Strange Days

Bigelow's knack for fast-paced action, her skill at evoking a threatening atmosphere and her affinity with damaged people all come together in the daringly kinetic new film. [13 Oct 1995, p.28]

Everything in the movie is excessive, and if you have no taste for flamboyant or violent genre pieces, you may find much of it--and especially the amazingly protracted climax--a little ridiculous. But what's fascinating about "Strange Days" is both its sheer kinetic energy, the vitality of the actors and the density and detail of its crazy little world. [13 Oct 1995, p.C2]

I wasn't bored at all by this, and Angela Bassett's action-hero charisma often blew me away, but fans of Bigelow at her best (e.g., Near Dark) may be put off by the movie's calculation, which doesn't always fit with its intellectual pretensions.

If anything, Strange Days belongs to the rotters hovering around its edges: Michael Wincott, a vision of Drano-throated malevolence; Tom Sizemore, who, as Lenny’s bikerish pal, suggests Judd Nelson if he’d let the corruption ooze a little further out of his pores; and the wonderfully weaselly Richard Edson as an underground software techie.

Strange Days is an ambitious but ultimately disappointing attempt to assemble the latest in fringe-culture byproducts - distortion-laden torch songs, millenarian fantasies and cyberpunk nightmares - into a Hollywood package. Its failures are those of limited imagination; its brands of strangeness, like the clips its characters replay, never stray far from the familiar landscapes of 1995 pop culture.

It hurts to see this story reach for a tidy ending... STRANGE DAYS hurtles down the track for two hours, frantically trying to warn us en route to the Big Switchback, only to pull up in a hiss of smoke and hot air.

The movie is shot as if Bigelow wanted to take her audience to the very edge of sensory overload. Her pulsing, super-psychedelic images are edgy and invasive. They burn as they hit your retina. After a while, however, Bigelow's careening camera, the heavy-metal music and the flash cutting begin to make you feel hammered and abused. Though the movie is jammed with plot, nothing seems to happen. [13 Oct 1995, p.F01]

A very underrated movie. Saw it in VHS long ago and was impressed by how modern and creepy it was. The cast, specially Angela Basset was striking, and amidst all the mid-90mn movies this one was better written than many. Every character has its importance , even second or third tier. I may have seen it was written by James Cameron, but forgotten until I saw the end credits on my second watch today. I avoided re-watching that movie all these years, because its main premise , the technology used to relive someone’s memory, was so disturbing and also once you know the plot you fell you don’t need to watch it again….. But almost 30y later, this technology and the world described are still relevant, which makes this full on 90s mark of the era, still relevant politically and socially. The use of some social medias and the internet, first person video games or virtual reality are very reminiscent of the SQUID tech. OST and score are effective and work great, costumes don’t look goofy to watch 30y later, and while a 4-5y time jump in the future was a bit short to get to that extreme point, reading today about how the movie got made following Los Angeles 92 riots, it makes sense. I appreciate even more Strange Days now, and it’s amongst Katheryn Bigelow’s best work. I had forgotten also how Angela Basset’s character is a better action female badass than most modern movies, and could easily be up there with Ripley, Princess Leia or Buffy. Her action scenes are credible and are part of her toughen up character and job assignment, having to face dangerous streets.

Los Angeles December 30, 1999, last moments of the 20th century. The end of a millennium of a world in ruins, prey to anarchy, severely repressed by the police. Set in an apocalyptic metropolitan future not very distant then: a near future in which a new drug, the squid (which allows you to experience the experiences of others in the first person) supplants the old ones, with an effect of absolute substitution of the ego. The gimmick of the new narcotic in circulation gives the cinematic viewer the impression of perceiving and seeing everything live. The power of shots and cinematography in this movie are unbelievable as well as the editing. This movie turns out to be one of the very best movies of '90s and surely and half masterpiece.

The story is good, the idea of dealing with memories is nice. But the characters are annoying, especially Nero: I dont enjoy to watch such loosers, especially when they are running behind women, its a behaviour from Teenies.

Excruciating, not unlike most of Bigelow's films. Though to be fair, she didn't write it - you can thank James Cameron for that. At least there weren't any giant blue people in it...

J’avais déjà vu ce film mais je suis bien incapable de me rappeler la fin… sûrement parce que je n’ai jamais tenu le coup jusqu’à la putain de fin en fait !… J’ai alors retenté des années plus **** et je n’ai tenu qu’une demi-heure…! Ballot parce que cet étron dure quand même 2h20 ! en avance rapide x30 peut-être ? (et encore). Du « cyberpunké » sur minidisc (ololol) sans aucune histoire sur laquelle s’appuyer, des personnages… euh mais quels personnages au fait ? Mais finalement, de quoi ça parle cette soupe branchouille à la mords-moi-le-noeud ? on ne sait pas puisqu’on roupille déjà. Bigelow est capable du meilleur comme du pire. Et là, vraiment, sans conteste, c’est le pire du pire !