Darkdrive (1997) User Reviews

Claire Stansfield was also confused

[Enigma-I · 2/10 · 2 March 2005]

A few years ago I had an opportunity to talk to Claire Stansfield about this film. I said that I was confused about the plot and hoped she could explain it to me. She said that she was also confused, and hoped that someone would explain it to her as well. We both agreed that the film's plot made absolutely no sense and left it at that.

Perhaps this was someone's attempt to fill in the prison back story of Demolition Man (remember the VR deep freeze in that one?). The Sci-Fi premise of a VR prison has plenty of merit (c.f. The Matrix), but this movie lacked any semblance of credibility or even of continuity.

In any case, this movie is one to miss unless you are a die-hard fan of one of the actors involved. Even so, prepare to be disappointed. I was.

Three stars for Julie Benz, Clare Stansfield and the music

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 19 February 2013]

I always aim to be fair to movies in reviews and ratings, I always try to know what to expect before viewing, I never bail out after a certain amount of time, I try to be as succinct and unbiased as possible and be understanding of other people's opinions instead of generalising or attacking(on a side note, people can do with this and they'll be surprised at how easy it is). I gave that treatment to Darkdrive and while I have seen much worse I still didn't like it. It is not entirely irredeemable, the music manages to be memorable and fitting, Julie Benz has a beautiful face and appealing presence that really shines through and Clare Stansfield is very cool. However there is so much that is wrong. The worst asset was the story which I found impossible to follow, in fact I don't think I have ever been this confused by a movie before. As a consequence of that, and the turgid pacing too, I never had any engagement or emotional attachment to the action or characters. Any suspense, memorable action move or humour just wasn't there in Darkdrive, there were probably attempts that didn't come through, at least to me. The dialogue is clichéd and stilted while the rest of the acting is at best dire. The camera work and angles get too much, there was an attempt to tell the story through them but with that tactic everything just felt incomprehensible, and the special effects look as though they belong in a very cheap-looking movie from the 80s. All in all, not the worst I've seen but lame. 3/10 Bethany Cox

looks like a 80's SF flick

[trashgang · 3/10 · 19 October 2010]

Yeah yeah, I know, it isn't supposed to be in my collection but like many reviewers I bought it for Julie Benz. I have seen her perform in quite a bit of movies and of course in Dexter. Over here in the genre she's well sought after due Dexter and due her appearance at European conventions were I have met her. Why it shouldn't be in my collection is that it isn't a horror but a SF flick. But as a collector I have seen a lot of crap, from top class to Z-movies. It's a phenomena that is regular in horror to have some real turkeys. I would say that I would classify it under a straight-to-video B-flick. The effects used are typical 80's stuff like flashing lights and flashbulbs tearing down persons. They surely have watched Terminator and Blade Runner to come up with something but sometimes the acting is really wooden. The story itself is hard to follow but for many it's the scene with the 21 year old Julie that makes the film worth watching. She's seen in frontal nudity here a thing she never did again, except for Dexter and Eating Las Vegas, a parody on Leaving Las Vegas, but she shows the most in this flick. If you are into B-movies than you surely can watch this. A few years later The Matrix showed how it should be done.

Weird but fascinating film with ideas that may have inspired other movies? Read only after watching, as contains subtle spoilers.

[fizzgig-94296 · 5/10 · 31 October 2016]

I just watched this film today for the first time, nearly 20 years after it was made. It is a very confusing story line, but cool characters and excellent background music. It reminded me of a whole chain of other excellent films that could have been inspired by this one even though it wasn't clear exactly what was going on all of the time. My view is that it was the first inspiration for a reality world in the matrix using that description, but had a groundhog day feel to it and also a dark city feel to it, as we tried to solve the mystery of the breach of the matrix. In my view the story also has a hint of the looper in that the main character closes his own loop. The young girl getting caught in the matrix explains how he broke the breach the first time, as she entered from the street and so it showed that it was possible for the prison to be breached. So many interpretations of the story can be made, but my interpretation is that he may have put his wife there himself knowing that the mind essence doesn't die in the prison, but persists and changes form as they show the goons don't die when they are killed. Maybe he intended to live forever in the matrix with his beloved as it was better than the existing world? From the outside the breach is fixed but maybe he has the final revenge? Because it is so confusing it is almost impossible to discuss this film without some kind of interpretation spoiler but would be curious to know if anyone else enjoyed this film as I did!

If you can follow this plot you need professional help.

[mathewignash · 7 August 2002]

A weird tale of a guy sent into a virtual reality penal colony, where he finds his dead wife singing in a night club, fights Alti from Xena, and tries and fails miserably to be a noir matrix wanna be, without the plot, special effects, or acting. One bright note is an appearance of pre-Buffy The Vampire Slayer Julie Benz, who gets killed several times and has a love scene, and a unexplained kid by the end. So it's a lot like her character of Darla. We even get to see Julie totally topless for her love scene, but sadly they voice over exposition while she sings in the night club. I'd have prefered to hear her sing.

