| Johnny Mnemonic (1995) Cast:Keanu Reeves,Dolph Lundgren,Takeshi Kitano,Dina Meyer,Ice-T,Udo Kier,Henry Rollins Reeves plays a courier who must smuggle classified data (The Cure for NAS ) in his head and is hunted down by the yakuza(Takeshi),a wildeyed preacher cyborg(Lundgren) and others in this so-so cyberpunk movie which is brought down by Reeves' terrible acting but helped by some interesting supporting performances from Lundgren and Kitano. Johnny Mnemonic is a mediocre movie that got destroyed by critics, while one isn't quite sure of the overall mean spirit regarding this film, it is afterall better than Lawnmower Man 2, the problem lies in the script which needs a hero who isn't so self absorbed and unlikable. Indeed Reeves gives an awful performance and indeed manages to get outacted by Dolph Lundgren. It's weird but one of the things about this movie is that this could've been an easy anime adaption movie considering the bizarreness of some scenes as well as the fact that it involves the yakuza, religious fanatics who kill for implants and just a lot of other weird characters throughout. Also given that it has little to do with William Gibson's original story one wonders why they didn't take the anime approach and keep this thing action-packed. However it's really only in it's special effects and the scenes surrounding Lundgren and Kitano where Johnny Mnemonic scores it's best moments. D.Robert Longo** |