"Brazil" meets "The Matrix" meets...

...well, "Labyrinth", I guess. But without David Bowie and all the clever Muppets...

Actually, "Dark City" is rather less than the sum of all of those; in fact, it's a bit less than any of those individually.

(Well, except maybe "The Matrix"...)

Still, this is an older film that I've finally gotten around to watching. I picked it up on a bargain sale at one of the online DVD shops I frequent. I rented it a long time ago, but finally watched it tonight. I guess you could say that I was in the mood for watching a little Jennifer Connolly. Pre-anorexia and pre-boob-job, that is. But post-jailbait; otherwise I'd have watched "Labyrinth"... *ahem*

At any rate, though, this movie really is rather fun, and quite captivating. Though entirely, obviously, staged. A big sci-fi stage-play, but with explosions. It's got a definite Eastern European feel to it, with a dash of the French "City of Lost Children", but is somewhat watered down by an American production's "sensibilities". Which makes it more accessable, but not neccesarily "artsy" like you'd expect an Eastern European flick to be.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very cool concepts in this film. My favorite is when Keifer Sullivan inserts himself into the memories of our lead; that struck me as a particularly intriguing sci-fi plot device the first time I saw this film. And overall, though it was a tad on the thin side, the sci-fi premise was still deeper than most to be found in television dramas over the last 20 years.