Johnny Mnemonic
Certainly a lot can be said about the slam bang career of one Keanu Reeves, a guy who has successfully starred in multiple franchises (Matrix, John Wick, Bill And Ted) along with anchoring some absolute classics during the course of his long run in Hollywood all while spending years being chastised by critics as being one of the worst actors to ever live. Is he really that bad? The short answer would be an emphatic NO, bringing ample charisma to the table while always connecting with audiences utilizing an appealing everyman quality that just can’t be taught. While the list of great films which he has been a part of is a long one, one of the most underrated accomplishments of his career is this 1995 release which would have seemed at the time to have landmine field written all over it. It featured a first (and only) time director in one Robert Longo and even more significant was that it was one of the first science fiction films to carry the cyberpunk subgenre label to it, one where in the future science and technology have made incredible advances but the population masses are miserable because the expected benefits of said technology have been withheld from them in order to solely benefit the privileged few. Some would even argue that such a future has come to pass in real life what with the story taking place in 2021 and that there is a raging virus that has broken out in society for which there appears to be no cure. Reeves plays a so called “data courier”, a well dressed sort who actually has an a/v jack in the back of his head through which he receives valuable information that is uploaded directly into his brain which he is tasked with carrying from Point A to Point B before being paid for his services. Waiting in a hotel room in a riot torn Beijing, he is given an assignment by his shady agent (Udo Kier, the trooper of a German character actor who is still knocking them out today) to meet up with some particularly nervous types whom it would turn out (no surprise) are uploading the cure for the deadly virus sweeping the planet, a cure which has been in existence for quite a while but was nonetheless withheld from the public in favor of profit increasing treatment measures. The Big Pharma company behind all of this is none too pleased about this development, sending deadly hired Yakuza thugs who storm the room and kill everybody inside except Reeves who escapes through the back door while the assassins are preoccupied with everyone else. From there he’s on the first plane to Newark, NJ where he’s expecting to make the data dump only to run into more of The Yakuza (these guys are apparent experts at monitoring and tracking people) and being forced to constantly find a way to escape. From there through sheer dumb luck Reeves manages to hook up with the only one who can protect him, a female bodyguard (it’s explained that women are considered the most ideal candidates for this role) played by the gorgeous Dina Meyer. Meyer’s character is actually a pretty significant recurring one in the futuristic stories of writer / creator William Gibson, known in the books as “Molly Millions” but here having her name changed to “Jane” over a matter of rights issues (i.e. the film rights holders wanted to keep the character in their back pocket if they ever decided to adapt more of Gibson’s works). Alas, Meyer too is suffering through the effects of the deadly virus but is still up to the task of safely escorting Reeves around Newark where there seems to be double crosses aplenty going around along with an underground rebel network of hackers led by Ice T (walking around with an anarchy symbol tattooed between his eyes) who seek to “wake up” the general population using the occasional breakin of the television news networks’ airwaves to try and spread their message (with the non plussed news anchors almost immediately chalking it up to “technical difficulties” as if they’re completely used to it). Since The Yakuza seem to be going in circles when it comes to capturing Reeves, the Big Pharma bosses hire up a new mercenary from the rolodex, a crazed and powerful cybernetic freak played by Dolph Lundgren. Lundgren (who comes into the film about halfway through) totally reinvigorates the film as one of the best kind of villains, one who enters the storyline from completely out of left field and who is so lunatic in his own way that you’ve just got to watch him to see what he’ll say and do next. And what he says most of the time whenever he comes on to kill somebody is some insane Bible scripture (both real and fake) as if to justify that all of the people he’s taking out is the will and wrath of God as opposed to the truth which is that he’s just a hired mercenary going around dispatching problems on behalf of the rich people who are paying him to do so. The random nature of the character is as such that Lundgren only pops up when he is needed to remove somebody from the movie, allowing Reeves and Meyer to continue their quest otherwise undeterred, and there seems to be a lot of other sorted tension going on including Henry Rollins as an underground doctor and possible ex of Meyer’s who seems a tad bit untrustworthy and suspicious towards Reeves and Takeshi Kitano (best known as Zatochi The Blind Swordsman ) as the Japanese head of the Big Pharma company suffering from his own crisis of conscience. The most common criticism of the film (besides the critics who would always enjoy hammering away at Reeves) is in the obvious look and attempts to replicate Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (an inspiration for the entire cyperpunk genre no two ways about it) where we see a world in which daylight never seems to happen and where most street punks are just as technologically savvy as their higher paid and more comfortable living counterparts. The action does get over the top and ridiculous at times and Reeves does seem to have every rule of what a data courier can and can not do be violated (taking shots to the head, sleeping) even as we’re constantly reminded that the various bad guys are seeking nothing more than to remove Reeves’ head from his shoulders (hence killing him) before cryogenically freezing the head and taking it back to headquarters so that the data can be extracted the old fashioned way. But with Meyer’s beauty and kickass charisma leading the way and reliable pros like Rollins and Ice T bringing their own unique touches to the mix, the viewer is well aware that they will be carried along on a fun journey. As for Lundgren, playing a powerful bad guy whose idea of an ambush is to suddenly stand out in the middle of the road as the characters bear down on him in a weaponized RV and yell out “Halt sinners!” only to be run down while suffering minimal damage, his crazed (and feared) Street Preacher is merely the icing on the cake here. The film certainly utilizes the then popular “virtual reality” technology (which surprisingly died out) to show us the inner workings of a computer interface similar to what we saw with Tron. And as for director Longo (who intended to make a nitty gritty low budget flick which got boosted to a $30 million budget with a major star and has not directed since), he was recently cleared to “redo” this film’s look with an all black and white palette, a move that led to some controversy with fans of the film (who obviously became said fans by enjoying this movie in its original color) even as Longo has stated that he is fully satisfied with the film now, bringing forth the realization that all of the qualities that made this film memorable to begin with are still prevalent regardless of what its director decided to do recently…
8/10