Bullet To The Head

Title: Bullet To The Head

Director: Walter Hill

Released: 2012

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Abaje, Christian Slater, Jason Momoa

Plot: Hitman James Bonomo (Stallone) and police detective Taylor Kwon (Kang) find themselves forced to work together when they find themselves targeted by the same enemy.

 

Review: Not to be confused by the superior John Woo classic "Bullet In The Head" and Based on Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel “Du Plomb Dans La Tete” loosely translated as “Lead In The Head” with this film would come for Stallone at a time when he was riding high once more in his career, having dragged himself out of the depths of DTV hell by revisiting the roles which first made him a star, as well as cashing in on that legacy further with the first two entries in “The Expendables” trilogy. Of course we would be heavily mistaken if we thought that Stallone was back on track as here he sleepwalks his walks through this shambling Neo-Noir thriller.

Now the idea of someone with a legacy like Walter Hill has in the director’s chair it would normally be something to be excited about, but sadly this is not working at his prime as we like to remember him with films like “The Warriors” or “Southern Comfort”. With this film though it is hard to tell if these lacklustre effort is to do with a veteran director losing his mojo or the fact that he was drafted in to replace Wayne Kramer who wanted a darker vision for the film than Stallone wanted, leading to Stallone bringing in Hill who at the time had at the time just had the movie he’d been working on fall apart after he’d spent a year trying to get it made.

Refreshing set in New Orleans, here Stallone’s Bonomo also known as the bafflingly unthreatening Jimmy Bobo, is an aging hitman who lives by his own code of conduct, as emphasised by the opening hit on a corrupt cop in which he refuses to kill a prostitute witness. It is of course this hit which Bobo on the radar of Kwon who was the cops partner and from here it is only an onslaught of confused plotlines with only the occasional dash of action to keep the mildest hint of interest in this otherwise bland thriller. Things head south pretty quickly here after a strong opening, with the Bobo and Kwon being forced to work together, but thanks to Stallone and Kang having zero chemistry together this is far from the mismatched partner dynamic we would expect with every situation usually consisting on Stallone handling the action, while Kang plays on his phone. Seriously there is no situation which doesn’t seemingly find a resolution by him looking up the answer on his phone making his credentials as a detective all the more shaky while making you wonder why his character had to be a cop and instead couldn’t have been a hacker or some other profession. Interestingly though Thomas Jane was to play this role, only for producer Joel Silver to recast the part feeling needed a “more ethnic actor” to appeal to a wider audience. It remains to be seen if Jane could have done a better job, or if the flaw is just in the character. Elsewhere Shahi shows up as Bobo’s tattooist daughter who supposedly according to Bobo’s claims went to med school for a week, yet has no problem dealing with gun shot wounds or any other medical issue that arises. Frustratingly while Shahi gives a good performance, her character seems to largely have been included as an excuse to up the nudity quota or just so Hill could have a pretty girl in the cast, especially when her character could have easily have been written out without any effect to the film in the slightest.  

The other main issue with the film is the lack of a decent big evil with the closest we get to a memorable villain is in ex-mercenary turned heavy Keegan (Momoa) who gets one of the few highlights of the film when he gets to engage in a fire axe dual with Bobo at the finale. While the character is memorable, its another lacklustre performance from Momoa, who the more I see the more convinced I am that his performance as Khal Drogo in “Game of Thrones” was a one off, especially when everything else I’ve seen him in has yet to come close to that performance as further reinforced here. 

The action scenes are all enjoyable enough, though hardly containing anything overly original to make them standout more, while the final axe dual despite containing a number of impressive moments, relies too heavily on close up shots to be truly effective. We also get a massage parlour brawl but again I struggled to get into this fight, mainly because it felt like a poor man’s version of the same scene in “Eastern Promises” only thankfully Stallone doesn’t get naked in this one.

