The Ultra Fem

Dark City — 
Yesterday, I watched this weird-ass 1998 movie called Dark City. I remember the year it came out Roger Ebert picked it as the best film of the year, and I was so incredulous, I went and rented it. I found it memorable, but certainly NOT the best. I remember Kiefer Sutherland's performance was REALLY bad, and I remember noticing there was a very distracting crazy music soundtrack that never stopped playing. I also have a strong memory of thinking Jennifer Connelly looked awful.

Watching it today, my impressions were much the same, except Jennifer Connelly looked fine. I don't know what I was thinking back then. Kiefer Sutherland was still terrible. I mean REALLY awful. What the hell was he trying to do?? Just bad, bad acting.

For those of you who don't know, Dark City belongs in the same category as The Matrix and The 13th Floor. It's a bit more plausible than the other two, though, and I give it that consideration only grudgingly. The idea of the world and everything in it being entirely simulated or a giant hoax is just not a premise I can suspend enough disbelief for. At least in Dark City almost everybody can tell something is very wrong with the world. They're not stupid.

I see similarities to a bad old anime movie called Megazone 23. Also, there's a scene that's almost identical to one in Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. If you've seen both movies, you'll know which scene I'm talking about. (Beautiful Dreamer, by the way, is excellent! I recommend it highly!)

You should give Dark City a look, but don't go into it expecting a great movie.

While reading about Dark City, I kept seeing references to City of Lost Children, which was unknown to me. So I downloaded it. After looking at the first scene, I'm hooked. I'll let you know...

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