Sometimes technology gets in the way of narration – always, actually, when a new tenchological leap is being experimented with. Painting on 35 mm real-life footage is not really new, but basing a whole serious feature film in modern times on the magic of optical effect has not been done often before. So it is a bit hard to take the film as what it is: another Philip K. Dick-based film on some form of future located relatively near to Katheryn Bigelow’s earlier creations, not so near – but still in looking distance – to David Cronenberg.
On the positive side, there are Robert Downey and Woody Harelson (whose name I remember well, for some reason, but not whether I have seen another film with him after NBK – in the case of Downey, I remember the face well, but after checking IMDB must stress that I do not remember a single film with him), on the negative almost all the other actors and the script. There are some fun segnments (all involving the two named staff members) and some extremely annoying rubbish (all involving Winona Ryder, of course). Nothing I would remember in half a year, though, which is another good reason for maintaining this online diary to remind me of it should I come to face the opportunity to watch the film again. To remind me not to, I mean. Linklater must be forgiven, of course. Not because the film has any redeemable value, but because he made "Before Sunset". That credit is not yet used up. cine
thomas4cinema 