Skip to content
Reminiscence begins with some early so-called “man-made global warming” scaremongering by making Miami look flooded, and everyone’s nocturnal to “escape the heat of the sun”. Meanwhile, everyone’s happy to walk through deep – and easily-avoided – puddles and get their feet wet, which really isn’t good for you.
Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman – Logan) and Watts (Thandiwe Newton, now correcting her name from Thandie, which she’s used in the industry for 30 years) – the character of which is largely defined by alcoholism – have a device with the same name as the film, which fills the room, and which will mentally transport you back to a better time in your life, because as we get older, all we look forward to is our memories.
Mae (Rebecca Ferguson – Doctor Sleep Director’s Cut) comes in for the first time because she’s lost her keys and it’s a bit annoying, but as we learn, they had a long-term relationship and then she just disappeared without a word. He can’t handle it, so relives his memories of her regularly. He can’t accept that sometimes, women are just flakes.
Well, there is more to her background and the reason why she’s around, but it’s not a particularly interesting one, and just ties itself in knots that you could sit and try to unpick, but they’re best left ignored.
The concept of the Reminiscence machine is a good one, but the film largely uses it as a jumping off point to segue into gruff dialogue, tedious punch-ups and tiresome shootouts and gunplay, all of which we’ve seen before, along with elements of this feeling like a mish-mash of films which have gone before.
There’s some nice set design as they turn Miami into, basically, Venice, but that’s about it. However, when one or two scenes are clearly shot at an abandoned theme park, I presumed this was the Six Flags theme park in New Orleans, and I was right.
Reminiscence is in cinemas and on HBO Max now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 115 minutes
Release date: March 18th 2021
Studio: Warner Bros
Format: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic /i Scope, Dolby Vision, X-OCN ST (6K))
Rating: 3/10
Director: Lisa Joy
Producers: Michael De Luca, Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan, Aaron Ryder
Screenplay: Lisa Joy
Music: Ramin Djawadi
Cast:
Nick Bannister: Hugh Jackman
Mae: Rebecca Ferguson
Emily ‘Watts’ Sanders: Thandiwe Newton
Cyrus Boothe: Cliff Curtis
Tamara Sylvan: Marina de Tavira
Saint Joe: Daniel Wu
Sebastian Sylvan: Mojean Aria
Walter Sylvan: Brett Cullen
Avery Castillo: Natalie Martinez
Elsa Carine: Angela Sarafyan
Hank: Javier Molina
Falks: Sam Medina
Harris: Norio Nishimura
Freddie: Roxton Garcia
Cindy: Giovannie Cruz
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.