Johnny Mnemonic (1995) User Reviews (198)

Why do I keep coming back to this movie?

[m0rg16 · 7/10 · 8 October 2003]

I saw half of this movie on television once, and since I am a avid sci-fi fan, the story intrigued me. A couple of weeks later I went out to pick up a copy of this movie for myself, and ever since I've been watching it every now and then. Not every month, but at least once every 4 or 5 months. Sometimes more. There's just something about it that I like. Well, lets start from the beginning:

It is the year 2021 and the world has been taken over by large coorporations that do pretty much what they want to. Most of them are out to make money, however, and will do anything to achieve that goal. One of these coorporations is PharmaCom, a coorporation that deals in medicine and exists pretty much all over the world. From Beijing to Newark. 'Johnny' is a Mnemonic courier who carries an implant in his brain which allows him to carry a large amount of data there. But when he accepts a job where he is overloaded with data, he is not only experiencing trouble with getting rid of the data, but also finds that several bounty hunters and crime organizations are after his head and the information stored within. Over 24 hours he jumps around in the city of Newark, trying to find a way to get rid of the data and the bounty hunters.

A touch in this movie that many might recognize from the film 'The Matrix' is that in this movie they tend to hook themselves up to the internet, which has become a virtual reality like, àlà The Lawnmower man. But in the end of the film, Keanu's character completly hooks himself up to the internet for a short amount of time, walking around in it and controlling his actions as if he was in another world. Pretty much like he did in the Matrix. Wierd, huh?

The film presents a very interesting vision of the future. Coorporations, crime syndicates, virtual-reality, futuristic weapons and the like. The sets look authentic and the look and feel of the film is top-notch. The music seems to fit the mood at all times, too, which is a big plus. The characters are likeable and unique in their own way, but with one exception. Keanu Reeves plays 'Johnny' without any life or energy put into it and delivers his lines flat and in the most boring way. His worst acting job ever? Perhaps. You could tell he didn't like this movie very much.

Overall, its a very interesting sci-fi flick which has its ups and downs. The upsides is the setting, the music, the vision of the future etc. etc. while the downsides are Keanu Reeve's acting and sometimes lack of interest in what happens next in the movie. I give it a 7/10.

One of those films that could (and should) have been better.

[rodental · 5/10 · 24 May 2003]

All things considered, this film probably does exactly what it sets out to do. Unfortunately the people behind it set their sights too low. There is so much movie-making potential in Gibsons writing, that this film could very easily have been both entertaining AND carried the depth of his literature. I was left with the feeling that Gibson thought: -"Well, this is going to be my one chance at getting my work on the big screen. So I'd better stick a little bit of everything I've made in it." Too many of the characters taken from his fiction get mistreated by the script: Ralfi, Molly Millions, the-guy-with-the-monowire-thumb, Johnny. Whereas the new ones, like Spider and the Street Preacher are much more entertaining. For example: One of the central ideas in the short story was that Johnny is "a very technical boy" - totally reliant on technology - and therefore actually needs Molly's muscle-power to protect him. Aside from one initial rescue, Johnny actually saves his own bodyguard more times than she helps him (with anything!) Maybe Keanu has a "Heroism Clause" of his own, like Kevin Kostner... :) A pleasant surprise though, was the appearance of Takeshi Kitano (even if it was a small part.)

My favourite scene is Johnnys rant on the rubbish heap. I know it is contrary to the intent of the scene, but I sympathise completely with his feelings. He had sacrificed something that most people hold sacred, in order to live a certain lifestyle, and it gets taken away from him completely undeservedly - no wonder he feels cheated.

If you really want Gibsonesque cyberpunk, go for _New Rose Hotel (1998) _ instead.

Interesting & mildly entertaining, but could have been much better

[Sentinel-15 · 7/10 · 27 December 2001]

What is it with Keanu Reeves and big budget cyberpunk science fiction movies? Oh well.

Considering it was based on the short story of the same name by cyberpunk godfather William Gibson, the movie is a minor disappointment. It's not that bad, but it could have been so much better.

However, a lot of Gibson's ideas are still there, making it a solid cyberpunk movie. There aren't too many of those around.

I cut this movie a lot of slack because it is based on a W. Gibson short story.

[scott_m · 25 August 2001]

Why does everyone hate that movie so much!?! All the reviews I have read called it "confusing". How could it be confusing?

1. Takes place in a world created in William Gibson's many works of fiction. 2. Man has data in head. 3. Others REALLY want data. 4. Man tries to get data out of head before it kills him -- or the people chasing him do.

Along the way there are some colorful characters, cool gadgets and cityscapes from Gibson's 2021, and even a smidgen of romance (but not enough to bother anyone). I mean what's the problem!?! The movie is very faithful to Gibson's vision and even asks the main character to wrestle with an ethical dilemma or two while all the action is going on...

