I think this movie got a bum rap. I actually enjoyed it much more than that travesty Johnny Mnemonic (my apologies to Gibson, I know he liked it). Note to Hollywood, Ice-T does not go good with everything, and the deranged preacher bit has been overdone. But here I think Abel Ferrara really made a world in line with what I envisioned when reading the short story, any of Gibson's short stories. It's not a future where everything is blinking lights and super speed CGI, it's a future where most people live in the slums, and the rest have a clean, aerodynamic, one-button-for-everything lifestyle.

The premise, a couple of corporate "headhunters" trying to seduce a brilliant researcher away from a billion dollar multinational with a geisha type mole, is the kind of premise that Gibson is famous for. It's a single incident revolving around human emotions but having worldwide implications because the man is so brilliant he could change the course of science.

The acting is great of course: Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken, and an early glimpse of Asia Argento. The story doesn't hit you over the head explaining events like most films, but Ferrara never does, and half the fun is suddenly realizing what's happened, the check mate, on your own.

If you want action, go see Johnny Mnemonic, if you want deep, see this film.

Corporate raiders use any trick conceivable to lure a genius into their fold...oh, and to win.

This was a rambling and unfocused tale with some mildly interesting plot elements, which suffer completely convoluted execution. Other than some nice camera angles and lighting details, there is nothing at all to redeem this work.

Not even Christopher Walken's wonderful performance could save this flop. Willem Dafoe comes close, but no cigar. I suppose it may be worth watching for their performances, but you surely have to be a connoisseur to derive a moment's pleasure, even from that. OH, they're good, don't get me wrong, but the screenplay is horrid. Simply horrid.

All in all? Don't bother.

It rates a 0.7/10 from...

the Fiend :.

And unless you are very familiar with William Gibson's style and stories, this film will make no sense at all to you. So I encourage anyone who is NOT very familiar with William Gibson and the whole Cyberpunk genre of Science Fiction to avoid this book and film if at all possible-It will make no sense to you and you will not enjoy it, but if you are familiar and if you know what Cyberpunk really means, then this is for you, because it is a graphic and true representation of William Gibson's works.

Gibson himself never really describes things - He uses imagery and future slang to paint his tapestries.

So, unless you know anything about Gibson's "The Sprawl" - This film will make no sense whatsoever. If you are however a reader of Gibson's works, then this film captures perfectly the bleak future created by him.

In the future, after a short Third world war, the governments of the world and economies thereof have collapsed, leaving only Corporate Entities who war between themselves. The Corporation's ammunition are the minds they can accumulate to do their work.

This story is about two guys, named here "X" and "Fox" (In the short story, "X" is the narrator of the story) who play the two main corporations against each other by brokering personnel between the two.

This time, they have a man, Hiroshi who they can get to change sides by using the services of a "Shinjuku-Girl" (Basically, a whore). "X" Is warned by "Fox" not to get involved with the girl, but he does.

And she basically betrays them, by replacing Hiroshi's "Hosaka Chip" with one that would scramble a DNA Sequencer he would work on causing a Virus.

Now, I had to look this up on several websites because it had been a while since I read The Sprawl Trilogy, but within the context of Gibson's works, this film is remarkably well done.

The corporation that was to pay these guys sends out assassins, who kill Fox, while "X" finds a "New Rose Hotel" to climb into and die. A "New Rose Hotel" is kind of like a Roach-Hotel, but for humans. They are basically a honeycombed network of free rooms that can be used for homeless people to crawl into and die in.

As "X" (Played by Willem Dafoe) waits to either die or be assassinated, he has a number of flashbacks where he realizes, with 20/20 Hindsight, the Duplicity of his Shinjuku-Girl, played by Italian Actress and Director Asia Argento. Whose Tattoo is real, by the way. Christopher Walken plays "Fox" and I keep thinking of Mulder for some reason.

The only dialogue filmed is between X and Fox and Asia, the rest are filmed in a kind of dream-fugue, it is like we are seeing these people through the eyes of the AI which is always in the background of these stories.

If you want some background into the world of "The Sprawl" then I suggest a short story by Gibson called "Skinner's Room" (And once again, the name Skinner brings to mind The X Files)-Remember, these stories were written in the 80's and very early 90's - So The X Files may have been influenced by Cyberpunk long before Gibson ever wrote "Kill Switch" in that series.

(Note - Actually I was wrong, "Skinner's Room" is part of "The Bridge" books)