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Hadn't seen this one in a while. I sort of expected to be completely outdated by now (it portraits a social crisis in a then futuristic 1999), but it seems to have maintained its virtues intact. Kathryn Bigelow has never been a better filmmaker than here, acting from the usually so-so Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Lewis is surprisingly good, and although it is never fast paced the different plot elements (a failed love affair, a political murder, a string of sadistic murders) are always adding tension under the surface.

Plus probably it is the only cyberpunk film you can understand without being a computer geek, because it substitutes computer-generated universes by the "futuristic" version of a video-cam.

Cult classic or not?

I remember this flick being pretty entertaining when it first came out.  I haven't seen it years, but I'm sure it would probably still hold up after all of these years.

If I remember correctly, the plot deals with a future where others can watch your memories, i.e. have them put into their heads.  It seems like there was one where someone jumped off of a building, and then one with a rape/murder.

I'll have to rent this flick again sometime soon to try and bring back some memories.

This was a pretty good and fun to watch movie.

The one glaring weakness, as Liz pointed out, was the suppostion of a brand new piece of technology developed and in common use in such a short time

Usually I find films "from the future" to be rather lame, especially when superior technology is involved. We're well past 1999/2000 and I still don't have my "Super conductive QUantive Interference Device." But this film was so good I don't care. I rented this movie on a whim one night- and ended up buying it the very next day.

I liked it, partially because it was one of the few films where the vast conspiracy that much of the plot hinged on was a red herring. Since most films with a conspiracy subplot tend to make the conspiracy so large that everyone except the hero was involved (although this can work too with the right story). This film still pulled a head trip on the hero, but from another direction.

I just hate that in addition to not doing well at the theater, it has been quickly forgotten (you could say discarded) since it is now considered a film about "the past". I've seen DVD copies in the infamous "Wal-mart $5.50 bin of doom". I've gotten some great bargains but it makes me a little sad to see some movies turn up there.

I like Juliette Lewis' breasts, if that counts.

As long as they don't try to convert me to Scientology, I like them too.

I enjoyed this film enough to get the soundtrack [which I really enjoyed, and still do] and have no fear: it shall not be forgotten.  All the first year cinema studies students at our uni had to watch it as part of the course.  It was a pretty good movie, but certainly nothing that is worthy of an oscar or something.  

I felt that Virtuosity was very similar in feeling to Strange Days, even in the soundtrack department.  Just a thought...

It's dated for me, mostly because of the millenium thing.   Funny you mentiont he movie as I checked it out from the library about 2 weeks ago. I couldn't figure out the fascination with Juliette lewis, she's kinda skanky.  And how did his friend go from being a waitress to a limo driver who can kick anyones ass? lol

The virtual experience thing is interesting because if they could harness that type of technology it would literally be the next drug.

>>And how did his friend go from being a waitress to a limo driver who can kick >>anyones ass? lol

Probably the same way that chick on CSI became an investigator after spending her formative years as a stripper 8^)

I liked Strange Days - mainly because none of my non-movie friends did. The idea of jacking into the memories of other people was pretty cool.

"Virtuosity" and "Strange Days" are only related vaguely, IMO, because of the near future sci-fi action premises involving forms of virtual reality of both and the fact they were made about the same time, 1995. SD still holds up for me visually, since it is not heavily dependent on CGI effects, while "Virtuosity" looks terribly dated and cheap now, I know they wanted a "slightly fake" video game look for the VR training sequences, but even some of the parts when Sid 6.7 gets into our world don't hold up.

Even though it's not perfect, I'd say SD was better written and is certainly the deeper of the two. Its story is about a mystery, while V is more of a straight forward action thriller, with the bad guy being artificially created.

I'll admit that the soundtracks may be similar, neither one did much for me. Not my thing I guess, plus trying create music that convincing sounds like popular music from the future, even the near future, is very hard to do right.

I saw first "Virtuosity" at a matinee where I was the only one in the theater, and the air conditioning was the best part of the experience.

I totally agree that Strange Days and Virtuosity are very different films, I just got the same feeling watching them, as if somebody was inspired by the other.  Funny thing is both films came out in the same year, 1995, as Yaddo mentioned.

Strange Days is way ahead of Virtuosity however.  Julliette Lewis is a total skank [but then again many do like a good skank] but overall it was a good film.

That whole murder scene was quite a disturing idea especially:  killing and raping someone, and using the 'squid' technology to make them watch themselves get raped and killed.  That was an unsettling idea.