I finally saw this movie for the first time on late night TV, and considering that it was written by James Cameron and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, it's big disappointment. She directed the very good Point Break, but seems to lose her way here. The movie doesn't really know what it wants to be - cyberpunk noir? standard murder mystery? love story? end of the millennium apocalyptic cautionary tale? It tries a little of everything and doesn't really do anything that well. One of the main problems is that none of the characters we're supposed to like are very likable and the rest are just excessively weird and annoying (i.e. Philo Gant and his goons) for no apparent reason. Overacting is rampant, as the characters are constantly in situations that strain the limits of credulity. For example, the whole scene where the cops shoot Jeriko One borders on laughable. There were just a lot of scenes where the characters' words and actions did not seem to make sense. The movie seems to try to compensate for its lack of narrative cohesion by being as kinetic and loud as possible, which wears on your nerves after awhile. And what's with the whole New Year's Eve party thing at the end? It's the end of the millennium, great. But people are going nuts, the cops are going nuts, people are getting shot, stabbed, dying, etc., and nobody really seems to take much notice. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the movie is a big, disjointed, mess of different parts.
Review of Strange Days
