Rubber Johnny

Films starring the worlds most charasmatic man, part two: Johnny Mnemonic.

Like most films in this series of post cinematic musings it's been years since I've seen this. Unlike most of them this is one I only ever watched once. Not that I recall hating it or anything, I just guess I was never motivated enough to track it down on video.

Until now that is.

I suppose the only way to describe this film is "variable". It's not actually bad, but there are more than a few things holding it back. So let's start with the obvious issue and address casting first. The supporting cast is actually pretty suprising. I mean Udo Kier, Henery Rollins, Dolph Lundgren and motherfucking Beat Takeshi? All in one film together? That's unquestionably epic right there. I mean, yeah there's a rapper, but still. Admitedly most of them are just doing more or less wat they always do, but you've got to admit that they're all so very good at it. And really, Dolph Lungrens Preacher is just so delightfully batshit. It's a real shame he didn't get more to do. And then we have the leads. Who, and let's be honest, lack a certain something. The bame doesn't lie entirely with poor Keanu though. Let's just say that it's a good thing the female lead character was changed from being Molly, as they really wouldn't have been able to sell that here. There's just a bit of a lack of chemistry going on. But they try, bless them.

Visually the film really works quite well at evoking the world of old school cyberpunk novels. Particularly the matrix sequences. That fancy mid ninties CGI look really works quite well in this context, and it does actually look like whats described n Gibsons novels. Plus you gotta love all that goggles and gloves buisness. Gotta give the boy points for actually making that look believable.

Then we come to the plot. Now, the film is generally well written to be sure, and suprisingly entertaining throughout. When you consider the original short story it's based on you can see how things might need beefing up a little to properly fill a full movie. But there is a sense of trying to squeeze a little too much of Gibsons other work in. It's cool to have references in there of course, but the whole buisness with the A.I. comes off as being a little too extraneous. More thrown in for the sake of it rather than actually adding to the plot. The whole mysterious plague thing works as far as it goes, but then we reach the third act and find that secret of the data is "big pharma is evil and out to kill us all" it does rather fall down. I understand full well the whole big inhuman corporation element of cyberpunk, but at the end of the day even the most faceless evilist organisation is motivated by one thing: Profit. So, we are told that a company develops a cure for the disease of the moment and then sits on the data for 8 months. How exactly is this supposed to make them money? I mean that's 8 months of selling very expensive drugs that they've missed out on. Hell, even the P.R. for simply coming up with the cure is going to be worth millions. But no. This data is known to absolutely no one. Which rather suggests they haven't even patented it. What if a competitor came up with cure in the meantime? That's untold billions in research down the drain right there.

Conspiracy theorists take note: The spending power of the recently deceased is significantly less than that of living.

The there's the rather empty "fight the power" rhetoric of the Lo-Teks. And just typing that sentence sickens me in a way the anything associated with William Gibson has no right to. Really, they lack depth in the same way an inflatable paddling pool does. They're just being generic rebels, and we just don't get any sense of what they're supposed to rebelling against. Though to be fair a nuanced dissection of the social issues in a corporate dominated society are perhaps a little outside the scope of this film.

Of course hinsight is always 20 20. It's entirely possible there were some elements that simply didn't come through in the fianl edit that may have helped with these issues. Not that we'll ever know, since there's no extras on the disc at all. This isn't just a pity, it's an insult. There's really no excuse for this sort of bare bones cheapy release. Every film, no matter what, deserves some sort of extra content. Even the less than great ones such as this.

Still, never mind eh?

In summation then this is a suprisingly fun, if flawed piece of work. Really it walks such a thin line between success and failure that there's no sure way to reccomend it to any audience, casual viewers or hardcore cyberpunk fans. It'll really be down to the individual as to which side of the fence they fall once the credits roll. There's a lot to enjoy, but equally theres a lot of nigles as well.

And as for me? I'm balanced rather precariously, and can only hope that if the wind blows and I fall in either direction I don't end up crushing my balls.