Review of Johnny Mnemonic (1995) by Marco P — 20 Dec 2010

Johnny Mnemonic (1995).

I'm a big fan of William Gibson's cyberpunk science fiction stories. When Johnny Mnemonic was released, I rushed out to see it. Unfortunately, the movie wasn't near as good as what I thought it would or could be.

It's a good movie, but it just wasn't as good as it could have been. Stuff like the LowTechs who in the book did a lot of body altering were just like regular homeless people in the movie. Oh well, no doubt they did the best they could with the budget they had.

There is a rumor out that the Japanese version of Johnny Mnemonic has about fifteen additional minutes, but I think that it's more scenes with Beat Takeshi. There's still enough of eye-candy of William Gibson glimpses into the future for me to recommend this movie.

Johnny is a mnemonic currier. He has a chip implanted in his head that carries the data undetected. Johnny makes a bundle of money doing this and frankly is addicted to his lifestyle, but he had to loose some of his childhood memories to get this chip. Some day, he wants to have it removed, but he needs to make that one big score first.

Johnny has got a good prospect; some Chinese scientists have got some data that must go to New York and they're paying good money, but the data is more than his chip can carry and there is some seepage. By the time he arrives in New York, he's in bad shape.

On top of that, his agent, Ralphy (Udo Kier) has sold him out to Yakuza assassins run by Takahashi (Beat Takeshi) working for a major pharmaceutical company. They literally want Johnny's head. A drug-effected body guard, Jane (Dina Meyer) might be able to get Johnny to the LowTechs run by J-Bone (Ice-T) who might be able to help.