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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 078 215 2
- Running time: 139 minutes
- Year: 1995
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: Trailer, Featurette, Director’s Commentary
Director:
- Kathryn Bigelow
(Blue Steel, K-19: The Widowmaker, Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days, The Weight of Water, TV: Homicide: Life on the Street, Wild Palms)
Producer:
- James Cameron and Steve-Charles Jaffe
Screenplay:
- James Cameron and Jay Cocks
Original Score :
- Graeme Revell
Cast :
- Lenny Nero: Ralph Fiennes
Lornette “Mace” Mason: Angela Bassett
Faith Justin: Juliette Lewis
Max Peltier: Tom Sizemore
Philo Gant: Michael Wincott
Burton Steckler: Vincent D’Onofrio
Jeriko One: Glenn Plummer
Iris: Brigitte Bako
Dwayne Engelman: William Fichtner
Palmer Strickland: Josef Sommer
Have you ever jacked in? Have you ever wire-tripped?
Those are the first questions Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) asks when askingyou to try out his Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, or SQUID forshort. The idea is that you plug this into your brain and can record what yousee onto minidiscs and your real-life experiences will be sold to those whowant to experience them for themselves.
Nero makes a good living out of dealing these “clips”, the film starting withone of a break-and-enter which runs through a restaurant, but problems areabound when “blackjacks” – recordings of death – are introduced onto the market.He is given one anonymously and is then drawn into a case of trying to getthe killers caught while staying alive himself. The whole thing may sound likevirtual reality, but isn’t because that’s a computer simulation whereas thishas more emphasis on reality.
To make matters more complicated, the action takes place on the last twodays of 1999 in Los Angeles, culminating on New Year’s Eve, but presuming it wasthe end of the millennium – whereas anyone sensible knows that happened a yearlater. Niggles aside, the assumptions of the world that thought all thecomputers would crash and there’d be troubles aplenty fires up the hysteriaeven further and sets the scene for a highly-charged atmosphere.
Acting is first rate from most of those concerned including Fiennes andJuliette Lewis as Faith, his ex-girlfriend and a former prostitute whohe wanted to “save” from the time when he used to be a cop, a long-hairedTom Sizemore as former colleague Max Peltier and superb psychoticcorrupt cop roles for Vincent D’Onofrio (best known as Edgar inMen in Blackand Pvt. Pyle in Full Metal Jacket) and William Fichtner,not a well-known name at all, but a complete change of direction from hisrole as the blind colleague of Jodie Foster in Contact, as well ashaving a more curious role in the classic Pulp Fiction-esqueGo.
Sadly, the one face who does let down the proceedings is Angela Bassettas another friend of Nero’s, personal security expert Lornette “Mace” Mason,playing it over the top as usual in an overly-feminist role. Plus I think she’sjust a rather crap actress, but if you can get past that then you’ll hugelyenjoy the rest of the ride.
Although this DVD has only been released after the time the film takes place,I had it on video for a while and only actually got round to watching it onthe eve of the two days during which it takes place. I also watched it in twoparts. This wasn’t intentional as I started watching it too late on the nightof December 29th, 1999, realised there was a natural break in the film andcarried on the next day. I was going to be out on the night of New Year’s Eve,naturally, so wondered after each part if the following day would be anysimilar. It wasn’t.
Lesbian blonde fantasies: just one of the many
possibilities when you “jack in” or “wire trip”.
The back of the box has a few errors, most notably that the ratio is notcropped to 16:9, but is in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. I couldn’tface watching it in a ratio less than that since it is fully utilised throughoutbut then you should realise that given the combination of action directorKathryn Bigelow (Point Break) and producer/scriptwriter JamesCameron (T2). Makes you wonder why the two haven’t worked togetheron a big-screen follow-up, but what we have here looks fantastic with eventhe many night-time scenes encoded effortlessly.
Recorded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, from the opening “wire trip”, throughmany action scenes, an early one being the cops chasing an apparent prostitutethrough a subway, to even outdoor ambient moments of a helicopter circlingahead, the sound positioning is accurate and astounding. Pure heaven fromstart to finish. My only complaint is that we didn’t get the DTS soundmixas well which would’ve been even better.
Sadly, what’s lacking is any major extras. A two minute Trailer,six-minute Featurette (which may as well be an extended trailer) andfeature-length Director’s Commentary, whereas even the NTSC laserdisccontained two deleted scenes, the music video for “Selling Jesus” by SkunkAnansie, several trailers, storyboards and production stills includingposter art conceptions for Year 2000 celebrations. Oh, and a DTS soundtrack.
There are 20 chapters to the film which isn’t really enough, English subtitlesfor the hard of hearing and menus which are static and silent.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
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.