Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Directed by Robert Longo. Starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Denis Akiyama, Henry Rollins, Beat Takeshi, Udo Kier, Dolph Lundgren, Barbara Sukowa, Tracy Tweed, Falconer Abraham, Diego Chambers, Don Francks, Arthur Eng, Von Flores. [R]

In the dire future of 2021 (yikes!), megacorporations control most of the world and a degenerative affliction known as NAS plagues about half the population (Nastradamus wasn’t that bad, was it?). Reeves plays a courier for sensitive information that gets uploaded by the client to an implant in his head, and the latest upload not only exceeded the device’s memory limit (putting him at risk for brain damage), but it also makes him a target of Yakuza and corporate killers who want the data he’s carrying. Humorously outdated—as most 90s techno-thrillers are—and a complete mess in terms of scripting and the ultra-derivative wardrobe, makeup, and production design elements. The action scenes are mostly routine despite the cluttered milieu, the stakes are murky, the computer graphics are a mothballed mishmash, the acting ranges from stiff to scenery-nibbling, and the dialogue is filled with clunky cyberpunk slang and techno mumbo jumbo. Yet the sheer weirdness of the wreckage makes it sporadically entertaining all the same; pity those who can’t appreciate the absurdity of Lundgren as a maniacal preacher-assassin wielding a shepherd’s crook and knife crucifix, or a go-for-broke Nicolas Cage-esque outburst from Reeves atop a junk pile, or one of the leaders of a grungy rebel group that agrees to help Johnny being a cybernetically-enhanced dolphin named Jones (strangely, not called “Mr. Jones” by Ice-T’s character, who’s sporting Adam Duritz’s haircut). A bad movie, to be sure, but not a boring one, and a time capsule oddity unafraid to “go there” when adapting William Gibson’s sci-fi short story—Gibson is credited with the screenplay, too. The version released in Japan is almost fifteen minutes longer.

44/100