Subject: REVIEW: JOHNNY MNEMONIC

From: wizardru <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 20:44:36 GMT

JOHNNY MNEMONIC
		       A film review by <[email-masked]>
			Copyright 1995 <[email-masked]>

     I've got to admit that I'm suprised that no one has submitted a
review of JOHNNY MNEMONIC yet, so here's my quick capsule report.

     I caught JOHNNY MNEMONIC over the weekend.  I had some good
expectations, having browsed the Sony Web pages devoted to it.  I saw
it with a small crowd (having gone to the 12:40 showing).

     First, let's talk about the story.  While some parts were
cohesive, the plot felt like it had been 'picked at'.  There were some
things that occured that seemed to deserve more discussion or coverage
than they received.  I had hoped for some more 'meat' on the future,
but didn't really get any.

     The plot, for those who haven't heard, is that Johnny--a mnemonic
courier--is sent to get some critical data for a final run.  He wants
to get his Mnemonic data implant removed so that he can get part of his
long term memory back, which he had to sacrifice to get the implant in
the indeterminate past.  The data he gets is hot, and the Yakuza
(constantly mispronounced thorughout the film as Yak-ooze-a, instead of
Yah-koo-zaa) are hired to retrieve the data.  Johnny, meanwhile, has
overloaded his storage capacity (how this is accomplished is never
discussed, it's just assumed that an 80 Gig drive, doubled by hardware
to 160 Gig, can hold 320 Gig (?) ).  The data, it turns out, is the
cure to a disease called NAS (an AIDS for the plugged-in set) that the
corporation PharmaKOM has been hiding, so that they can make a huge
profit in treating the disease, instead of curing it.  Things get muddy
from here.

     Keanu Reeves seems to walk through the part, and Johnny ends up
feeling like Keanu, distanced and impersonal.  We never fully grasp
Johnny as a character, or anyone else, really.  This is partly because
the plot never really gives you a chance to meet them, anyway.  Too
much happens so quickly, so that you're never sure what made it happen
in the first place.

     The effects are first-rate, and the cyberspace sequences are
highly effective.  The set designs are nice, as are the costuming
jobs.  Action is good, and the fight sequences are well staged.

     All in all, I would recommend this for a matinee or a rental.  It
was a good watch, but unless you're a Gibson fan, or you really like
Keanu Reeves, you probably won't like spending a lot of money to see
this.

[email-masked]