A Complete Mess

[claudio_carvalho · 1/10 · 18 July 2004]

When I saw the name of Julie Benz on the cover of this VHS, I have decided to see the movie since I am a great fan of her character Darla, in Angel series. Further, she has one of the most beautiful faces of the cinema industry. However, this movie is such a mess, that is almost impossible to understand the plot and write a summary of the story. The intention of this confused screenplay might be a noir version of `The Matrix', but it never works. The characters are not well developed and it is almost impossible to the viewer understand their motives. For example, who is the girl showed in the end of the story? Why Julie Falcon dies many times? In the end, the unique worthwhile scene along the whole film is when Julie Benz is showed naked, unfortunately with the presence of her husband Falcon. My vote is one.

Title (Brazil): `Fuga Alucinante' (Hallucinated Escape')

Hello, Mr. Jones...

[junk-monkey · 3/10 · 3 June 2009]

I often watch movies that make no sense in which characters keep doing stupid things that make no sense for them to do merely to keep the plot going ("Do NOT ever go into that cellar!), or built on premises that defy most known logic to start with (The Giant Claw springs to mind for some reason) but Darkdrive really does make no sense. It starts out by looking like it is going to make sense - in an incredibly clunky, by the numbers clichéd manner; the first act is almost a paint-by-numbers assemblage of stock action thriller lines - but by the end all semblance of logic had been thrown out of the window and driven away to the local dump.

At the start of the movie our hero is a whizz-kid programmer working for a morally dubious corporation who runs the penal system of the future by digitising villains into a virtual prison - called guess what? 'The Matrix' - and 'terminating' the bodies. By the end of the movie he is trapped in the self same virtual reality prison with his dead wife and a little girl who had a couple of lines at the start of the show, caught in some endless looping mashup of Groundhog Day / Existenz / Overdrawn at the Memory Bank but with more guns and swearing. The hero meets himself and turns out to be the baddie as well. Though how he got there before he got there to find himself is never explained. In fact no one knows why anyone is in there - or indeed how they got there (Mrs Hero for instance was blown up by a booby-trapped picnic hamper in the middle of a field*, nowhere near the brazzillion tons of special effects - OK, a chair and an arc lamp - needed to get her husband Tronned). It almost becomes hypnotically wonderful, as if David Lynch had directed Time Cop. (A feeling heightened by great chunks of the music which was as near to being Laura's Theme from Twin Peaks as you could get without being sued.) I may watch it again.

* Never, EVER! tell your husband you're pregnant just after he's walked out on an Evil Corporation.

Watch it for the music

[jim-807 · 10/10 · 11 April 2006]

I agree that the plot is incomprehensible, but it takes you on a weird trip that can be fun. The music is worth the price of admission. The love theme was inspired, as was the entire score, by Eraserhead. It's a bit of a cross between Ennio Morricone and Angelo Badalimente. Hey, I'm not even Italian; I just love those guys. I put on the soundtrack around the house sometimes just to get into a trippy vibe. The later at night the better. I wrote this music right after Distorted Reality (composer tool) came out, and the score is a showcase of the DR samples. The true gem here is the vocal by Giancarlo. We had a great time writing and recording that song. Honestly, this is the best music I ever wrote for a film. Check it out!

Not an expert, but...

[jtur88 · 26 January 2001]

I don't see enough of this genre to properly make any comparisons, but this film certainly had very little analytical thought behind the script. It takes place in some future when people are all driving black 97 Ford minivans, but penal reform has reached the point at which prisoners are banished to a virtual reality, furnished with, among other things, abandoned Pintos and Vegas, as well as the other prisoners in a similar plight. The banishment, of course, is accompanied by sustained, blinding flashes of intense white light. The general story line is told through closeups of computer screens the flash up-dating messages like "Transformation Complete" and "Program Compromised". The film abounds with non-sequiturs, which I suppose is de-rigeur in a world where the final outcome cannot possibly have any link to the premise. Needless to say, it has its standard complement of beautiful babes, and Claire Stansfield is kinda cool.

I get 25 cable movie channels, and this was the best thing on at not-quite-bedtime, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

This movie is crap.

[FoolishWander · 30 January 2001]

This movie is one of, if not the absolute worst movies I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I only rented it because I happen to like Julie Benz, but she couldn't save it for me. The plot is hopeless, and the acting is worse. The special effects are dated, so you really have no excuse for seeing this, unless you like to suffer.

It doesn't even fall into the so bad it's good type movie.