Strange days

Year of release : 1995

Run time : 2h25min

Genre : Sci Fi / Thriller / Cyberpunk / Film Noir

Cast : Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Vincent D'Onofrio, William Fichtner

The movie was co-written by James Cameron (who made Terminator, Titanic and Avatar !), based on a story he had in mind in 1986! The director, Kathryn Bigelow ( who was married to him at the time), used as inspiration the Lorena Bobbitt incident, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Set close to the New Year's Eve 1999, the movie follows Lenny, a former LAPD officer turned black marketer who deals in SQUIDs, an illegal electronic device that records memories and physical sensations directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex onto a mini disk-like storage device (it's amazing what people thought would be possible only by 1999,while this never happened!). He is buying and selling these things, asking people to wear the devices in order to sell them to other people,and the other way around.

A woman who is wearing one of these devices is being chased by two police officers who try not only to catch her, but it looks like they try to k1ll her too! She escapes them,and tries to get in contact with Lenny. Turns out she was one of the people who wore one of the SQUID devices on her head, under her wig.

As she's not able to talk to him, she throws the tape into his car,and runs away chased by the cops who look for her around town.

Lenny is still in love with his ex,and spends his time connected to the SQUID, going through his memories of her. Meanwhile, she seems to want nothing to do with him.

Lenny has two friends, Max, a private investigator (who likes to scare Lenny's clients away by pulling pranks on them), and Mace, a limousine driver and bodyguard ( who seems to have had enough of his bullsh1t). They always help him, and after his car is towed, he calls Mace to drive him around town.

Trying to sell his SQUID to one of her clients, she throws him out of the car,as she hates what he does for a living .

An influential rapper is k1lled in the city, creating even more tension between the people of L.A. ( the town is in civil unrest).

Lenny goes to see his ex, at a rave party (apparently it was a real Rave party),who is dating a big music industry mogul (and manager of the dead rapper) . She is a singer and was friends with the girl chased by the cops.

His ex,Faith, seems to be a woman who does what's best for her, doing what she needs to do to survive and to get to where she wants. I'm not sure if she still has feelings for him, but it does look like she tries to keep him out of whatever she is involved in.

A r@pist sends him a SQUID of him r@ping the woman chased by the cops and k1lling her. Since the k1ller seems to be targeting him, Lenny and his friends decide to solve the mystery behind who's doing it and why.

Personally I hated the movie, and it bored me so much!It was too long, and I felt it wasn't gonna ever end!

The men of the movie ( Ralph Fiennes, Tom Sizemore,Michael Wincott) have bad wigs and ugly clothes on. Ralph Fiennes also has ugly sideburns.

The movie was a flop, earning 17 million dollars against a budget of 42 million dollars. Although the critics liked the cinematography, the visual style, and even the performances of the cast (which I was not impressed by), they were against the portrayal of r@pe and violence (which by the way,is a lot in the movie!).

The visual effects were good, as they required multi faceted cameras and a lot of technical preparation.

The acting was good,but I didn't find it that amazing,especially from Juliette Lewis. Actress Angela Bassett won Best Actress at the 1996 Saturn Awards,while the director, was the first female to win Best Director,at the same awards!

Kelly Hu has a small cameo as a tv presenter.

The band Skunk Anansie make a cameo performance. They are not the only music cameos, but I can't put my finger on who the others are,although I recognized their faces (shrug).

Michael Wincott's part was initially offered to Bono!

I didn't like the soundtrack . Juliette Lewis sings,and she has a beautiful voice, the songs she sings are good.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity,especially from Juliette Lewis, and violence,being made for mature audiences.

The movie is 30 days free on Hulu; 7 days free on the Criterion Channel; on Bundle - Hulu with HBO Max, Disney+ with Hulu, Disney+ with Hulu and HBO Max.

Rating : Could have been a contender !