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Strange Days (1995)

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56

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 31,957

My Rating

Movie Info

Set in Los Angeles two days before the end of 1999, Strange Days introduces us to Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), an ex-cop turned sleazy hustler who hawks the newest underground thrill on the black market: a "squid," a headpiece that allows one to transmit digital recordings of other people's thoughts, feelings, and memories into their brain; as Lenny describes it, "this is real life, pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex." Lenny deals "clips" (the software) as well as "squids" (the

Sep 7, 1999

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (45) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (15) | DVD (15)

Once the premise has lost its promise, and Fiennes's brave attempts at characterization are sacrificed to pseudo-dazzle, everything appears awfully humdrum and, yes, distinctly dated.

April 12, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
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Undeniably thrilling and troubling.

May 12, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
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Though the creators of Strange Days may well be interested in its dramatic and thematic elements, they do not have the same touch for these moments as they do for camera pyrotechnics.

February 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment (1)
Los Angeles Times
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Bigelow is so enamored of high-tech thrills, and so mesmerized by the violence she seeks to condemn, that her efforts at 11th-hour moralizing seem limp and halfhearted.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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It's a wildly messed-up, unwieldy, 145-minute movie designed specifically for those audiences who the filmmakers believe haven't been brutalized or quite desensitized enough.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment (1)
Sacramento Bee
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It's big, explosive entertainment and, although not directed by Cameron, is very much in the vein we've come to expect from him.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
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Not surprisingly, as time has caught up with the film's December 30-31, 1999-January 1, 2000 time frame, the film has grown in esteem with critics and audiences.

October 14, 2007 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

[Bigelow] with the help of her talented cast, constantly wrestles against the script, and for a great deal of time, she appears to be winning.

April 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Set in LA at the end of the century, this morality tales showed again the main problem in the director's work: The great divide between simlistic plots and technical sophistication. Even so, it's one of a kind for its use of color, sound and motion

December 2, 2006 Comment

Engaging, genuinely thrilling sci-fi. Enough to make you wish Bigelow made a movie a year.

July 1, 2005 Comment (1)
ViewLondon

A thrilling and thought-provoking sci-fi mystery.

November 18, 2004 Comment
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

A premissa é bastante interessante, mas o roteiro se perde em meio a uma infinidade de subtramas dispensáveis.

January 31, 2004 Comment
Cinema em Cena

An ambitious, unsettling, and effective work.

January 13, 2004 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Strange Days

One of my all time favorite sci fi flicks. Fiennes is awesome in this role. This movie feels so much like a possible future.

June 6, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

I think this really stands out as the greatest example of 90s mindset action/sci-fi. In look and story structure, it has all the elements of the time period crushed together into one extravaganza of gunfire and chaos. It's still funny how believable Ralph Fiennes is as a good guy, you'd just never expect it going in.

December 7, 2009
ythelastman89

Super Reviewer

    1. Faith Justin: You know one of the ways movies are still better than playback? The music comes up, there's credits, and you always know when it's over... [turns to look at Lenny] IT'S OVER!
    – Submitted by Félix C (9 days ago)

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