A forgettable Neo-Noir thriller let alone a heavily flawed one which even the diehard Stallone fans will struggle to find anything to make it worth your time. At the same time it remains to be seen if Hill can recapture his film making mojo which made his early films so memorable especially when this is certainly a stumble on his resume. Of course this is only made all the more frustrating when here is clearly trying to do something new within the genre, especially in terms of setting, its just a shame that the few moments when the film does work, don’t make up for the rest of the film to warrant giving it anything but a curious watch.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

Title: Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For

Director: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller

Released: 2014

Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Jaime King, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni, Juno Temple

Plot: Another collection of tales from Frank Miller’s “Sin City” as Cocky gambler Johnny (Gordon Levitt) finds himself on the wrong side of Senator Roarke (Boothe) after beating him a backroom poker game. Years before “The Big Fat Kill” Dwight (Brolin) gets caught up with his former lover Ava (Green) only to get caught up in a dangerous double cross.  Elsewhere four years after the events of “That Yellow Bastard” exotic dancer Nancy (Alba) is still plotting her revenge against senator Roarke who she blames for Hartigan’s suicide.  All in all it is going to be busy few nights for muscle for hire Marv (Rourke)

Review: It’s hard to believe that it has been nine years since our last visit to Frank Miller’s legendry neo-noir city of violence and corruption, but after various delays and re-casting Rodriguez and Miller have teamed up once more for this second collection of stories from Miller’s cult series as this time the film builds around the story “A Dame To Kill For” which forms the main meat of the film while book ended by two new stories “The Long Bad Night” and “Nancy’s Last Dance” which Miller penned specifically for the film.

Right from the opening short “Just Another Saturday Night” which sees Marv waking up next to a crashed police car and trying to figure out how he came to be surrounded by a group of dead frat boys, its almost as if we’ve never been away as Rodriguez once again sticks to the black and white shooting style of the first film, while once again clearly using the source comics as the storyboards. A style which Miller tried to replicate for his misguided let alone plain random adaption of “The Spirit” but thankfully Rodriguez it would seem is the voice of reason in this team as this film thankfully is free of any such randomness, while largely giving us more of the intoxicating mix of gratuitous violence and black humour, even if the later is noticeably more absent than in the previous film as the duo seem to be aiming for a solid noir style tale. Frustratingly though when humour is introduced it is often clumsily handled and more of a distraction than the light relief it provided the first time around.

Still despite this slight change in direction, the familiar faces waiting to welcome you back to Basin city means that it’s often none too noticeable until you stop to examine the film closer. Thankfully in the time which has passed nothing seems to have changed for any of these characters, with perhaps the exception of Dwight who we get to finally see what he looked like prior to his surgery. For most of the cast though it’s still business as usual as they go about their various dirty deals or trying to find a way to escape their various issues. At the same time we also get a whole heap of new characters to add to the local colour even if these new characters are largely to fill minor or supporting roles.

Sadly while it is a great cast which has been assembled here, the performances throughout vary greatly with Bruce Willis phoning in yet another performance for what is essentially a glorified cameo. Rourke especially suffering as a result of his role being increased so that he now appears in every story with the exception of “The Long Bad Night” almost as if no one can pull of a plan in this city without his assistance, something which really damages the mystique of his character as previously he was seen as a lone wolf, while here he is largely to add to the violence quota or to provide clumsy comic relief. Elsewhere and most disappointingly Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears to be giving us a poor man Bogart impression as he snarls though his lines, with none of the cool he brought to his previous Neo-noir effort “Brick”. The fact his character lacks of any real purpose other than trying to embarrass senator Roarke only adds to the creeping sensation that like “Nancy’s Last Dance” that this story was only added as filler when it became obvious that they couldn’t stretch “A Dame To Kill For” to feature length, while the fact its split into two parts lacks the natural breaking point that we had with “That Yellow Bastard” in the original and comes off looking like they remembered part way though the film that they hadn’t finished Johnny’s story and return to hastily wrap it up the same way all the stories end this time with someone getting a bullet to the head.

Due to the long delays between this film and the original it has meant certain roles being recast with Jamie Chung taking over from Devon Aoki due to being pregnant at the time of film resulting in deadly little Miho going from a stone cold killer to just another pretty girl from old town whose handy with a sword. Dennis Haysbert makes for a great replacement for Michael Clarke Duncan even if he doesn’t have quite the vocal presence of his predecessor. Josh Brolin is equally on good form, even if his portrayal of Dwight is perhaps alittle more gritty than Clive Owen’s who was supposed to share the role with Brolin only to ultimately not be available for filming which now leaves us with the scenes were Dwight has supposed to have changed his appearance through plastic surgery, which I suppose would have seen the role switch to Owen and now leaving us watching Brolin looking like he’s had a bad facelift while bad guys act like he’s a completely different character!?!

