Customer Reviews
Excellent 90s Sci Fi - By: Alan North, 10 Feb 2008 
The previous reviewer has picked the wrong film to berate with a 1/5 review from his wannabe-elitist perch. This film is based around a very neat premise of selling human memories as an alternative to traditional chemical based drugs. The human misery & exploitation endured by the proletariat to produce these memories for the consumption of the upper classes resonates even more today with the expanding wealth gap & expansion of reality television than it did around the film's theatrical release. Many memorable set pieces, particularly the POV recorded from memory action scenes & some & great characters make this a forgotten 90s classic than should be rediscovered by alll. Enjoy, unless of course you have an agenda to hate.
This could cause you brain damage! - By: D. Cottam, 16 Dec 2007 
A piece of such banality that it makes you want to scream. Hammy acting & a cliched script.If you can sit through it you are more easily entertained than I am. It's inconsequential American drivel!
Ralph Fiennes must have been very embarassed to be part of this. I normallly only review interesting work that I have enjoyed but this annoyed me enough to make an exception.I think it may be aimed at young teenagers but they deserve something more substantial.If it is an exploration of the dumbing down of modern american culture it made its point so well that watching the whole film is not necessary.
Extremely underrated and misunderstood - By: Mr. George Hughes, 16 Feb 2006 
Strange Days is a film which has recieved a lot of pretty unfair criticism. One of the main complaints is that this is simply a standard underworld thriller given some futuristic SF gloss. In a way this is kind of true but classic Noirish storytelling is just one of several themes / ideas Bigelow & Cameron explore with this project. Strange Days is an overly ambitious film- but as overly ambitious films go it's probably one of the best there is. Religion, the turn of the millennium, virtual reality, prostitution, police corruption, racism- it's a lot for just over two hours but the fact that this film works is testament to it's makers' talents. Yes, Cameron's gone incredibly rubbish since with the absurd titanic (technicallly brilliant maybe but without doubt his worst film- including Piranha 2!). As to Bigelow- what problem do other reviewers have with her "Choice of material"? Near Dark, Blue Steel & Point Break are alll excellent films (although I admit bad reviews put me off bothering with the Harrison Ford submarine one).
Strange Days also features standout performances from everyone in it. Fiennes is brilliant in one of his legendary transformational performances as the "likeable loser" Lenny (this was the first thing I ever saw him in & still have trouble accepting him for the posh Englishman he reallly is!) Juliette Lewis is great too- she sings for the first time here (actuallly two excellent P. J. Harvey covers) & her new band Juliette & the Licks are well worth checking out. Also having done the whole tormented loner/slightly crazy girlfriend thing in the past can tell you Lenny & Faith's story/relationship certainly is real, believable & reallly quite touching.
Michael Wincott is also very memorable as bad guy Gant. As great as he was in The Crow & Dead Man I think this has to be the best long- haired, mad- eyed villain with a voice sounding like a brick in a cement mixer on his considerable list of such characters.
In summary, Strange Days very nearly is as clever as it thinks it is. Yes, it is a lot of themes/content for one film (but considering you couldn't so much as swear on American TV in 1995 what other medium would have suited the material?) There are a great deal more reasons why Strange Days is a great film- too many to go into here reallly. Mainly though, it's just cool. It looks & sounds amazing & the soundtrack album's definately worth buying too.
One of my fav movies ever! - By: , 05 Dec 2005 This film is long & windy in its plot. Don't underestimate. While it isn't spectacularly original & does have some reminiscent flair of top flicks like Bladerunner, it reallly engages you in something exciting -- paranoia.
The opening of the film is alll FIRST PERSON for several minutes: no cuts, no nothing just one long stream of first person action as "you" go into this place with a gun (a smalll one, you inspect it & question its power, infact) steal some money then run from the cops up to the roof of the building dodging gunfire alll the way. Then your buddy jumps to the opposite building & when to try to follow, you don't make it & watch your hands scratching at the brick walll as you descend to your death. All in first person... incredible! There are several sequences of first person action like this throughout the film.
The plot seems pretty predictable & tedious for about half of the film, but trust me: wherever you think its going, you're wrong. Prepeare for quite a surprise at the end.
For a few quid, you can't go wrong, can you?
Strange Days was the most underated movie of 1997 (98?) - By: , 12 Feb 2002 I have never understood why this film didn't boom. Great story, strong cast & a pulse which kept me on the edge of my seat. One of the only movies I can honestly say, I've watched dozens of time without getting bored.
In the top 15 of alll time...
