is an exception. First off, the visuals are spectacular. The city scapes are dark and gloomy, but what sets them apart from movies like "The Crow" or "Bladerunner" is that "Dark City" uses the style of the 30's & 40's. There are some inventive special effects during the "tuning" of the city which are wonderful. Some of the characters could have used more fleshing out, particularly Emma Murdoch (Jennifer Connelly), but if you spend the time listening to Roger Ebert's commentary you will understand why they weren't. Other characters are made memorable simply because the story allowed them to be. Watch for the mad detective who has figured out the "tuning", and Richard O'Brien (Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror) and Bruce Spence (Gyro Pilot from Mad Max movies) as Mr. Hand and as Mr. Wall, two Strangers. Alex Proyas has certainly set a high standard for himself and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. If you missed this one at the theater, you missed out. The opening bathroom scene was gorgeous. Not because of Mr. Sewell's behind, but because the colors were so vibrant. This movie is likely to end up as one of those classics that is studied in every cinema class.
Rating: 
Summary: A cerebral Matrix
Review: "Dark City" is the intellectual sibling of the action oriented "The Matrix." The film deals with similar subject matter (just what IS reality, anyway?) and has an even gloomier visual style than "The Matrix." There the similarity ends as "Dark City" explores the darkest depths of the imagination. The visuals are stunning, the acting is superb (biggest revelation, Kiefer Sutherlan CAN act) and the ending is quite satisfying. This is a sci-fi film for those who spend their time reading serious sci-fi novels rather than "Star Wars" serials.
Rating:
Summary: Horrific, Confusing, and Engrossing
Review: Dark City is a horrifying, mysterious, and amazing movie. The actors and actresses all play their parts well. Many I haven't heard of, but that doesn't mean that they can't act. I would reccommend this to any science fiction fan. The special effects are fantastic!The plot is intricate and complicated. It gets a bit confusing at parts, especially when you first see the city undergoing it's first change. Each character is important and there are no small roles (except for the hotel/newsstand guy. Again, this is great science fiction. The plot may become a bit complicated, so be aware of everything that is happening. Also, you have to keep an open mind while watching this.
Rating:
Summary: Perplexed
Review: This was more of a 3.5 star movie but I rounded up. True, it is a beautiful looking film. The story is intriguing. But on my 2nd viewing I did not feel it held up to my first impresssions. I'm having trouble pointing to what let me down this 2nd time. I think the acting, at times, did not emotionally engage me. Rather I was watching the film for the interest of the story - the events that unfold for these characters. But the characters themselves did not hold me. Replace them with another group of individuals and I would be watching an equivalent movie.
Rating:
Summary: Underated Fun Stuff
Review: Don't think too much about this film. Proyas was'nt stupid enought to make this remake of Metropolis any more than it was - A lot of fun. A little darker than it's predecessor this film from a special efffects standpoint will keep you moving and wondering why the entire time. Not too often can a film use the morphing of buildings, low light, and clocks to move along the plot as those conventions did in this film. They effects were not just making a point but telling a story of their own in an odd sort of way. This film could be watched without a soundtrack and still be a lot of fun. The acting by Mr. Sewell was great as usual and his supporting cast held their own. One could make a case for a better casting choice in the Keifer Sutherland role, but he does'nt ruin the film. Dark City plays like a fortysomething detective story as we are led through the confusion of Sewell's character to exactly what the heck is going on. The twists are fun and inventive (however predictable if you know the source), but an interesting watch nevertheless. The transfer to DVD is'nt as crisp as one would have liked. Given the low light filming sometimes the digital pixals are pretty obvious. Maybe our friends at the Criterion Collection will get their hands on the original and provide us with a brilliant rendition.
Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction and Film Noir Fans, Unite!
Review: Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" is perhaps the best-known (and certainly the most beloved) attempt to blend science fiction with gritty film noir flourishes. The future portrayed in this film looked decidedly desperate and retro, and thus somehow more realistic. "Dark City" takes this concept to the next level, in that for much of the movie you're not even aware that it's science fiction. The movie begins with a man waking up bloody in a bathtub with no idea as to who he is or how he got there, a plot no doubt familiar to noir fans. He comes to realize he is being hunted by the police for a murder he has no recollection of. And then things get weird. Courtesy prohibits discussion of the plot, the unfolding of which is crucial to viewers' enjoyment of the film, but suffice it to say that nothing is what it seems in Dark City, keeping with the best tradition of film noir. The visuals in the film are terrific. The setting is appropriately dark and menacing, and the lighting is evocative of all those wonderful 40s and 50s movies which so obviously served as the film's inspiration. The acting is terrific, with Kiefer Sutherland taking an appropriately slimy turn as a mad scientist who may hold the key to the nefarious dealings in the city. Jennifer Connelly is at her gorgeous best here as the endangered femme fatale. Rufus Sewell sparkles as the amnesiac protagonist who may or may not be a serial killer, but who holds the fate of Dark City in his hands. If you loved "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "12 Monkeys," "D.O.A.", the works of Raymond Chandler and Dashell Hammett, or latter-day noir films such as "Body Double" or "Chinatown", I guarantee you'll love "Dark City", a truly unique film.