The real star of the show here though is Eva Green, who is utterly captivating as the titular Dame and despite spending a vast amount of time in the nude, it never feels that it is being done for titillation, as here it gives her an almost siren esq quality, especially when she uses her womanly charms to further her own causes, usually with fatal consequences for the men who succumb to her. While Angelina Jolie was the original choice for this role, this is truly Green’s role and its hard to imagine any other actress being so willing with some of the more risqué elements of this role, much less the amount of nudity required.
 

Unquestionably though “A Dame To Kill For” is the strongest of the stories featured and in a way makes sense considering that it was written when Miller was writing in his prime, which as anyone who has read any of his more recent efforts will tell you those days currently seem like a long lost memory. Judging by Miller’s directorial debut with “The Spirit” it would also seem that Rodriguez is the voice of sanity in the duo as this features none of the sheer randomness that plagued that film, while lifting the visual style of “Sin City” which here doesn’t seem to be as edgy as it was back in 2005, yet at the same time it is a style which suits the film still even if perhaps the moments of colour we get throughout the film don’t seem to have any of the poignancy of the original, which only used colour for the character of Goldie and occasional splashes of crimson. Here though what qualified for the colour treatment seems more sporadic and frequently without reason, though thankfully Eva Green’s eyes are amongst the things which do.

While this might not come close to the original, it still has its moments as well as fun smaller appearances by both Christopher Lloyd and Lady Gaga as a drunk doctor and waitress respectively. Perhaps because of the strength of its middle section though I still would love to see another film in the series, if perhaps based solely on original material than letting Miller try and write anything new again as here when it does it only detracts further from the film. Like any night we see in the film this is one to be certainly approached with caution.

Streets of Fire

Title: Streets of Fire

Director: Walter Hill
Released: 1984

Starring: Michael Pare, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Dafoe, Elizabeth Daily, Van Valkenburgh

Plot: When Tom’s (Pare) ex-girlfriend and singer Ellen (Lane) is kidnapped by the biker gang the Bombers, he sets out to get her back putting him on a collision course with Raven (Dafoe) the leader of the Bombers

Review: While director Walter Hill will no doubt always be best remembered for “The Warriors”, alongside Joe Dante he has probably one of the most underrated back catalogues of any director, which is something this film only further emphasises. This film also is another example of what happens when a director is given free reign to make exactly the film as we’ve seen with the likes of Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” and Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” and well pretty much every movie that Quentin Tarantino has made it would seem.

So for Hill these loves would seemingly be fast cars, motorcycles, wisecracking tough guys, neon signs and brawling  in the street, while mixing up elements of 1950’s Americana within an 80’s setting with the results being certainly interesting to say the least, much like the shooting style which Hill brings to the film. Shot like a neo-noir while breaking off frequently on music video style tangents he also includes extended performance footage throughout the film, often seemingly dropped in at random or so it would certainly seem at the points these moments appear throughout the film making it almost a forerunner to “Sin City” only with added music video elements.

Much like “The Warriors” this film pretty seems to be set in its own enclosed world, were the police don’t seem to care to much about spontaneous street brawls or even bikers randomly walking into a concert and kidnapping the lead singer. This is unquestionably a world which runs to Hill’s unique set of rules. Perhaps though because the film is played with such a sense of fun that these frequently random things are never questioned. Still as random as the film might be with its shooting style (never mind the plotting) it is certainly hard to fault the unique mixure of eclectic characters that Hill populates his unnamed city with, with Tom making for a great lead. A soldier of fortune, he is essentially a stone cold badass who is mere minutes in town before he is shown throwing bikers through a diner window. Thankfully Pare knows his way around a one liner which helps to separate him from the line of disposable one shot action heroes that 80’s cinema was littered with, only making it more of a shame that Hill never got to make the intended trilogy he had planned for his character, with sequels being set in snow and desert settings. Ultimately though the closest we have got to a sequel is the unofficial one “Road to Hell” via cult favourite Albert Pyun which saw Pare reprising the role of Cody.

