User Reviews

I liked this movie. It has aged well, in the sense that while nothing like this happened in 1999, a lot of it did happen. The internet is a dark place and VR and Meta glasses are a thing, interesting to see how wrong and right the writers were. Some good performances, certainly more fun to watch now than when it came out.

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.

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 !

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.

bin dokuz yüz doksan beş yapımı, kathryn bigelow'un yönettiği, bilim kurgu, cyberpunk ve gerilim janrasındaki muhteşem film. muhteşem karakter yazımı ve olay örgüsüyle film beni kendine bağladı. daha önce filmlerde fazla görmediğim point of view sahnelerini izlemeye doyamadım ve film bittikten sonra bir daha izledim. film sudokuyu expert zorlukta çözmek gibi yavaş yavaş açılıyor ve harika bağlanıyor. aslında villian'ın tahmin ettiğimizden farklı biri çıkmasını yazmak zordur lakin senarist james cameron tohumları o kadar güzel ekti ki bizede izlerken meyveleri zevkle toplamak kaldı. beğendiğim oyunculuk performanslarında juliette lewis, faith karakterini güzelliğiyle, sesiyle ve hardly wait şarkısındaki performansıyla harika bir iş çıkarmış, micheal wincott'da rolünü başarıyla tamamlamış. filme notum: 80/100 film hakkında bazı trivia bilgiler. * yönetmen kathryn bigelow, mevcut hiçbir kamera sisteminin bakış açısı sekansları için gerekli çekimleri gerçekleştiremeyeceğini fark etti, bu nedenle lightstorm entertainment'ın araştırma bölümü bir tüm yıl için özel bir kamera tasarlıyor ve üretiyor. yalnızca üç buçuk kilogram ağırlığındaki 35 mm kamera, kelimenin tam anlamıyla avuç içine sığar, değiştirilebilir lensler ve uzaktan takip odağına sahiptir. kamera daha sonra steadicam tarzı taşınabilir bir teçhizata monte edildi ve bu da kamera dengesini ve insan gözüne benzer hareket kabiliyeti sağladı. * james cameron, özellikle son aksiyon sekanslarında kapsamlı düzenleme çalışmaları yaptı, ancak editörler birliğinde olmadığı için film editörü olarak kabul edilmedi. * filmin adı the doors'un "strange days" albümünden geliyor. * görüntü yönetmeni matthew f. leonetti, filmin yüzde elli ile yüzde altmış'ının steadicam veya bir tür hareketli kamera ile çekildiğini tahmin ediyor. *filmin büyük çoğunluğu gece çekildi, seksen günlük bir çekim programının yetmiş yedisi gece çekimi. * bakış açısı aksiyon sekansları, çekilmeden önce bir yıldan fazla bir süre hazırlık, planlama ve dikkatli prova gerektirdi. * bu film steven schneider'in ölmeden önce izlemeniz gereken 1001 filmi arasında.

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.

It's strange to think that there was a time before James Cameron became the multi-billion dollar box office king who made both Titanic and Avatar that it was possible for him to be involved in a box office flop. But back in 1995 he wrote the film Strange Days and gave the directing reigns to his ex-wife and action auteur Kathryn Bigelow and somehow, even with these great talents behind the scenes, the film only made 8 million dollars on a 42 million dollar budget. Which is a shame, as it's probably one of the high points of sci-fi action in the 90s. Taking place in the "futuristic" world of 1999 on the edge of the new millennium, the city of Los Angeles is on the verge of complete chaos with armed police marching the streets. Cameron took heavy inspiration from the Rodney King riots which helped make the film feel very dystopian, but still feel like a future that wasn't necessarily too far off. And with the racial tensions between police and the African-American community still being very prominent today, the setting of the film remains depressingly relevant. Though the biggest difference in this world is the implementation of an illegal black market technology known as SQUID. It's the ultimate leap forward in VR technology allowing the users to experience the memories and sensations of others. The technology is sold as the ultimate form of Voyeurism, which Biggelow lets us experience by switching the film to a first person perspective whenever a character experiences these memories. When it was released these sequences seemed to get a lot of criticism as being like an exploitative snuff film, even going as far as to show us brutal **** sequences, but that's kind of the point. The film wants us to see how far morality has decayed in this society by directly confronting these twisted fantasies. It's our lead Lenny who deals in exploiting these fantasies. He's played by Ralph Fiennes as the ultimate sleazeball, always trying to talk his way out of any situation and dragging others down by trying to push SQUID on to everyone he meets. But he also has a sentimental side, obsessing over SQUID memories of his ex-lover Faith and being seemingly unable to move forward in his life in any real way. It's this sentimental core that keeps us rooting for him even when he making genuinely awful decisions. But when a close friend becomes involved in something which leads to her being horrifically murdered and he is worried that Faith may be involved, he sets out to find the killer and finds himself in a position where he is unable to turn to the police for help. And with the city more on edge than ever before after the murder of a black political rapper Jeriko One, he starts to find that he's on the verge of the one thing that could push the city in to complete chaos. He's helped out by his close friend Mace, played by Anjela Bassett, who is one of the most overlooked action heroes of the 90s. She is what Furiosa was to Mad Max Fury Road, being a very genuine moral core of the film and taking centre stage in most of the action sequences. But she isn't just present in the film to support Fiennes, instead she is willing to confront him when she believes he is in the wrong and regularly condemns him for his use of SQUID. This is mixed with the fact that Bassett and Fiennes share some great on-screen chemistry which really sells us the strong history between the two characters. It's just a shame that outside this pairing the rest of the cast either comes off as being tonally bland or miscast for their roles. But what really makes this stand out to other action movies from this decade was the way in which it tackled some heavy themes like racial relations and police brutality. Unsurprisingly for the director who would later go on to make one of the most disturbing representations of police prejudice in Detroit, Kathryn Bigelow does not hold back when tackling these heavy themes. These themes are such a fixture of the film that it seems like this that they feel present in almost every scene, becoming so routine that the characters have to go on with their days whilst the world is practically erupting around them. She also doesn't try to simplify these issues, showing us how they are systematic that are not just rooted in a few individuals. Though it's because of Bigelow's directness in tackling these themes that the films original failure at the box office isn't too surprising. It's heavy themes mixed with the fact that there weren't as many shoot outs as other action films from this decade meant that this was always going to be a tough sell to audiences. However it's the way that the film tackles these themes so confidently whilst combining it with a great story and some strong lead performances that I'm surprised that this film hasn't been able to pull off a stronger cult following.

It's a masterpiece, her best movie, a true movie. It should have won Oscars!!!

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful