Tomorrow Calling (1993 TV Short) User Reviews

Good adaption of an interesting short story

[porsane · 7/10 · 27 October 2004]

Everyone seems to know about Johnny Mnemonic, very few have seen this far superior rendering of a William Gibson short story. Short, clever and appealing this is a must for people who like their sf intelligent.

The feel of the film captures the slightly psychotic aspects of the short story, the viewer is never sure what is real and what is the product of the protagonist's stress.

The special effects are minimal, the story is about inner space, rather than outer space, but it is nice seeing the 30's future done with '90s sensibilities.

For the trainspotters out there, Toyah Wilcox makes an appearance, although when I watched the film I didn't spot her.

Stylish, worth a look for fans of Gibson

[girlconnoisseur · 5/10 · 2 September 2022]

The lead actor is appealing and holds the mood of the piece, but his elocution and softer speaking style make the narration hard to hear. As this piece relies heavily on narration, that's a pretty devastating flaw.

This low budget Channel 4 production is more Alphaville than Star Wars and the filmmakers did a very good job of creating a lo-fi science fiction film. The artistic direction and mise-en-scène are what make this adaptation work. This is why many short stories without such setting or atmosphere make for horrible adaptations.

Again, the narration is crucial in adaptations like these-unless you can convert much of the prose into dialog-and that was a big failure in Tomorrow Calling. They might've had something if they went back to Gibson and tried to create a script exploring Toyah Wilcox's character: she's easily the best thing here.