Its not only the unique setting which Hill plays around here, as he plays actors against type a he memorably makes Rick Moranis a foul mouthed tough guy wannabe, rather than having him rerun through his usual bumbling goofball style of characters and while it’s the polar opposite than what we’ve grown used to seeing him play it is a risk which plays off, especially as Moranis brings the right amount of sleaze as he manager and current boyfriend of Ellen who frequently seems to care more about getting his investment and scoring points off Cody than he does about Ellen. The real standout though is the tomboy ex-soldier and mechanic McCoy a part fought for by Madigan who despite originally being brought in to read for the role of Cody’s sister Reva (eventually played by Valenburgh) ended up fighting for the role of McCoy which Hill ended up changing from being the more traditional portly sidekick to her current form here which ultimately pays off as Madigan makes for the perfect counter to Pare’s Cody with the two making such a fun team it only makes it only the more sadder that the intended trilogy never happened.

When it comes to filling the bad guy quota Dafoe makes for a suitably creepy villain which seems to always be the way with these early roles, were he generally just seemed to be creepy and constantly giving toothy shark like grins which is pretty much what we get here only with the added bonus of PVC overalls which hardly seem to be the most biker of outfits and perhaps more of a kinky redneck look, yet for some reason it seems to strangely work here, even if the rest of the Bombers look like they have been torn straight out of the “The Wild One”. As Raven though he frequently rides the fringe of psychosis, though constantly seems to be able to keep things under control until the finale were he finally lets loose challenging Cody to a sledgehammer street fight.  This finale though does ultimately feel slightly anticlimactic when compared to the rest of the film, maybe due to studio tinkering guiding it more towards a more ratings friendly ending, rather than the ending that Hill had planned. Unquestionably though the journey which Hill takes us on is such a fun one that it’s easy to overlook, especially when  he once again crafts some great set pieces including Cody leading an attack on the Bombers clubhouse, were he gets to showcase his crack shot skills to great effect.

Despite being a box office flop on its release this film has since gone onto become a cult favourite and its easy to understand why, especially as its such a fun and fast paced film with some fun retro dialogue which perfectly matches this head on collision of styles and ideas. Unquestionably this is a unique film to say the least and like so many film in Hill's back catalogue it is certainly worth hunting down, if only to check out Dafoe in PVC overalls!

Part of "Forgotten Films" 1984 Blogathon, so why not check out the site for more 80's madness

Narc

Title: Narc
Director: Joe Carnahan
Released: 2002
Staring: Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, Chi McBride, Lloyd Adams, Stacey Farber, Busta Rhymes, Krista Bridges, Alan Van Sprang

Plot: Eighteen months after his last botched operation, disgraced undercover narcotics officer Nick Tellis (Patric) is brought back in to the force to investigate the murder of another undercover narcotics officer Michael Calvess (Van Sprang), which has after several months still remains unsolved. As part of the investigation Tellis finds himself teamed up with the volatile senior Detective Henry Oaks (Liotta) the former partner of Calvess, as they try to find out the truth behind Calvess’s murder.



Review: When it comes to naming my favourite directors Joe Carnahan is definatly one of the more guilty pleasures on the list, having loved his visceral style of film making which combines eye popping action with whip smart dialogue, which unsurprisingly has in the past lead to comparisons being drawn between himself and the equally awesome Quentin Tarantino, which is no bad thing and no doubt the reason I’ ve been such a big fan of his work, since the first time I saw “Smokin’ Aces” (2006) with this love for his work extended to even the more commercial projects such as his big screen adaptation of “The A-Team” (2010) which he managed to drag out a long mooted development hell.

Building on his earlier short film “Gun Point”, while also drawing heavy inspiration from the documentary “The Thin Blue Line” (1978), Carnahan’s vision is almost like an homage to the likes of “Serpico” (1973) and “The French Connection” (1971) aswell as possibly unintentional echoes of “Training Day” (2001) as he strives for the same level of gritty rawness, shooting his vision of Detroit in washed out greys, while the sky remaining permanently overcast only further adds to the atmosphere.

Despite Carnahan having a reputation for big and loud film making, “Narc” is a very different and much grittier creature altogether, with Carnahan reeling back the big set pieces for smaller but non the less impactful sequences, the first of which he hits us with the moment the film starts, as syringes are filled followed by a disorientating handheld shot chase through a house estate, as a bystander is stabbed by a junkie as Narc officer Tellis chases down his charge ending in a playground shootout in which a heavily pregnant woman is caught in the crossfire, this is gritty side of Detroit that Carnahan has chosen as the canvas for his tale and serves as a suitable warning to the less informed movie goer, that things are only going to get a whole lot darker from this point on and this is one hell of an opener to proceedings, which doesn’t does grab the audience, but instead grabs them firmly by the shoulders, shaking them vigorously and demanding their attention.

