Well, its Friday morning, and I'm boarding a plane to Darwin. This is the first day of my holidays, and I'm continuing on from Darwin to Bali tonight. Seeing a movie is the last thing on my mind. We get "City of Angels" on the plane, and the steward walks down the aisle offering tissues at the end. So? Its sad when Meg Ryan gets squashed under that big truck. Anyway, its five hours later and I'm in Darwin. Its the middle of the day, and its hot - I mean really bloody hot. Where can I go that will be cool, like a Mars bar from the fridge? The Darwin City Cinemas are just a short stroll away (everything in Darwin is a short stroll away!), and Dark City starts in 20 minutes. The cinemas are nicely appointed and extremely well air-conditioned. 1 ticket please...
Dark City was a pretty interesting movie, although I will admit that I almost dozed off a couple of times. That was due to the long flight (yeah sure!) The movie is set in a bleak city in an imaginary future. It's always dark, thus the title of the movie. The main character, played by Rufus Sewell, wakes up to discover a prostitute murdered in his hotel room. He has no idea how she ended up there, or what he is doing in the hotel room. He can't remember much at all. A detective played by William Hurt is quickly on his trail. Experiencing continual memory flashbacks and strange periods when time seems to stop, our main character begins to question what is going on in this nightmarish city. After encounters with a weird psychologist played by Keifer Sutherland, he makes his discovery. Each night, a huge group of ugly bald headed creatures called 'strangers' congregate under the city. They have the power to literally stop time, and conduct experiments on the city by changing buildings and swapping the memories of the population. The special effects involved in this process are quite incredible. Sewell is eventually taught that he has the power to stop this process, and thus the battle begins...
The visuals in this movie are really quite amazing. Director Alex Proyas made 'The Crow', and the conceptual similarities are quite obvious. Filmed at the new Fox Studios in Sydney, this does represent somewhat of a milestone for Australian made movies. A great deal of the background scenery is computer generated, but if you look carefully, you can see scenes filmed around The Rocks and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You will also get a kick out of seeing some of the Aussie actors who have small roles but are well known stars in this country.
If you like sci-fi movies, I would take a look at Dark City. The acting isn't exactly brilliant, but the visuals and FX are excellent.
The Movie Nut's Rating - 6 Out Of 10
Dark City was a pretty interesting movie, although I will admit that I almost dozed off a couple of times. That was due to the long flight (yeah sure!) The movie is set in a bleak city in an imaginary future. It's always dark, thus the title of the movie. The main character, played by Rufus Sewell, wakes up to discover a prostitute murdered in his hotel room. He has no idea how she ended up there, or what he is doing in the hotel room. He can't remember much at all. A detective played by William Hurt is quickly on his trail. Experiencing continual memory flashbacks and strange periods when time seems to stop, our main character begins to question what is going on in this nightmarish city. After encounters with a weird psychologist played by Keifer Sutherland, he makes his discovery. Each night, a huge group of ugly bald headed creatures called 'strangers' congregate under the city. They have the power to literally stop time, and conduct experiments on the city by changing buildings and swapping the memories of the population. The special effects involved in this process are quite incredible. Sewell is eventually taught that he has the power to stop this process, and thus the battle begins...
The visuals in this movie are really quite amazing. Director Alex Proyas made 'The Crow', and the conceptual similarities are quite obvious. Filmed at the new Fox Studios in Sydney, this does represent somewhat of a milestone for Australian made movies. A great deal of the background scenery is computer generated, but if you look carefully, you can see scenes filmed around The Rocks and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You will also get a kick out of seeing some of the Aussie actors who have small roles but are well known stars in this country.
If you like sci-fi movies, I would take a look at Dark City. The acting isn't exactly brilliant, but the visuals and FX are excellent.
The Movie Nut's Rating - 6 Out Of 10
(originally posted on movies-australia.com sometime in 1999 I think!)
No comments:
Post a Comment