Subject: REVIEW: JOHNNY MNEMONIC

From: [email-masked] (Michael J. Legeros)
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 20:31:18 GMT

JOHNNY MNEMONIC
		       A film review by Michael John Legeros
			Copyright 1995 Michael John Legeros

(Tri)
Directed by     Robert Longo
Written by      William Gibson, from his short story
Cast            Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi, Ice-T, Dina 
                Meyer, Udo Kier, Denis Akiyama, Henry Rollins, and
                Barbara Sukowa.
MPAA Rating     "R" (presumably for language, violence, and gore)
Running Time    100 minutes
Reviewed at     General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh (28MAY95)

==

     We're back in BLADE RUNNER territory with this one, conceptual
artist Robert Longo's vision of a William Gibson-inspired future
where information is the commodity to kill for.  Front and center
is Johnny (Keanu Reeves), a "cyber-courier" who smuggles data via
a "wet-wired" implant.  He's ready to quit the biz and get a portion of
his long-term memory restored, but, first, he has to finish one last,
dangerous job..

     The pressing problem in JOHNNY MNEMONIC is that Keanu Reeves seems
to have forgotten how to play an action hero since his stint on SPEED.
He's walking wood in a forest of stiffs that includes Henry Rollins,
Ice-T, and Dina Meyer.  (Dolph Lundgren's street preacher is in an
acting category all its own. :-)  Without a believable performance
between them, all we can do is sit back and watch the atmosphere, which
is pretty good in places.  The VR sequences are way cool, but the
physical FX--such as miniatures and mattes--leave a lot to be
desired.  Watch out for those bad blue-screens!

     We wouldn't mind a minute of JOHNNY MNEMONIC if the action played
better.  Too bad the debut director isn't very strong in this de-
partment.  His big finale is a sloppy, silly mess that runs twenty
minutes too long, which is way past the time that most of our "wet-
wired" processors have already shut down.

BOTTOM LINE:  YATF (Yet Another Tortured Future).  Skip it.

Grade: D+

--
Michael J. Legeros
Raleigh, North Carolina