Tellis is a character of heavy flaws, having battled drug addiction caused as the result of his undercover work and after his last case which essentially destroyed his career, he only wants to play the family man, rather than return to the force and it’s only after he’s given the promise of a desk job that he takes up the case. Oaks on the other hand is very much the picture of a loose cannon, introduced as he wraps a cue ball in a sock across the skull of a suspect, his unique take on police protocol echoing Tchéky Karyo’s psychotic detective Christini in Dobermann (1997). Still despite being polar opposites to each other they share a mutual respect from the start, while soon demonstrating similar approaches to their work, as their working relationship is far from being a case of good cop / bad cop but rather bad cop and really bad cop, with the ends truly justifying the means for the most part.

The strength of this film is truly with the powerhouse performances from the two leads, with Liotta just edging it over Patric, but then Liotta has always pulled out great performances when working with Carnahan as also seen in Smokin’ Aces (2006) the second of their collaborations, making it partnership I would love to see more from in the future, but it’s his performance here which proves to be his best in quite awhile, as he portrays Oaks as a member of the walking dead aged by the daily horrors and having long lost whatever faith his had in humanity along time ago. Liotta really took his character commitment seriously here and it shows, taking on extra weight for the role aswell as donning a fat suit and prosthetics to help age him further and add to the heavy build his character has, while in some scenes making him looking like a younger Brian Cox. Still despite the frequently violent nature of Oaks he still finds tenderness for his former partner’s family who he has taken on the responsibility of supporting, while seemingly providing his sole link to the rest of humanity. Still the scenes with just Liotta and Patric such as their initial coffee shop meeting fizzle with intensity and presence as they both bounce off each other, with the climax being truly worth the build up and frequent flashbacks that we go through on the journey to uncover the grim truth.

While having a highly visual style Carnahan, also has a great ear for dialogue (aswell as creative uses for the work fuck) and more than happy to drive his story through his dialogue rather than gratuitous action sequences, with the day to day investigations proving just as fascinating as the main case, as the banter between the two detectives adds real depth and character to the scene, including a memorable suspected bathtub suicide which later turns out to be real contender for the Darwin Awards, aswell a great insight into the detective mind of Tellis and his ability to piece together the most seemingly random of clues.

During the film’s production frequent financial issues cropped up, which also saw the production run out of money at one point, leading to Liotta and Patric working for free to keep the production running, while also having a record 21 producers, which meant that the film actually had more producers than it had speaking parts, with Tom Cruise also joining as an executive producer to help give the film a wider audience reach than it would have got normally, but despite this it still sadly remains a largely unseen film. Still this partnership with Cruise would also lead to brief working relationship between Carnahan and Cruise which ended after creative differences on “Mission Impossible 3”, which like the Coen Brothers vision for “Batman” can now only sadly be imagined.

While certainly the most subtle film on Canahan’s C.V, Narc still has many of his classic trademarks and by toning down the action to concentrate on the drama, it only serves to highlight his strengths as a director further, while proving a real treat for those of us who like our thriller with a tar black edge to them, while also worth watching for what could be the best performances from both Patric and Liotta in a long time.

Dark City

Title: Dark City
Director: Alex Proyas
Released: 1998
Staring: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’ Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, Colin Friels, John Bluthal, Mitchell Butel, Melissa George

Plot: John (Sewell) wakes up naked in a hotel bathtub, his memories erased and a mutilated prostitute on the bed. Soon John finds himself framed for a string of brutal and bizarre murders and on the run from not only the police, but also the strange trench coat clad men known only as “The Strangers” as he tries to piece together his missing memories.



Review: For some reason Alex Proyas seems to constantly be just below the public conscious, which is only all the more strange when you consider the fact that he is not making cult or indie films, but mainly big budget mainstream productions, despite some of these films such as “The Crow” and this film later gaining cult status, despite never intentionally being made for such an audience. Still despite his success he still remains largely under the radar, with his films being better known than the man calling the shots, meaning that frequently little comparison is drawn between his films.

Okay before I go any further, this is a film which I would recommend going into blind, to make the most of it’s highly surreal atmosphere and clever plotting which takes the viewer on a gripping ride through the kafka-esq world which Proyas has crafted with this film which blends elements of Noir with shade of sci-fi to a create a truly potent blend, while this world he has crafted in many ways feels similar to the one seen in “The Crow” (1994) it also has definite shades of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” (1985) and Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (1927) also though to say anymore would risk giving the game away, which I will no doubt do throughout this article so treat this as your step off point, as there is a high risk of spoilers ahead.

