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Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

What could have been an entertaining sci-fi thriller based on an intriguing if clichéd Total Recall lite premise is ruined by poor production values ,amateur direction and the worst soundtrack ever to spoil a movie. Still enjoyable at times despite it's awfulness because I actually cared about the good guys. Val Kilmer looks like he stepped out of an Austin Powers movie, however, and looks ridiculous rather than villainous in his scenes. The action scenes are pedestrian with zero tension. In one fight sequence the composer has written what sounds like hotel lobby music which completely takes the viewer out of the movie. In spite of the films failings it could have been an enjoyable B movie if the director and editor had been skillful enough to introduce some tension into the movie, and if it had not been sabotaged by the awful score.

The premise of this film--almost certainly a failed pilot*--is very, very clever. Greedy industrialists devise the ultimate marketing device--no fast-forwarding, no trips to the kitchen--in our brains. It was the perfect place for a clever satire on the insanity of Madison Avenue. Unfortunately it promptly degenerates into a threadbare revenge saga with all the standard plot devices of such genres.A pity because it had the promise of something much, much better.Brad Kilmer looks deranged. What's with his hair? Has anyone made more bad films than Cuba Gooding? *No movie movie introduces a well-known character actor mug--Lance Henriksen--at the end of a movie unless it's the pilot of a TV series.

Okay, yes. You've seen the material a thousand times from Freejack to Johnny Mneumonic to Total Recall to Matrix. This echoes both John Carpenter's, "They Live," and the more-recent "Gamer," with some of the feel of the original "Blade," attempted, but never achieved.The action is awesome, well choreographed, and professionally executed throughout a Terminator-stylized storyline including the end of the world as we know it via robotics and a mad scientist portrayed disappointingly by Val Kilmer.Mad scientists should be either raving mad, or insidiously fiendish. Kilmer's Virgil was full of high ideas with no moral center, but he utterly lacked the diabolism required to carry through such a plan. It was like he knew from the beginning that he was doomed to fail, and played the character thusly, failing to invest too much of himself in a doomed role. I wanted him to be Madmartigan vs. the kid from Real Genius, and instead, I got Craig Ferguson's Dr. Wagner of Lenny the Wonder Dog. To say the least, I was disappointed.Decent on a rainy afternoon if there's nothing left in the house to clean. Otherwise, you could find something better to do with your time.It rates a 5.5/10 from...the Fiend :.

Bladerunner meets Matrix meets any film with a new surgical procedure meets...Highly unoriginal film thats a bit too in love with the world its created about a man who is given a new implant by one of the many corporations that now run the world. He soon finds himself on the run being helped by a group of hackers who are trying to free the world...or something.Well made but poorly written (and costumed, I mean pink hair?) film steals from a good number of other and better films and puts them all in a blender to make a tasteless puree. Its the sort of film that never seems like it self, rather you're constantly picking out where you've seen this bit before. It makes for tired viewing.I'm at a loss to understand why Cuba Gooding seems to be in a steady stream of low rent films. Certainly they are giving him a chance to be the star, and he's occasionally made a film that is much better than you think it is, but mostly one ends up wondering g if he has any sense in what he chooses. Certainly he's good in what ever he does, but the films often aren't.Count this as one of the Cuba Gooding films that makes you scratch your head.