Staring Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Jennifer Connelly and Rufus Sewell. New Line Home Entertainment's Blu-ray of Dark City - Director's Cut continues that label's habit of packing discs with extravagant extras into the new format. Rufus Sewell makes a solid Noir hero. When John Murdock wakes up with no memory at the scene of a grisly murder, he soon finds himself hunted by the police, a woman claiming to be his wife, and a mysterious group of pale men who seem to control everything - and everyone - in the city. The director's cut removes the opening narration, which Proyas felt explained too much of the plot, and restores it to its original location in the film.
William Hurt is typically precise; he and Jennifer Connelly give the film much of its heart. Not a commercial success by any means, Dark City eventually found a home and cult following on the home video format, where its DVD release sold like crazy. Spoiler alert: Do not read this review before watching the film, even though I have tried to keep the biggest plot twist out of the review. But the real reason to re-purchase this film on Blu-ray is the special features and digital transfer.Mastered in 7.1 sound, the film not only looks superb but also sounds fantastic with the orchestral score by Trevor Jones remixed and mastered to perfection; while my home system may not be up to the standard that the disc is designed for, the purity, clarity and time that have gone into this is nothing less than spectacular.In addition – an unexpected pleasure – king of ‘goth’ fiction Neil Gaiman also offers his opinion on the film, which ties nicely into the whole goth/Added to this you also get a vast array of production galleries, essays based on the film, trailers and film facts.This is a superb release, both in the production values of the film itself and the effort that has gone into this transfer. So far, my growing collection has disappointed a little (Following the slow recovery of an amnesic man called John Murdock (Rufus Sewell), the film follows our hero as, with the help of ex-wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) and the shady Dr Schreber (Keifer Sutherland), he finds not only his memory but also a conspiracy and twist that would put any Raymond Chandler story to shame.The film’s unique vision and sense of style is perfectly rendered in high-def, from the continually shifting cities, to the sinister floating Strangers. Kiefer Sutherland is less mannered than usual, playing an eccentric scientist used by the Dark Men to implant false memories by direct injections to the brain. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish. Rob checks out a 90s classic sci-fi noir that really deserves its hi-def release... After recently succumbing to a nice shiny Blu-ray player, my intention for my growing film collection is to try and only purchase films that really benefit from a 1080p transfer (so no ‘Along Came Sallies’, ‘Rom-Coms’ or ‘British Comedies’). Alfred Hitchcock said that some filmmakers are "complicators" and some are "simplifiers".
His John Murdoch broods but doesn't collapse into despair. Dark City: Director's Cut on DVD (794043122965) from New Line Home Entertainment. All Critics (83) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (20) Dark City …
A deep and well executed offering, the Blu-ray version of this movie really is a masterpiece of how effective this new format can be, showing the skills of the production itself as well as the technical expertise that was required to show off every little nook and cranny of this dark dystopian noir nightmare of a film.Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!
Critic Reviews for Dark City. The true form of the Dark Men are spindly, transparent spider-things that remain largely unexplained: they're a bit like Arthur Clarke's Overlords in
Directed by Alex Proyas. Dark City Director’s Cut Blu-ray review; Reviews Dark City Director’s Cut Blu-ray review. Yet as Simple-Simon-met-a-pieman as it is, "Dark City" isn't on its way to the fair, it is the fair. The number of throwaway references is pretty high. The effort put into the sets, detail and visually stunning special effects really come across in this release – from the first scene in a dilapidated bathroom decked out with grotty emerald tiles to the FX-driven finale, all the pin-sharp detail that went into the creation of this unique atmosphere of the movie is there in all its glory.The disc itself contains both the shorter theatrical version of the film as well as the longer and more detailed director’s cut, both of which work fine, with the director’s version not really providing that much more detail plot-wise, but expanding the role of Connelly’s lounge singing femme fatale (and let’s be honest: any version of a film that has more Jennifer Connelly looking sweet and innocent while also wearing a skin tight sequin dress has to be worth a look) as well as a few more scenes with the Strangers and the structure of their hive-mind society. RT on DVD: Harold & Kumar, Doomsday and Dark City Director’s Cut View All. "Dark City'' by Alex Proyas is a great visionary achievement, a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like "Metropolis'' and "2001: A Space Odyssey.''