JOHNNY MNEMONIC

1 hour 35 minutes, Canada 1995

Director: Robert Longo; Producer: Don Carmody; Screenplay: William Gibson; Photography: François Protat; Production Design: Nilo Rodis-Jamero; Editing: Ronald Sanders; Music: Brad Fiedel.

Stars: Keanu Reeves (Johnny), Dina Meyer (Jane), Dolph Lundgren (Preacher), Ice-T (J-Bone), Takeshi Kitano (Takahashi), Dennis Akiyama (Shinji), Henry Rollins (Spider), Barbara Sukowa (Anna K), Udo Kier (Ralfi), Tracy Tweed (Pretty).

As a concept, Johnny Mnemonic has wonderful credentials: a screenplay by the eminent sci-fi author William Gibson, a director in the shape of Robert Longo, internationally renowned for is amazing pop videos, a star in Keanu Reeves, still a hot property following his success in Speed. But, sadly, these credentials never quite gel together and present us with a movie that is more confusing than interesting and more strange than frightning. The world has changed and a disease called NAS is ravaging the global population. Reeves plays Johnny, an international courier who can transport information anywhere in the world by having it uploaded into a special computer chip wet-wired into his brain. In order to accomplish this he has had to "dump a chunk of long term memory" - specifically his childhood - but even then he only has a limited storage capacity. Johnny is sent to Beijing to pick up a new delivery from a group of Chinese businessmen from a pharmaceutical company. However, just as the information is being uploaded into Johnny's brain, the businessmen are attacked and killed by a group of Japanese terrorists, Yakuza, led by the nefarious Takahashi. Johnny escapes with the data intact and flees to the Free City of Newark, where it soon becomes apparent that Johnny has exceeded his storage capacity and must download the information within 48 hours of suffer a complete mental breakdown. However, the Yakuza track Johnny to Newark, intent on extracting the information themselves, using a less than subtle method...

The main problem with Johnny Mnemonic is the rather weird cast. I mean - Keanu Reeves (a French-Hawaiian born in Lebanon, brought up in Canada), Dolph Lundgren (a Swedish body builder) Ice-T (an American rap star), Takeshi Kitano (a Japanese musician) and Udo Kier (an Austrian classical actor). Individually, they are all good (with the exception of Reeves, who is as plank-like as ever), but as an ensemble there never seems to be any coherence between them. Also the plot has obviously been watered down from Gibson's original, omitting all the social and political undertones that existed in the book and transforming them into simple cues for action. Character development is also kept to a minimum and conforms to all the usual cinematic stereotypes - the strong, silent, troubled hero; the spunky heroine; the maniacal religious figure; the scheming corporate goons etc., etc. Technically, however, the film is magnificent and utilises the latest computer graphics and animation to wonderful effect (especially in one scene where Johnny, using virtual reality, makes a long distance phone call over a new-and-improved Internet). In addition, production designer Nilo Rodis Jamero (a Star Wars veteran) has worked wonders in coming up with a new slant on the old idea of a post-apocalyptic society. Obviously, Robert Longo has all the right ideas but doesn't yet have the experience to turn them into a coherent and, most importantly, enjoyable film.