Johnny Mnemonic (1995) - Archive
|April 15/2006|
Or, perhaps, I'll just try and keep my words minimum regarding this sci-fi film set as the internet age was forming and morphing into the monster it is today. Keanu Reeves has the look of a cool Johnny, but his acting chops stayed at home. He represents the cold, greedy slime that inhibits the business world today. Johnny is a courier, who subjects a portion of his brain(which housed his childhood memories)to holding secretive implanted documents between global and underground organizations. The implants in Johnny's latest assignment came from several frightened geeks in Beijing, which holds the important cure for a disease which has spread all around the world called NAS(some type of nerve disease which gives people the "black shakes"). He has to get these files out of his brain before these overload and make his head explode(or something to that extent, he has massive migranes and head/memory trauma throughout the rest of the film once he implants this cure in his brain). A key to unlocking the implant's specific codes are three specific pictures taken from television..this comes in handy. Beat Takashi plays an overlord of the Yakuza(who is deeply wounded from the loss of his daughter)who desires to have that code and orders his right hand man Dennis Akayama(who wields a mean laser rope which slices heads and body parts..not to mention steel, clean apart)to get Johnny's head. You'll see Dennis constantly carrying around a cryogenic container for Johnny's head. Johnny almost loses his head to Dennis when, Mnemonic's client Udo Kier betrays him. The film's tension derives from an unlikable hero(they call it "anti-hero")who must keep his head. Soon the writer provides Johnny with an appropriate ally in Dina Meyer(who is stunning to the eyes and also suffering from the NAS virus). He also has several run ins with Ice-T(called J-Bone in this film)who is the leader of an underground force(who is fighting against the corporate Pharmakom..the company who are holding the cure hostage, keeping the public from knowing about it so they can continue to profit off the sick)called the Loteks. Also rocker Henry Rollins gets to portray a doctor(!)who works both to heal those sick with NAS and also assist in removing implanted memory from the brains of couriers. Dolph Lundren laughably plays a deranged minister who likes to stick his victims to the wall in the shape of Christ's crucifixion. He is working for Takashi to find Johnny's head also and eliminates anyone who stands in his way. The film looks reminiscent of "Blade Runner" in how the landscape of Newark appears(not to mention Beijing), soaked in blackened shadows and splashes of neon. The characters also look like they came right out of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" as well. Make-up and less than polished attire clothes many on the streets Johnny has to work to get the blasted info out of his brain. So the film meanders all over as Johnny tries desperately to save his own skin, while falling head over heels with the very attractive Meyer. Many people die thanks to Johnny's implanted cure and the film loves to bask the viewer in heavy loads of violence and unpleasant people of the future. It's a bleak world we see in Longo's "Johnny Mnemonic." Still, the film will pull many in because it(and the very good visual effects we see when Johnny goes into the computer's mainframe to explore ways of getting himself out of jams and finding out ways to pull the implanted info from his brain)is incredible to look at with some decent action sequences. But, I felt it's pretty rotten overall with a silly resolution in how Johnny is able to remove that implanted memory, how it seems that every criminal in the film meets Johnny in the same place and still survive, and the character Lundgren plays is so ridiculous you kind of snicker at his vile hijinks.
Or, perhaps, I'll just try and keep my words minimum regarding this sci-fi film set as the internet age was forming and morphing into the monster it is today. Keanu Reeves has the look of a cool Johnny, but his acting chops stayed at home. He represents the cold, greedy slime that inhibits the business world today. Johnny is a courier, who subjects a portion of his brain(which housed his childhood memories)to holding secretive implanted documents between global and underground organizations. The implants in Johnny's latest assignment came from several frightened geeks in Beijing, which holds the important cure for a disease which has spread all around the world called NAS(some type of nerve disease which gives people the "black shakes"). He has to get these files out of his brain before these overload and make his head explode(or something to that extent, he has massive migranes and head/memory trauma throughout the rest of the film once he implants this cure in his brain). A key to unlocking the implant's specific codes are three specific pictures taken from television..this comes in handy. Beat Takashi plays an overlord of the Yakuza(who is deeply wounded from the loss of his daughter)who desires to have that code and orders his right hand man Dennis Akayama(who wields a mean laser rope which slices heads and body parts..not to mention steel, clean apart)to get Johnny's head. You'll see Dennis constantly carrying around a cryogenic container for Johnny's head. Johnny almost loses his head to Dennis when, Mnemonic's client Udo Kier betrays him. The film's tension derives from an unlikable hero(they call it "anti-hero")who must keep his head. Soon the writer provides Johnny with an appropriate ally in Dina Meyer(who is stunning to the eyes and also suffering from the NAS virus). He also has several run ins with Ice-T(called J-Bone in this film)who is the leader of an underground force(who is fighting against the corporate Pharmakom..the company who are holding the cure hostage, keeping the public from knowing about it so they can continue to profit off the sick)called the Loteks. Also rocker Henry Rollins gets to portray a doctor(!)who works both to heal those sick with NAS and also assist in removing implanted memory from the brains of couriers. Dolph Lundren laughably plays a deranged minister who likes to stick his victims to the wall in the shape of Christ's crucifixion. He is working for Takashi to find Johnny's head also and eliminates anyone who stands in his way. The film looks reminiscent of "Blade Runner" in how the landscape of Newark appears(not to mention Beijing), soaked in blackened shadows and splashes of neon. The characters also look like they came right out of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" as well. Make-up and less than polished attire clothes many on the streets Johnny has to work to get the blasted info out of his brain. So the film meanders all over as Johnny tries desperately to save his own skin, while falling head over heels with the very attractive Meyer. Many people die thanks to Johnny's implanted cure and the film loves to bask the viewer in heavy loads of violence and unpleasant people of the future. It's a bleak world we see in Longo's "Johnny Mnemonic." Still, the film will pull many in because it(and the very good visual effects we see when Johnny goes into the computer's mainframe to explore ways of getting himself out of jams and finding out ways to pull the implanted info from his brain)is incredible to look at with some decent action sequences. But, I felt it's pretty rotten overall with a silly resolution in how Johnny is able to remove that implanted memory, how it seems that every criminal in the film meets Johnny in the same place and still survive, and the character Lundgren plays is so ridiculous you kind of snicker at his vile hijinks.
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