Product Description

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, INFORMATION IS THE ULTIMATE COMMODITY. IN A WORLD WHERE CYBERSPACE IS A WORK DAY REALITY AND OUTLAW HACKERS THRIVE, THE MOST VALUABLE INFORMATION MUST SOMETIMES BE TRANSPORTED BY MNEMONIC COURIERS: PROFESSIONALS LIKE JOHNNY, WHO OFFER THE ULTIMATE IN SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28844 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1997-11-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
You might be tempted to call it "Johnny Moronic" after you've seen this illogical and derivative adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk short story (available in his book Burning Chrome), which is all the more depressing since Gibson himself wrote the screenplay. First you have to ask yourself why valuable top-secret electronic data would be stored in the "wet-wired" brain of a human courier (played by Keanu Reeves), who then transports the data from China to New Jersey as part of his last, most dangerous assignment. Surely there are better ways to transmit sensitive information, but since this is really just a conventional thriller with near-future design and spiffy special effects, Gibson and New York artist Robert Longo (making his directorial debut) are more interested in surface gloss and cyberpunk atmosphere. On that level the movie's fairly engaging, and Japanese film star Takeshi Kitano makes a pretty good villain, tracking Reeves down for the information in his data-packed brain. The movie also boasts an eclectic gallery of supporting players including rapper Ice-T, performance artist and rocker Henry Rollins, beefcake actor Dolph Lundgren, and transcontinental oddball Udo Kier. They can't stop this trip through virtual reality from being botched up, but sci-fi fans will certainly enjoy the echo of Gibson's fiction that remains on the screen. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
The hero (Keanu Reeves) is a twenty-first-century information courier, whose surgically reconfigured brain can be hooked up directly to computers. At the beginning, Johnny accepts a shipment that's much too large for his storage capacity, and, to make matters worse, no one has the complete access code to retrieve the data in his head; if he doesn't download within twenty-four hours, he'll die. He's up the information creek without a paddle. It's a nice premise, and the script, by the cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson, embellishes it ingeniously. But Robert Longo-an artist and music-video auteur making his début as a feature-film director-drains the life out of the story. The action feels inert, and the movie's vision of the future seems to have been assembled from rusted scraps of eighties science-fiction pictures like "Blade Runner" and "Escape from New York." The performances-by a cast that includes Ice-T, Dina Meyer, Dolph Lundgren, Barbara Sukowa, and Henry Rollins-are worthy of an Ed Wood ensemble. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

NOT WIDESCREEN!
If you're a fan of Johnny Mnemonic or not, beware that the non-superbit version "format" information is incorrect. This DVD version of Johnny Mnemonic is in "FULL SCREEN" format.

The version (non-Superbit, released November 25, 1997) had the full and widescreen view options. I found this "old" version in the "used" DVD section at my location store.

This new version released March 23, 2004(I guess they improved the audio/video transfer quality) only has the full screen option.

Johnny Johnny Whoops Johnny
This JUST RELEASED SPECIAL SUPERBIT version of this film (10/09/01), means that all available disc space is used to present the film supposedly at the very finest visual quality possible. The disc space is devoted to improving the resolution of the film. That means no extras, no bells and whistles, behind the scenes documentaries, commentaries, nothing, nada. Perhaps an extra disc of extra's would have been nice. . . but this release is not geared to please everyone, only the pickiest DVDophiles amongst us.

If you like the film and you want to see and hear it better than you have ever been able to hear it before, this DVD is worth getting. There are no extras as all of the disc space is utilized in giving the highest possible bit rate possible. I hope some truly classic films will offered using the Superbit process in the future. I would also like to see an additional disc of extra material being offered for those films that have available extras.

Johnny Mnemonic should have been a delightful camp-fest with some remarkable sequences full of colorful digital effects. An excellent pop-artist Robert Longo directed the film, and it's all based on famed cyber-punk/ science fiction writer William Gibson's short story. He even adapted it for the screen.

The film to me is about as much fun as getting dumped off the internet just as your finishing writing a long e-mail you've not saved. I'd have to strain quite a bit to tell you something that is worthwhile in the film. The cast might look promising on paper, (Keanu, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi (BEAT)Kitano, Henry Rollins, and Udo Kier) but nobody is particularly good in the film.

There's a pretty interesting sequence when Johnny quite literally surfs the internet. It's got some dazzling visuals for a few minutes. Well, that's about all I can come up with.

The plot sets up one long chase scene. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny, a human computer information courier. The safest way to transport corporate information from computer to computer is by implanting the information into a chip inside a human couriers brain. Johnny wants to retire from the courier business so he takes on a more dangerous than usual assignment which also means he needs to complete his assignment in 48 hours or his brain shorts out and he becomes a vegetable. There's some good guys who help him try get to where he needs to go, and there's the bad guys who want to download the information from him.

Most of the futuristic sets look too cheap to be convincing. The dialogue stops just short of being hilariously bad, which means it isn't quite bad enough to be fun. The film doesn't have the right tone or pace to be a fun, guilty-pleasure type camp-fest either. There's quite a few similarities to TRON , and the far superior The Matrix that might be of some interest to completists.

Still someone out there likes this thing. One of them obviously works within the studio and decided this was a good film to give the full SUPERBIT treatment to. I'm not sure exactly why…. But they have done it.

The DVD Image

SUPERBIT TITLES are produced by a team of Sony Pictures Digital video, sound and mastering technicians and engineers. Superbit DVDs are encoded at twice their normal bit rate which improves video resolution and gives you a choice of both Dolby 5.1 and DTS audio. They are fully compatible with region 1 DVD players already in use.

Utilizing more space on the disc for bit-rates improves the over-all picture resolution. It's not a dramatic difference but the image will look a little sharper and there will be additional detail in low light situations. It also means there is less compression of detail being used which should cut down on visible edge enhancement, what is called mosquito noise, haloing,artifacting, and color pinging or shifting. This also means grain and other imperfections on the film stock might be somewhat amplified as well. The disc type is a DVD-9 (a single sided and double-layered disc with a capacity of 7.95 gigabits).

Once again, it appears the digitally stored transfer that was used to create the previous edition of Johnny Mnemonic seems to be used. There are some blemishes on the print, and when it was originally transferred the black levels were not adjusted to the levels they should have been which resulted in some blacks appearing grayish. This results in selected scenes being robber of some added visual dynamics they would have had since the Superbit process increases the details over all.

The film looks very good, but if a new corrected film transfer had also been done, the results could have improved even more.

It's even more noticeable on this version, that not a lot of creativity went into the sound mix on this film. Brad Fiedel's electronic score utilizes the surround capabilities of a good home theater system much better than any of the sound effects in the film do. The center speakers are the primary focus of most of the sound and dialogue in the film. There is not much punch to any of the explosions or low bass effects used in the film. All of the sound (unless intentionally distorted) is clear and well separated.

What's the problem?
It has to be said that when they open the annals of the worlds most underrated movies this will be at the top of the list. Keanu is well cast as JMn - some would say bereft of personality but I think that's missing the point, he's cool and professional, just as he should be. Ice-T plays the beleagured yet passionate freedom fighter with gusto and Dolph Lundengrundenhousen...en...whatever...is excellent as a twisted cyborg with a religious fixation. Everyone else is more than adequate in their roles. The plot is more subtle than the instant, intense visuals let on (and this is where a lot of people seem to trip up as they do not see past the cheese) and the movie stands up well to multiple viewings which is what you want from a video. All in all, a great package for any sci-fi fan and a must for Gibsonette's. Buy.