Blade Runner: The Final Cut
1/4
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy
Rated R for Violence and Brief Nudity
"Blade Runner" is one of those movies where its reputation and fame outstrip whatever qualities it has as a piece of cinema. It gets its fame from its notoriously difficult shoot, innovative art and set decoration, and ambiguous storyline. And the star power of Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott certainly help. And ditto for the supposed "Blade Runner Curse," which spelled doom for any company with product placements in the film. What no one seems to remember is that the movie itself is a piece of crap. At least from this critic's perspective.
In 2019, humanoid robots, known as replicants, are used as slave labor off world. Designed to live for only four years to inhibit emotional growth, they are banned from Earth under the penalty of death. That leaves people like Rick Dekard (Ford), to hunt them down. Actually, Deckard has left the business, but his boss (played by M. Emmett Walsh), calls him back to hunt down a quartet of replicants who have come back to Earth for unknown reasons. He also gets involved with a new model, named Rachael (Young), who doesn't know she's a replicant.
The movie's only real claim to fame is its look. This is a vivid look at a futuristic Los Angeles from hell. It's dark, dank, and decrepit. Trash is everywhere, people are huddled against the rain and the light, and everyone's in a perpetual bad mood. It's stylish and eye-popping even today (who can forget the building sized ad featuring a Chinese woman?). Its vision lent itself to numerous other science fiction movies, including "The Crow," "Dark City," and even "The Matrix."
The actors do what they can, but no one is given anything to work with. Harrison Ford, who was by all accounts miserable during the shoot (Sean Young said, "The only time he was happy was when they told him it was over), underplays his role, which would be the right move if the script gave him the latitude. Sean Young is robotic as the femme fatale, and yes, I mean that as a compliment. Daryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer do great work as the creepy replicants, but like the other members of the cast, they aren't given any decent material. What little dialogue there is is pretentious and empty. It's meant to sound deep and sophisticated but really isn't either.
By all accounts, "Blade Runner" was extremely difficult to make. No one got along, Ridley Scott couldn't use his own British crew nor operate the camera himself. Scott's perfectionism and aloof personality didn't endear him to the crew either. Crew changes were so constant that people working behind the scenes had to look on the call sheet to see if they still had a job.
So the movie looks great, but so do a ton of other movies. Watch one of them instead
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy
Rated R for Violence and Brief Nudity
"Blade Runner" is one of those movies where its reputation and fame outstrip whatever qualities it has as a piece of cinema. It gets its fame from its notoriously difficult shoot, innovative art and set decoration, and ambiguous storyline. And the star power of Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott certainly help. And ditto for the supposed "Blade Runner Curse," which spelled doom for any company with product placements in the film. What no one seems to remember is that the movie itself is a piece of crap. At least from this critic's perspective.
In 2019, humanoid robots, known as replicants, are used as slave labor off world. Designed to live for only four years to inhibit emotional growth, they are banned from Earth under the penalty of death. That leaves people like Rick Dekard (Ford), to hunt them down. Actually, Deckard has left the business, but his boss (played by M. Emmett Walsh), calls him back to hunt down a quartet of replicants who have come back to Earth for unknown reasons. He also gets involved with a new model, named Rachael (Young), who doesn't know she's a replicant.
The movie's only real claim to fame is its look. This is a vivid look at a futuristic Los Angeles from hell. It's dark, dank, and decrepit. Trash is everywhere, people are huddled against the rain and the light, and everyone's in a perpetual bad mood. It's stylish and eye-popping even today (who can forget the building sized ad featuring a Chinese woman?). Its vision lent itself to numerous other science fiction movies, including "The Crow," "Dark City," and even "The Matrix."
The actors do what they can, but no one is given anything to work with. Harrison Ford, who was by all accounts miserable during the shoot (Sean Young said, "The only time he was happy was when they told him it was over), underplays his role, which would be the right move if the script gave him the latitude. Sean Young is robotic as the femme fatale, and yes, I mean that as a compliment. Daryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer do great work as the creepy replicants, but like the other members of the cast, they aren't given any decent material. What little dialogue there is is pretentious and empty. It's meant to sound deep and sophisticated but really isn't either.
By all accounts, "Blade Runner" was extremely difficult to make. No one got along, Ridley Scott couldn't use his own British crew nor operate the camera himself. Scott's perfectionism and aloof personality didn't endear him to the crew either. Crew changes were so constant that people working behind the scenes had to look on the call sheet to see if they still had a job.
So the movie looks great, but so do a ton of other movies. Watch one of them instead
terrible review, one of the worst of all time
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