Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Director: Robert Longo
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer
Synopsis:
A mnemonic courier is targeted by the yakuza when he takes on an assignment that overloads his neural implants and threatens to kill him.
Impressions:
This movie had potential, but that potential was squandered on a number of counts. I haven't read the original short story, so I can't attest to the quality of the source material, but the original author denounced the film, so that should tell you something. There's so much wrong with the film that I'll leave that task to others. The lead character is selfish and unlikable and never really changes for the better, but he does give a rather hilarious self-centered rant that is one of the highlights of the film. You'd think with actors like Takeshi Kitano, Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren counted among the villains, there'd be something enjoyable, but Lundgren is the only one who comes close to being utilized well as the cyborg assassin known as the Street Preacher. Dina Meyer came off more as a faux action girl (a pet peeve of mine) and Ice-T was painful as the LoTek leader J-Bone. Because the story is set in 2021, anyone with any tech savviness will likely get a kick out of how silly the tech stuff is (such as Johnny's neural implant with a stunning capacity of 80GB). You might find this to be a so bad it's good kinda film and it'd probably be good riffing material, but otherwise go watch The Matrix instead.
50/50