Dark City (1998)

"...a unique yet utterly convincing world.  Andrea C. Basora, Newsweek
"...immensely entertaining, as well as visually dazzling.  Andy Klein, New Times
"Fascinating, visionary filmmaking.  Marshall Fine, USA Today
"...among the most memorable cinematic ventures in recent years.  Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
"Obliged to go from lost soul to demigod, Sewell's performance is as fascinating as Proyas's mystical vision.  Rita Kempley, Washington Post
"...a steamy swirl that brings in everything from Franz Kafka to Vincent Price, from Fritz Lang to Star Trek...  Stephen Holden, The New York Times
"If you don't fall in love with it, you've probably never fallen in love with a movie, and never will.  Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post

Editor's Note Upon awakening with a start in an icy bathtub in a strange room--with a woman's dead body inconveniently nearby--John Murdoch can't remember how he got there. With a police detective hot on his trail and a psychiatrist skulking around, Murdoch discovers that the key to his mystery is the presence of strange extraterrestrial creatures, the Strangers, who are experimenting with the memories of the humans in his city--from which there may be no escape. Ambitious sci-fi noir, with rich production design and a dense, Kafkaesque concept, made DARK CITY a cult classic.

	Stanley Steer
	Dhobi Oparei
	Bruce Spence
	Ritchie Singer
	William Upjohn
	Bill Highfield
	Richard O'Brien
	Terry Bader
	Bill Rutherford
	Colin Friels
	Naomi van der Velden
	Jeanette Cronin
	Rufus Sewell
	Marin Mimica
	Marques Johnson
	Mitchell Butel
	Michael Lake
	Kiefer Sutherland
	Rosemary Traynor
	William Hurt
	Tyson McCarthy
	Greg Tell
	Nicholas Bell
	Peter Callan
	David Wenham
	Ian Richardson
	Glenford Richards
	Maureen O'Shaughnessy
	Cinzia Coassin
	Frank Gallacher
	Ray Rizzo
	Paul Livingston
	Laura Keneally
	Justin Monjo
	Darren Gilshenan
	Jennifer Connelly
	Alan Cinis
	Timothy Jones
	Eliot Paton
	Tony Mosley
	Edward Grant
	Doug Scroope
	Melissa George
	Mark Hedges
	Satya Gumbert
	Luke Styles
	John Bluthall
	Anthony Kierann
	Frederick Miragliotta
	Peter Sommerfeld
	Natalie Bollard
	Patrick Tatopoulos - Production Designer
	Alex Proyas - Producer
	Trevor Jones - Composer
	Alex Proyas - Story
	David S. Goyer - Screenwriter
	Alex Proyas - Screenwriter
	Dov Hoenig - Editor
	Liz Keogh - Costume Designer
	Dariusz Wolski - Director of Photography
	George Liddle - Production Designer
	Andrew Mason - Producer
	Lem Dobbs - Screenwriter
	Alex Proyas - Director

USA Today
"...Director Alex Proyas (THE CROW) treats and photographs Sewell like a film noir figure..." 02/27/2998 p.9D

New York Times
"...Relentlessly trippy in a fun-house sort of way....A visually arresting ride that offers many unsettling surprises..." 02/27/1998 p.E8

Premiere
"...Deliciously snaky performances by Hurt and Sutherland....A trippy must-see for late-night moviegoers..." 01/01/1998 p.22

Chicago Sun-Times
"...A great visionary achievement....Original and exciting....It is a triumph of art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects -- and imagination..." 02/27/1998 p.35

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "This mind-wringer is sci-fi specialist Alex Proyas' best film to date....A must for anyone who takes their sci-fi strong, dark and minus sugar." 10/01/2008 p.173

ReelViews 9 of 10
The Crow will forever be remembered as the final performance of budding star Brandon Lee, who died as a result of a tragic behind-the-scenes accident. However, as intense as the hype associated with Lee's death was, it could not obscure the most impressive aspect of the 1994 feature: director Alex Proyas' startling, unforgettable vision. It's rare for any film maker, whether a veteran or a newcomer, to create the kind of compelling, endlessly-fascinating environment that Proyas brought to the screen in The Crow. Now, with his follow-up movie, Dark City, the director incredibly manages to one-up himself...If there's a flaw with Dark City (and it's a small one, to be sure), it's that the film takes a little too long forging a link between the audience and Murdoch. For the first thirty minutes, we're left floating, watching the confounding narrative unfold, marveling over the strange occurrences, and waiting for film to really grab us. Once that happens, it's difficult not to become completely engrossed. So, is the lengthy setup necessary? Almost certainly, and, as I said, any slow spots are only a tiny blemish on the face of a film that offers a gratifyingly original and stunning science fiction experience. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
``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.'' If it is true, as the German director Werner Herzog believes, that we live in an age starved of new images, then ``Dark City'' is a film to nourish us. Not a story so much as an experience, it is a triumph of art direction, set design, cinematography, special effects--and imagination...Like ``Blade Runner,'' it imagines a city of the future. But while ``Blade Runner'' extended existing trends, ``Dark City'' leaps into the unknown. Its vast noir metropolis seems to exist in an alternate time line, with elements of our present and past combined with visions from a futuristic comic book. Like the first ``Batman,'' it presents a city of night and shadows, but it goes far beyond ``Batman'' in a richness of ominous, stylized sets, streets, skylines and cityscapes. For once a movie city equals any we could picture in our minds; this is the city ``The Fifth Element'' teased us with, without coming through...Watching it, I realized the last dozen films I'd seen were about people standing around, talking to one another. ``Dark City'' has been created and imagined as a new visual place for us to inhabit. It adds treasure to our notions of what can be imagined. - Roger Ebert