Working your way down the cast list, the overall impression is that even on
the smaller bit-parts considerable care has been afforded - and it pays off
handsomely.
Unusually for a Pioneer LDCE release, this PAL disc boasts a supplement
section (side 3) containing two trailers (more of the first, a teaser
trailer, in a moment), a music video (Selling Jesus
Again, by Skunk Anansie, featured in the Mother Of All Parties
sequence), a couple of scenes excised from the release version, (static)
storyboard sequences, examples of the specially created 'Faces Of The
World' (billboard designs featuring faces from all round the globe to
celebrate the year 2000) and even some production stills. Side three is
appropriately rounded off with a trailer for True Lies (also available
from Pioneer).
cinematography
never looks less than
stunning
The teaser trailer features Lenny delivering a monologue to camera. "I'm
the Magic Man... the Santa Claus of the subconscious...," and telling
us about the Forbidden Fruit, plugging illicit experience "pure...
uncut" straight into the cerebral cortex. "Are we beginning to see
the possibilities here?" Titles on rapidly edited primary colour
backgrounds against thrashing power chord riffs provide as good an
explanation of the set-up as you're ever going to get...
Lenny is a disgraced ex-cop turned dealer in SQUID - Superconducting
QUantum Interference Device aka The Wire, originally
developed as an FBI surveillance tool but now the province of street VR
dealers. It seems a shame this teaser trailer doesn't open side one.
Lenny might be a long way down the food chain, but he has his standards - he
won't deal in Blackjacks (recordings of the wearer's death). But he'll sell
a client anything else. He'll also while away his own privacy with taped
memories of his ex-girlfriend, former hooker Faith Justin
(Lewis). That's as close to her as he'll get, though, because these days
Faith's a rising thrash metal singer gigging at clubs like The Retinal Fetish.
Close friend Mace (Bassett) counters Lenny's obsessive rerunning of
(recorded) memories of Faith with the legend, "memories were meant to
fade - they were designed that way for a reason". But he just can't seem
to help himself.
Stunning set pieces include a flaming car driving off the end of a pier, its
occupants forced to escape underwater, and the final reel's showstopping
Mother Of All Parties where four crowded blocks of Los Angeles dance the
night away to celebrate the approach of the year 2000. The SQUID
sequences - vicarious POV wearer experiences - are superbly handled (wearer's
voice commenting on rear speakers throughout). But there's a problem here -
the SQUID premise is so interesting that it's a real waste ultimately to
throw it away on a none-too-original subplot involving a serial murderer.
Flawed masterpiece it may be, but Strange Days is perfect for LD
presentation: Pioneer's crisp transfer truly does it justice. Matthew F
Leonetti's cinematography, much of it shot at night, never looks less than
stunning, cramming a veritable wealth of Lily Calvert's extensive production
design detail into the frame. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Mother
Of All Parties, with it's urban thoroughfares packed with teeming, jiving
masses. At the other end of the film's scale, the POV shot SQUID sequences -
largely unbroken single takes with extraordinary sound design by the great
Gary Rydstrom - look equally superb.
Side breaks are abrupt, though it's difficult to see how they
could have been less so given the punchy overall pacing. The final Mother Of
All Parties sequence is sensibly isolated on the third side along with the
aforementioned extras. Chaptering is fair rather than perfect, with chapter
13 starting somewhat annoyingly in the middle of a sequence in Lenny's flat.
Chaptering carps aside, it's a great disc. "You know you want it,"
says Lenny. One can't help but feel he's right.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