Classic Cyber-Punk

[pberghuis · 4/10 · 23 October 2004]

You know, I may give this movie a 4, but I really suggest you watch it and I have to admit that I own it. This is a classic example of the cyber-punk genre, and this is one of those movies that is so bad it's good. This movie is like "Blade Runner"'s fat slutty sister. It has everything, bright neon lights, a huge corporate society run with the help of the yakuza, and a group of rejects who neglect technology and help save the day. Some of the other things in the movie are just hilarious. Who do you call on to take out Keanu Reeve's when the going gets tough? They called on some badass agents in "The Matrix" but in "Johnny Mnemonic"? A bionic street-preacher/mercenary who hands out sermons while he is busy crucifying his victims.

A Surprisingly Well Made Piece of Dark Sci-Fi

[Mike_Wiggins · 7/10 · 18 July 2011]

Usually when you watch a sci-fi film, the first half usually piques your interest only to sink into a confusing and badly written second half ("Star Trek V" comes to mind.). "Johnny Mnemonic" has the unique distinction of having a rather bad first half being saved by the second half. There were moments of badly delivered lines and situations, which I fully blame the director for. There were cuts where the demeanor of Keanu Reeves changed confusingly. Again I blame the director and continuity supervisor. There was, IMHO, more gore than necessary. But that's a matter of taste. And, to make matters worse, I wasn't sure of what I was watching.

There was a LOT of good things about the movie. It told a sci-fi story about a dark and bleak future....somewhat similar to "Blade Runner". And it did it well. There were an amazing amount of sets, extras, and really well done computer effects. There was even one really well filmed shot in a hospital that reminded me of the long scene from "Gone With The Wind" showing the dead and dying in the Atlanta train yard. Many of the secondary actors (especially Henry Rollins as "Spider" and Ice-T as "J-Bone") were surprisingly good and helped to raise my rating of the film from an initial 4.0 to an overall 7.0 rating.

If you aren't into a lot of foul language and/or gore, I'd steer clear of this film. But if you want to see a surprisingly well made piece of dark sci-fi, this is a film worth giving a chance to watch.

"Okay, Just Johnny"

[Kamurai25 · 4/10 · 14 November 2020]

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend past a Bad Movie Night.

What a trip in the way back machine to see the inspiration for "The Matrix", maybe more of an homage to "Lawnmover Man", but very clearly they didn't have the capability to what they actually wanted to do with the movie.

The best things are clearly Dina Meyer ("Starship Troopers": Dizzy) and the "Hot Garotte" lazer whip thing, why haven't more movies used that?

Clearly Keanu Reeves did his best to try to hold this thing together, but the writing isn't that great, despite have a pretty good story and world to it. It's really dated, but it's good enough I would actually like to see a reboot of this.

There isn't a lot to say: the production and execution fell short and it's just not worth going back to watch this one.

There's 320GB of data in Johnny's brain, but not much else.

[TheMarwood · 7/10 · 30 June 2014]

This silly cluttered cyberpunk landscape is woefully dated and really just a backdrop for a man on the run picture. Like a B noir, Johnny takes a job that finds himself in over his head, where that head of his is carrying 320gb of data(!) that the Yakuza wants to tear off his shoulders. Keanu Reeves and Dina Meyer add to the cheese with their bland presence and occasionally funny/bad acting and we get some weird scenery chewing from Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren, who is a Jesus freak bounty hunter also out for Johnny's head. Takeshi Kitano is wasted in a role that doesn't do much, except sit around waiting for others to retrieve his data and his casting seems motivated only for foreign sales. Ice-T plays the lead Lo-Tek, an anti-tech group trying to bring down the system and his role is practically the same (minus the kangaroo makeup) in his other 1995 sci-fi film Tank Girl. Even though Johnny Mnemonic is pretty damn stupid, it is entertaining no matter how misguided it may be and it is one misguided movie. There's a data decoding dolphin; some girl's soul stuck in a corporate computer system; a long and pointless opening credit scroll - since there's loads of expository dialogue explaining everything anyway; laser whips - which seems as dangerous for the user as the victim; and a trip inside the internet, complete with awesome mid 90s virtual reality effects - think Lawnmower Man fx, just slightly less embarrassing. Gibson and director Robert Longo damn the studio for re-editing the film before release, but I can't imagine this footage working no matter what was cut out or shifted around, but as it is, this is dumb pulpy fun.

