2 years ago, 1996, a wednesday in april, 8:00pm. As usual I was visiting the sneak-preview in Breda, The Netherlands. What movie will it be this time? Will it be fabulous, just good, average or totally bad? Everything was possible. This time it was something I never saw before. After Lenny's magic words "Yeah, boot it" the movie jumped of with one of the best movie-shots I ever saw (that they didn't get an Academy Award nomination for that is a complete mystery). Never before I felt like I was really IN a movie. Most of the people were positively shocked when the man dropped dead and Lenny jumped to reality. WOW, this movie can't go wrong now! And that wasn't the only feel-like-IN-a-movie shot. The rape-scene a few minutes before the intermission is one that will always be with me. No way you can forget that part!
While the movie was playing I started to realize that relatively soon the new millennium "Is upon us". It would be less than 4 years or we would be there. And the science-fiction part of the movie came completely reasonable. I really think that one day virtual reality will look much like this. Isn't it at the end of 1999, then a few years after it.
Also the music was a positive surprise. Not the usual classic-orientated sphere-creators but a mix of ambient, trash and techno. After the scene in which it was used, "Coral Lounge" kept pumpin' in my head. The end credits in combination with "While the earth sleeps" was/is the best movie-ending so far. It is of a kind that lets you sit till the very end of the celluloid. When you see this part, you only could realise that you just saw one of the greatest movies of all time... or just missed it.
What is more positive about this movie? Well, the script is well-considered. James Cameron did a really good job there (why didn't he do the same for "Titanic (1997)"). You could take a lot of quotes out of it, and it is brought in a convincing way also. The actors really seem to mean what they say. Sometimes the script lets you think about things. Just Listen to Max's "Everything has already been done"-speech to give an example.
After all remains one question: Why wasn't it such a big success? under -advertised, too alternative, too violent? I don't know. A lot of people whom I talked about this movie- masterpiece almost all agreed with me that it is one that made the biggest impact so far (for a sneak-preview). Of all the visitors that day (april 96) the average was 7,4 - 7,5 so it could have been a hit in The Netherlands, wasn't it that it only screened in the 4 major cities. What a pity, because while it is not my personal best picture of all time, it's a very close second. A strong recommendation is placed here: A world-wide re-release at the end of 1999. Don't make the same mistake as in 1995-1996 because this movie deserves much-MUCH better.
While the movie was playing I started to realize that relatively soon the new millennium "Is upon us". It would be less than 4 years or we would be there. And the science-fiction part of the movie came completely reasonable. I really think that one day virtual reality will look much like this. Isn't it at the end of 1999, then a few years after it.
Also the music was a positive surprise. Not the usual classic-orientated sphere-creators but a mix of ambient, trash and techno. After the scene in which it was used, "Coral Lounge" kept pumpin' in my head. The end credits in combination with "While the earth sleeps" was/is the best movie-ending so far. It is of a kind that lets you sit till the very end of the celluloid. When you see this part, you only could realise that you just saw one of the greatest movies of all time... or just missed it.
What is more positive about this movie? Well, the script is well-considered. James Cameron did a really good job there (why didn't he do the same for "Titanic (1997)"). You could take a lot of quotes out of it, and it is brought in a convincing way also. The actors really seem to mean what they say. Sometimes the script lets you think about things. Just Listen to Max's "Everything has already been done"-speech to give an example.
After all remains one question: Why wasn't it such a big success? under -advertised, too alternative, too violent? I don't know. A lot of people whom I talked about this movie- masterpiece almost all agreed with me that it is one that made the biggest impact so far (for a sneak-preview). Of all the visitors that day (april 96) the average was 7,4 - 7,5 so it could have been a hit in The Netherlands, wasn't it that it only screened in the 4 major cities. What a pity, because while it is not my personal best picture of all time, it's a very close second. A strong recommendation is placed here: A world-wide re-release at the end of 1999. Don't make the same mistake as in 1995-1996 because this movie deserves much-MUCH better.
