Summary:
In 2008 dystopian London, global warming has caused flooding, and Detective Harley Stone must wade his way through those streets to find a vicious serial killer whom might not be human.
My Thoughts:
I don’t know how this movie isn’t a cult classic.
This film comes dangerously close to being a ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ kind of film, and even now, though I’ve given it a 3/5 star rating (D-), I couldn’t tell you if I actually think the film is worth that rating or if I’m giving it that rating just because this film made me laugh a lot. What I can tell you is this: when I was in film school, I remember one of my professors taught us there was really only one golden rule in filmmaking, and that golden rule was: THOU SHALT ENTERTAIN!!!
While this movie brushes over massive world-building issues, Rutger Hauer overacts from the opening frame to the credits, and the overall design of the film looks somewhat cheap at times, this movie follows that golden rule: its one of the most entertaining lower budget sci-fi b-movies I’ve watched from the early 90s.
It’s ridiculous, sure, but it’s also an absolute blast.
“The only thing we know for sure is that he’s not a vegetarian.”
Detective Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer, “Blade Runner”) is a loose-canon cop in the future of 2008, where global warming has flooded the streets of London. After an encounter with a mysterious serial killer leaves Stone’s partner dead and Stone wounded, Stone becomes more erratic, and vows to hunt down the killer with his new partner, Detective Dick Durkin (Alastair Duncan), all while trying to protect his girlfriend Michell McLaine (Kim Cattrall, “The Ghost Writer”). As the duo gets closer to the killer, they suspect that he mightn’t even be human.
I feel like with any late 80s/ early 90s Sci-Fi action flick you’re going to have a little bit of cheesiness and schmaltz. Even the classics, like “Terminator II: Judgment Day”, “Total Recall”, or “Starship Troopers” (really any of Verhoeven’s Sci-Fi films), all have moments that you just sort of have to smile and accept what’s happening before you. For me, those moments are part of the charm, for you, they might completely remove you from the film.
This movie is stuffed to the gills with what is essentially a holdover of 80s toxic masculinity: both Harley Stone and Dick Durkin are constantly competing to see who is the most manly man of their duo, to the point of ridiculousness. For example: One of the first times Dick and Harley meet, Dick casually mentions that he ‘gets laid every night and then every morning he wakes up and runs five miles.” Dick chastises Harley for eating poorly, to which Harley responds that they’re cops, they’re supposed to eat badly, smoke, and behave violently. Characters carry around guns that should be mounted on turrets like they’re nothing, and spray bullets around apartments as if they were watering lawns with a garden hose. There’s literally a scene where Harley shows his badge to a barking pit bull and says, “Police, dickhead.” This movie is hilariously over-the-top when it comes to displaying just how much of a man everyone in this movie is; it doesn’t detract or add to the story in any way, it’s just an added weird bonus that this film has to offer.
The main plot of this film just gets more and more bizarre as it goes along. We start off in a pseudo-post-apocalyptic world (half the streets are flooded, the other half seem to be fine) hunting a serial killer. (Right away, I’m onboard- the schlockier the better.) After a short while, we learn that Harley also has a psychic connection to the killer, and then later we learn that the killer might not even be human. The film sort of just keeps opening up trapdoors for the viewer to fall through, until you’re deep in this world and you’re either totally isolated from what’s going on or totally onboard; I was totally onboard.
Verdict:
Schlocky? Yes. Absurd? Of course. Full of plot holes (particularly when it comes to world building)? You better believe it. Still, I couldn’t hate this movie. It’s too weird, Hauer takes himself too seriously, and the execution is sort of lacking overall, but I still found myself enjoying this movie through and through. Again, it’s not great, but I don’t know how this film isn’t a cult classic; it’s one of the most entertaining b-movies I’ve watched in a while.
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