Movie Reviews: Dark City + Sing (1989) + Model By Day
Dark City (1998)
This sci-fi tale is from the director of 'The Crow'.
In voiceover at the beginning Dr Schreber (Keifer Sutherland) explains: "First there was darkness then came the strangers. They were a race as old as time itself. They had mastered the ultimate technology: the ability to alter physical reality by will alone. They called this ability: tuning. But they were dying. Their civilisation was in decline. And so they abandoned their world seeking a cure for their own mortality. Their endless journey brought them to a small blue world in the farthest corner of the galaxy. Our world...I am just a man. I help the strangers conduct their experiments. I have betrayed my own kind."
John (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a bathtub. He gets phonecall from Schreber who tells him that he has lost his memory due to a failed experiment and that there are people coming for him and he mustn't let them catch him. John flees as a bunch of pasty men in black hats and trenchcoats search for him.
Schreber summons John's wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly) Emma revels that John vanished three weeks ago. Schreber says John has had a psychotic break. Everyone is outfitted in 1940s style clothing. Meanwhile police inspector Bumstead (William Hurt) is after John for six murders.
A cop named Walenski has gone nuts. Bumstead meets Emma and tells her that her husband is a suspected murderer. John runs into a stranger named Mr Hand (Richard O'Brien) and his gaggle of weird associates. They fight and weird things happen. One of the strangers comments in shock about John: "He can tune!"
Underneath the city the strangers plot while garbed in 'Hellraiser' style black leather fetish coats. The strangers' leader is Mr Book (Ian Richardson). John finds Emma who tells him that he left her because she had an affair. Mr Hand visits Schreber. A strange conversation about syringes and imprinting memories is held.
Bumstead visits the crazed Walenski who rants: "I don't know who any of us are...the more I try to think back the more it all starts to unravel. None of it seems real, it's like I've just been dreaming this life and when I finally wake up I'll be somebody else."
I think the writers of 'The Matrix' definitely saw this movie. There are more than a few similarities.
Schreber creates memories for the strangers to inject into people. The strangers change people and things around every night at midnight. They may be in search of the human soul. The production design of the strangers' lair is rather striking. Anyway midnight strikes and all the humans save for John and Schreber fall asleep so the strangers can start tuning the city. The process is pretty amazing; the VFX is really well-done.
What however is Keifer Sutherland's deal? The method-acting squint and the strange line-delivery?
The strangers imprint Mr Hand with another version of John's memories. This has the effect of making Mr Hand go slightly nuts. While searching for a way to get to a place called Shell Beach John meets Walenski, who found out about the strangers and went nuts. Walenski throws himself under a train.
The city is always in perpetual night. Midnight strikes again and Mr Hand and John confront each other. Mr Hand rasps: "We made it...we fashioned this city on stolen memories. Different eras, different pasts all rolled into one. Each night we revise and refine it in order to learn...we need to be like you...you've seen what we are. We use your dead as vessels." Emma and Bumstead show up and bundle John into a car. Richard O'Brien is nicely menacing as Mr Hand.
John tells Bumstead about the weirdness in the city. John is locked up. He and Emma talk. He says she never had an affair and he doesn't know if they are married at all. They could have just met last night. She says their love isn't fake and they kiss.
The strangers come for John but Bumstead has taken him to visit Schreber. The three of them head for Shell Beach at John's insistence. The strangers corner Emma and tell her they will reimprint her as Anna. Schreber explains they were all abducted and brought to this city as an experiment, the strangers are interested in humanity's individuality and its souls. The strangers share a group mind. Somehow John has developed their ability to tune and the reason the city is always dark is because the strangers can't stand the light. Schreber says that no-one can remember where they originally came from (which directly contradicts what he said in the opening voice-over)
The threesome finds there is no Shell Beach, only a brick wall. John smashes it with his tuning ability and they see deep space. The strangers arrive with Emma. A fight breaks out and Bumstead gets spaced. As he floats away he sees the city is round and floating in space, that is the last we ever see of Bumstead. Mr Hand puts John to sleep and they bring him to their lair.
Mr Book says the experiment is over. They only need John not the rest. They want to make John one of them. Schreber gives John an injection that tells him to take control of the machine the strangers use to focus their tuning. John busts loose and he and Mr Book get into a psychic duel, which Mr Book looses. We get a brief glimpse of the strangers' true form. Nasty. John has defeated the strangers.
John learns Emma is not Emma anymore, they reimprinted her as Anna. John declares he will fix things, Schreber looks at him in terror. The city busted to bits in the John/Mr Book brawl is rebuilt and it moves in space so a sun finally shines on it. John walks to the Shell Beach he has created and meets Anna/Emma. She doesn't know him but asks him to walk with her. And he does.
Roll credits. Very strange. Not as great as some declared it to be. It is well made and well acted. The VFX are good. But where is the city? What'll happen to it now John has defeated the strangers? How long have they all been in the city? Where is Earth and what did the strangers do to it? How did John gain the ability to tune? Are he and Emma/Anna really in love?
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Sing (1989) 💃🕺💃🕺💃
A teacher convinces the school punk to become involved in the annual show as a cultural endeavour. Locals dug themselves a rut and began decorating it. The area is benighted. People have a grossly improper perspective. The punk dances. People see all this as an unfolding disaster. A forgotten overlooked film that stars Lorraine Bracco, Rino Romano, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jessica Steen of ‘Earth 2’, Patti LaBelle, Rachel Sweet and a lot of no names.
Why is the punk dancing in an abandoned warehouse? Why has this never been released on dvd? People randomly sing. There is crime. The punk is threatened with Rikers Island if he does not take part in the song contest. Steen is perpetually putupon. Comically awful auditioners mangle Madonna. The punk is an ass to Steen. The school is to close down. Steen’s family restaurant is robbed. Steen’s useless mommy whines. The acting is hysterical. Steen has humble passivity. The toxic masculinity punk does not care about the ruin he caused in peoples lives. The community puts on a show. ‘Fame’ is copiously ripped off. Not bad.
Best Lines:
“You still got your natural hair colour!”
“Burned down.”
“Sharpening a toothbrush handle to use for self defence in the yard.”
“Horny slobbering 400 pound murderer!”
“Still saying rosaries for ya!”
“If you wanna dance there's the floor!”
“SAVE THAT TONGUE FOR LICKING STAMPS!”
“YOU WALK IN WITH ME! YOU LEAVE WITH ME!”
“I shouldn't have grabbed your ass!”
“Works very hard at not being happy.”
“THAT’S HOW YOU PAY THE RENT!”
“He’s garbage!”
"Finale from the 1962 show."
“SATAN TOLD HIM THE INK ON THE PAPER WOULD MAKE HIM SEXUALLY POTENT!”
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Model By Day (1994)
A glamorous young woman (Famke Janssen) is Lady X a kicking-boxing crime fighter by night whilst by day she is a famous supermodel. Of course nobody notices the resemblance. Meanwhile a cop is in search of Lady X as are a group of lowlife thugs. This is a light, fluffy movie where Lady X kickboxes the badguys, defeats her evil doppelganger, avenges a wrong and finds true love. Cute and fun.