Rating:
Summary: A paranoid fever dream
Review: If you haven't seen dark city. The best piece of advice I could give you, was given to me before I viewed this movie--KEEP THE VOLUME ON THIS MOVIE TURNED DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE THE BATHTUB. The strength of this movie is not knowing what's going on. The beginning of the movie presents you with a narration by Kiefer Sutherland's character that explains everything, a very poor choice. The movie is creepier and the suspense continues to build when you are like the protagonist and just don't know what's going on. And contrary to some of the buzz, Dark City is not a Matrix knock-off. It is a great movie, and destined to be a cult classic.
Rating:
Summary: WE ' RE NOT ALONE
Review: Few directors have succeeded since 1896 in presenting their imaginary world into a movie. At this moment, I can only think of Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel or german director Werner Herzog. Hollywood directors have been for too long under the strict control of their producers and couldn't let their imagination control their camera. So, only the fantastic and the science-fiction genre since the seventies let directors like David Lynch create a fantasy world with the OK of the Hollywood moghuls. DARK CITY is a masterpiece, a unique world invented by director Alex Proyas and he succeeds where Luc Besson, with THE FIFTH ELEMENT, failed. This world is not just a sumptuous decor justifying extra-terrestrial battle scenes and expensive special effects ; this world is alive, the characters do have a psychology, in short, we feel that someone has worked on a screenplay in order to show us a movie destined for a more than 15 years old mental age public. DARK CITY is a movie sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick would have adored. In fact, you can recognize one of the themes of TOTAL RECALL in the way the Others steal and manipulate the memories of the humans they control. The pessimistic aspect of this movie is also a constant we can trace in Dick's books. At last, DARK CITY is full of visual ideas only a genuine movie director can have and reproduce on pellicle. So let's wait with great impatience for Alex Proyas's next movies. A DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: The best Sci- Fi film of the decade. Can you handle it?
Review: The clock strikes midnight, its time for a "tuning", everybody goes to sleep. White faced aliens replace buildings, landscapes and put Jim in place of John. They replace memories. But what if you can see this, understand this? Do you really want to know? What if all your dreams and fantasies were memories of a different lifetime ? Could you have been married to your neighbor's wife only yesterday ? Could that first kiss you had be someone elses ? Do you still want to know? Many have compared The Matrix to Dark City, but they are infact the oppositte. In The Matrix the world around you is a fabrication, in Dark City you are the fabrication. While I love The Matrix, it is first and foremost and action thriller. Dark City is a cerebral work , the implications of its ideas are fascinating, thrilling, sad and frightening. The film I think that mostly resembles Dark City would be The Truman Show. A strange notion on the surface, but it tells a very similar story. An individual is trapped in a world where he feels he is the only one that's real, where he is surrounded puppets performing for a higher power. Dark City was made in Australia where the costs of building lavish sets is much cheaper then it is in America. The city looks incredible, the tall buildings loom over the characters shielding them from the sky, which is always dark. The film does what the best science fiction should be able to do, it provides us with an entirely new world. I saw Dark City for the first time last week, and I've seen two other times since. At heart it is a very sad film, if you think about the final images of the film enough, they would make you cry. The only other science fiction film that challenged me this way was Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys, and even that great film wasn't as exhilerating as Dark City. And like Twelve Monkeys it never abandons its ideas midway through to become a simple action film. Perhaps the best Science Fiction film I've ever seen, but can you handle it?
Rating:
Summary: If this one doesn't get you thinking...
Review: Let me start off by saying this is a brilliant DvD, the picture and sound quality rock and the extras are incredible. If you're a movie freak like me you'll love the commentary on this one, it explains a lot you miss out on while watching the movie. Which brings me to the most important advice on this movie. *SKIP* the pre title intro. In it Kiefer Sutherland explains some stuff about the movie you do not want to know. Just skip to the titles (just turn the volume down until they start, and turn it up fast if you see a guy in a bathtub, that's where the real movie starts). I have no clue why they put that intro in but it will ruin the best part of the movie's experience. The first time I saw this movie I got distracted during the intro so I missed it, boy was I glad. This movie is what the matrix so desperately tries to be, a true dark gothic representation of a possible reality. Now I'm not saying the matrix is bad, just that the matrix is an action movie and this one more a psychological Sci-Fi, it's a lot more intelligent. If you like movies that drag you into another reality, one where you can only cling on to shards of explanations of what is happening, you'll like this one. You can't help being dragged along in the main character's oblivion, simply because you yourself know nothing more than he does for the first part of the movie (unless ofcourse you were foolish enough to watch the intro). The only thing I am willing to say about the movie itself is that it's about a man waking up in a bathtub, having no clue whatsoever about what is going on, or what "is" at all, for that matter. Watch this one, you won't be disappointed, it's one of my favourite DvD's.
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