Darkdrive (1996)

Darkdrive

The special effects in the movie were well done. The acting was adequate but the plot was confusing. In manner ways it was a cheaper knock off of the third Matrix movie where the hero is inserted into the matrix, a term used in the movie, to solve the problem of the now bodiless minds of the prisoners exiled into the matrix until they somehow die or get deleted from it. The only real plus in the movie is Julie Benz but her role is far too limited to save the movie. August 28, 2005

Checking out Julie Benz? That would be the reason to watch

I checked out this movie because I heard it had Julie Benz in it and I wanted to see her (just take that statement at face value for now). Like many others, I am a big fan of the work she did on "Angel" once her character of Darla, killed off in the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," was brought back. I consider her scene in the show's third season, where she give birth to her son by staking herself to be the high point of the five season run of "Angel" (people who have never seen the show and would never bother to watch it were impressed by my description of that remarkable scene). But the only thing "Darkdrive" has in common with "Angel" is that Julie Benz has her best scenes after her character is dead.

There is a lot of confusion over what happens in this movie. Not debate, because that would have people talking about it and trying to reach conclusions through dialectical engagement through argumentation, and most viewers are just throwing up their hands on this one and giving up on figuring it out. My understanding of what is going on is this: in the future criminals are sent to a virtual reality to serve their sentences. Then the system crashes and the government sends Steven Falcon (Ken Olandt) into the system to fix it. Why he needs to go IN to the system as opposed to sitting at a keyboard and working on code or something seems motivated less by the logic of problem solving and more from the desire to be like "The Matrix." Once there, Falcon has to deal with R.J. Tilda (Claire Stansfield), a criminal he sent into the system before the crash, and who is out to get him. As I see it, Tilda is probably the one who figured out the system from the inside to use it to kill Flacon's wife, Julie (Benz).

Mourning for his wife, Falcon tries to use the system to create a cyber-version, but it proves unsatisfying to him. However, once he is in the system he discovers that Julie is "alive." In the system once you die you can be essentially rebooted. Do not think this is a plot point with existentialist overtones, because it is just a way of setting up pulling a rabbit out of a hat at the end. I am pretty sure the pivotal point here is that there is more than one way to get into this particular matrix, um, system. One is by sitting in the magic chair and the other is being abducted by the system's "transporter" device (the kid at the end is the one that disappears early on, because the same thing happened to both her and Julie). I can go along with the idea that Benz is the best thing in this movie, but given her limited role and small amount of screen time, this is not a good thing.

Even from the torturous description of the premise of "Dark Drive," a 1996 film directed by Phillip J. Roth, you can probably tell that the most interesting part of the story is not "The Matrix" ripoffs but the idea of cyber prisons. That is an idea worth exploring without having the system fall apart in something akin to a more extended stay in the NYC prison of "Escape From New York." But Roth has directed "Digital Man" and "Total Reality," so the computer trip is going to be his primary interest. But then I showed up to check out Julie Benz so it is hard for me to complain about a director being myopic without engaging in that whole thing about the pot and the kettle. March 6, 2005

Confusing story

The storyline was confusing and hard to follow. How did his wife get into the Matrix? The characters were mostly two-dimensional and devoid of any feeling (or acting ability?). Tilda was the most three dimensional character and actually had a personality! Some of the special effects were interesting though. September 3, 2002

Great looking film, for a low budget sci-fi-er.

This disc is worth buying for the awesome commentary alone! Hilarious! Don't try to make too much sense out of the story, but sit back and enjoy the eye candy! Not bad at all! November 4, 1999

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