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mygif

100% agreed. I haven’t seen this in years, but I remember loving it as an impressionable film-soaking yout’. Every six months or so I end up Googling “Strange Days blu-ray” and being disappointed.

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The world is a lesser place for Angela Bassett never becoming an action heroine (or even being a larger star than she is). Fiennes was tremendous, I thought (and I would’ve liked to have seen him more as a heroic lead too), but you’re right — Bassett’s is the one performance I always remember from this film. She was just brilliant.

Intense little flick — more prescient than not and very hard to look away from.

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mygif

Yeah, the graphic rape/murder scene–in which the viewer is placed in the perspective of the rapist/murderer–and the snuff film subplot are dealbreakers for me. And kind of major things not to mention in a review.

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Cookie McCool said on October 26th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Angela Bassett’s relentless awesomeness way outweighs Juliette Lewis’ wet sock retardedness.

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Damn, I haven’t thought about this movie in years! Thanks for reminding me about it.

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Man, I’ve been looking forward to getting your thoughts on Strange Days, and we seem to be in agreement on pretty much everything. This is on I really gotta purchase at some point.

Also, kudos for using “While The Earth Sleeps” as your exemplar soundtrack selection; one of my favorite Peter Gabriel songs ever, and considering he’s my favorite artist that’s saying a lot.

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mygif

I agree with Cookie, this is the movie to show people to convince them Bassett should have been Storm. Although I disagree with MGK in that Juliette Lewis is at all tolerable in this movie. God she’s awful, and the (many many many) scenes in the movie when she devolves to screeching just about ruin the film for me.

The look of the film presages the Matrix by half a decade (particularly the ‘hey, is this watch shock-proof?’ fight looks exactly like it could have been in the Matrix).

I do think Strange Days is about 15 minutes too long, but Bigelow just makes long drawn-out films, so maybe that’s a choice.

And I listened to the crap out of this Soundtrack when I was in college (it had just come out. Yes, I’m old.)

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Cookie McCool said on October 26th, 2011 at 6:12 pm

I think it’s more a question of the lesser of two evils. A bad singer is still only singing, and most songs don’t last THAT long. A bad actor is acting badly throughout the whole freaking movie.

That being said, I mostly completely liked Juliette Lewis in The Way Of The Gun. She hardly was annoying even a little. But that movie won me over when Ryan Phillipe punches the shit out of Sarah Silverman, so my opinion is biased.

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Notthebuddha said on October 26th, 2011 at 8:37 pm

1995

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mygif

love love this movie
still one of my fav movies from the 90s and in general 🙂
(i think i’m gonna go pop in the dvd after i get offline tonight) 🙂

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Andrew Jeanes said on October 26th, 2011 at 11:51 pm

Didn’t Theresa Rowatt show this in Intro to Film Theory at Carleton back in 1995 or 1996? I remember she assigned a reading on Bigelow which I probably still have somewhere.

I like this film despite its many, many flaws. I actually feel bad for some of the really great cast members you mention when they have to speak some of the terrible dialogue. The POV rape is difficult too. I get why Bigelow felt it had to be in there, but I don’t agree it was necessary.

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Aussiesmurf said on October 27th, 2011 at 2:21 am

I remember seeing this in the cinema and wearing the hell out of a t-shirt with the title of the film and the tag line “An extreme taste of reality”.

I still think this is Ralph Fiennes’ best performance.

Roger Ebert loved this movie too. I still quote Tom Sizemore’s line :

“The question isn’t whether you’re too paranoid. It’s whether you’re paranoid ENOUGH.”

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mygif

Hell of a good movie, even with Juliette Lewis’ drag-show interpretation of PJ Harvey. I was disappointed, though, that hip-hop didn’t follow the track of the film. Definitely would’ve preferred Jeriko One to “Get money, fuck bitches.” So it goes.

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MarvinAndroid said on October 28th, 2011 at 1:19 pm

Oh HELL yes! Good to see somebody else defending this movie. It’s easier now, though, since the director has an Oscar.

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Also in Strange Days: Skunk Anansie – Selling Jesus. They had the misfortune of trying to cross the pond from England during the rule of grunge music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc0zDfH1jog

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DensityDuck said on October 31st, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Your post makes me wonder whether maybe “Strange Days” actually is the movie that everyone thinks “Blade Runner” is.

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EndOfTheWorld said on November 6th, 2011 at 7:52 pm

Thanks, Chris, for cluing me in to an incredible movie. And if anyone’s reading this, Strange Days is only on Netflix until tomorrow – so get on it, virgin brains!

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