Hitting the ground running Proyas gives his audience little time to adapt to the situation being presented to them, as within minutes of John waking up in the bathtub he is receiving a phone call consisting of the possibly insane ramblings of the psychologist Dr. Schreber (Sutherland) who seemingly knows what has happened to John, but Proyas like Dr. Schreber refuses to give the game away this early and instead drip feeds the clues, allowing the audience to only discover things as John does, as he makes his way through Dark City, a city named after the fact that it constantly shrouded in darkness, with none of the residents remembering the last time it was daytime, while movie theatre fronts advertise movies with titles like “The Evil” and “Nightmare” hinting that nothing is quite what it seems.

While John runs around the city piecing together his past and evading the Strangers, whose arrival is normally accompanied with the chattering of their teeth, while they also have the ability to seemingly change the city at will, unaware that his is also being sought by Police inspector Burnstead (Hurt), who is investigating the string of mutilated prostitutes whose murders John is currently being linked to, picking the case up from another cop who seemingly has been driven mad by his investigation into the murders with Burnstead’s investigation only providing further pieces of the puzzle, while also creating a whole bunch of new question, such as what is the significance of the Spirals which the now insane cop obsessively draws, why does John keep being plagued by memories of shell beach or Dr. Schrebers maze experiments? Questions all answered in time but Proyas happily teases out the answers, but certainly to the point of frustrating his audience, a crime that “Lost” was certainly more than a little guilty of.

“Dark City” is packed with colourful and interesting characters, with Proyas assembling a more than capable cast to portray them, with each character introduced seemingly more unique than the last, with this even stretching to the strangers, who although they are uniformed by their flowing dark trench coats, chattering teeth and bald heads, still are easy to distinguish between, with Richard O’ Brian continuing his habit of turning up in the most interesting of places by appearing here as Mr Hand, while proving a truly chilling voice for the strangers until the later introduction of their leader Mr. Book (Richardson), but even then his presence in none the less unnerving whenever he is onscreen.

The art direction throughout is stunning with Proyas using the sprawling cityscape to powerful effect, while pulling the focus in closer to revel the “Brazil” Esq set design with the city designed to appear as a sprawl of concrete and steel, with the sole source of light this city sees coming from the streetlights and strip lights, which only adds to the feeling that this film is essentially a spiritual sequel to it, while also coming across like a forerunner to the “The Matrix” (1999) which was released a year later and would also use some of the same sets, while the constantly changing cityscape can be found as an equal inspiration for “Inception” (2010). Proyas throughout the film constantly seems to be looking for ways to add surreal layers, while the decision to shoot the film in constant darkness, is nothing short of ballsy, especially as it’s far from the easiest conditions to shoot under and Proyas avoids the usual pitfalls this setting creates were usually the audience usually struggles to see what is happening on screen. Proyas also makes the most of the strangers ability to change things within the city, as buildings side into position or rise seemingly from nowhere, as he treats his setting like a giant building set, with the moving building shot like the majority of the film using old school effects and bringing back fond memories for myself of the Pirate Accountants in “Monty Python’s: The Meaning of Life”, while the constantly changing landscape frequently happening shortly after the audience has grown accustomed to the latest layout, while the ability to change the city on whim is also used to hint at hidden powers which John may process himself, yet another intriguing piece of this elaborate puzzle.

“Dark City” is the kind of film designed to inspire much like the films which paved the way to it creating and yet for some reason remains like Proyas under the radar for the majority of movie goers and it’s only more of a shame that we are willing to heap praise upon films such as “The Matrix” and “Inception” for their originality of vision, when they clearly seem to be taking cues from this film, not that the Wachowski’s are going to admit it anytime soon, unlike Nolan who modestly admitted to finding inspiration from this film and its own sources of inspiration while writing “Inception”. Still I’m not sure that I can truly describe this movie, which is a work of such creativity and vision that I’m more than sure that i’m not doing it justice, especially when it is a film best experienced first and then discussed and dissected at length preferably over some really good coffee and that’s what I’m going to now urge you all to do and uncover the secrets of “Dark City” for yourself.