Blade Runner

"Replicants are like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem." - Deckard

release year: 1982
genre: science fiction
viewing setting: home DVD 12/6/13

synopsis: In the near future, a cop hunts and kills renegade artificial people.

impressions: This was the 2007 "final cut" version, just in case you were wondering. I hadn't watched this movie in over fifteen years and didn't remember much, but what I did remember was that I was underwhelmed. That opinion still holds true now, after watching it and really paying attention. The sets are great - the filmmakers do an outstanding job of creating a very bleak, depressing future in which it honestly doesn't look like there's anything to be happy about. The plot (that artificial humans have been bad and need to be destroyed, although that may not be the morally correct thing) is thought-provoking. But the pace is slowwwwwww and the acting is generally unimpressive. This is a good movie, but it's not a great one.

acting: Rutger Hauer turns in one of the few strong roles as the leader of the replicants. Harrison Ford is the guy who retired from a career of hunting and killing replicants, and we learn nothing about his character or motivations at all...he just wanders around doing the job and mumbling. Sean Young is the replicant who he falls in love with, despite them never talking about anything and having nothing in common. Brion James is a dumb and menacing replicant, and Daryl Hannah is a young, cute one. Joanna Cassidy is a supposedly super-dangerous one who doesn't really do much to live up to that reputation. Joe Turkel is the creepy rich genius who invented the replicants. Edward James Olmos is a weird cop who talks and acts funny.

final word: Decent sci-fi, worth seeing once, but overrated.

back to the main review page