A Film with Enormous--but Unrealized--Potential

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 27 August 2020]

This film begins in the near future with a plague known as "the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome" causing widespread damage to the economies of the world resulting in the major corporations assuming control over everything. And to further strengthen their grip on their spheres of power the corporations hire the Yakuza to ruthlessly enforce their control over all technological data to keep it away from their rivals. This secrecy subsequently produces a new method of espionage in which an electronically enhanced person stores vast amounts of data into his brain and is therefore able to move from one corporate sphere to another to deliver this information for a certain price. One such courier is "Johnny Mnemonic" (Keanu Reeves) who is offered a generous sum of money to download an extremely large program in Beijing and deliver it to another corporation in Newark. However, the data that he agrees to accept is many times larger than his storage capacity allows and as a result his life is put in serious jeopardy if he cannot have it extracted within a few days. Needless to say, the corporation he stole the data from desperately wants it back and immediately puts out a lucrative contract on his head-literally. To complicate matters even more, what he doesn't know is that his agent, "Ralfi" (Udo Kier) has betrayed him to the highest bidder and as a result he is forced to go underground where all manner of criminals and misfits are waiting for him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a film with enormous potential but was badly served by some of the rather ridiculous characters displayed--with the "Street Preacher" (Dolph Lundgren) being especially annoying. Likewise, the lack of chemistry between Johnny Mnemonic and his bodyguard "Jane" (Dina Meyer) was also quite noticeable. Be that as it my, as stated earlier this film had enormous potential. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to it to a great degree and as a result I rate is as only average.

Camp Prelude

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 24 July 2010]

Look, there is no arguing that this movie is dated and is rapidly becoming moreso. However, that does not change the fact that this cyberpunk gem stands firmly between Craig Baldwin's underground Spectres of the Spectrum and the Wachowski's mainstream hit The Matrix as a camp rebellion of digital overload in fetish costuming and grungy spectacle. Gibson provides the meat, Longo provides the gusto. From there, it's only a matter of wishing the acting was better and the graphics more advanced. However, digital effects had to develop somewhere between The Crow and Avatar. Hell, there's still an audience for this: why do you think cult filmgoers are turning out in droves for Repo: the Genetic Opera, arguably the musical version of this?

Keanu Reeves plays an unknown prelude to his Neo role via postlude to his Bill and Ted role. To me, this works. For others, I can see what their problem is. But even beyond that, you still have Takeshi Kitano and Henry Rollins to contend with, and they take to their roles without any hesitation, and the result is good. You also have the, in my mind always appealing, assets in radiowave revolutionaries who fight the corporate machine in dirty reverse-engineered hacker lairs while still finding time to put on fantastic make-up and pleather over mesh clothing, Yakuza gangsters with katanas, guns, and lazer-strengthened piano wire, and tripped out mercenaries looking for a client while desperately staving off a tweaked-out race against time. Oh, and hacker dolphins. YEAH YOU HEARD ME. Hacker dolphins.

So hate this movie if you want but this is the roots of all cyberpunk entertainment to me.

--PolarisDiB

Sad waste of potential

[Maziun · 3/10 · 28 December 2014]

The film is based on William Gibson's short story "Johnny Mnemonic" and also draws heavily on his later novel "Virtual Light". In this film, Keanu Reeves plays a man who smuggles data from cyberspace. 4 years later Keanu Reeves starred as a computer hacker who learns about "The Matrix".

William Gibson is the writer of this movie and tries to shoehorn several of his concepts into the "Johnny Mnemonic" movie. The differences will probably annoy Gibsons fans. The biggest problem is that the movie feels like a bunch of ideas thrown together with no real connection. This is a movie with Yakuza killers , fanatic priest , a data decoding dolphin; some girl's soul stuck in a corporate computer system and laser whips. Some of them are cool and work , but most of them don't work at all. The story doesn't really tell anything deep or interesting about the future world.

The movie is badly directed by Robert Longo who isn't a professional director , but a… painter (!). Keanu Reeves can't act and the other actors (including raper Ice-T) are on his level of bad acting. There is one surprisingly good performance here – Dolph Lundgren who plays fanatic priest. He's a colorful , funny and memorable character , even if he feels out of place here.

There are some cool CGI special effects sowing "what is going inside in the Internet" , even if they feel pointless. The action elements are weak .

I give it 2/10. Better watch "Strange days" instead.

Cyberpunk at its best and worst

[Playitagainsam · 9/10 · 8 March 2006]

I must start with a personal statement - I'm amazed at the silliness of those who bombastically declare this to be the worst movie of all times and so on... Really? Is it really that bad, worse than "Manos - The Hands of Fate" or "Cocoon - the Return"?

I think most of the people who diss this film fall, broadly, in three large categories: 1) those who are so attached to the original short story that they can't stand the idea of an eponymous film with a different vision (although, again, its Gibson himself who penned this script!) This is not "purism", but acting like brats - just like those who criticized the film "Resident Evil" for not "sticking closer to the original games". 2) then, there are those who have a personal dislike for Keanu Reeves, and they follow him over the 'net, criticizing him for "wooden acting". It doesn't matter to them that the Johnny character is exactly what Keanu portrays - an egotistic, self-absorbed bastard, who only cares about his posh clothes, cold Mexican beer and hookers (and there are already so many out there like him, in the real world!). Then 3) there are those who are simply too stupid to actually watch what's going on on the screen, because of personal convictions, education or background (i.e. those who mention Grenpeace and anti-capitalism as if they are capital crimes, or those who think PharmaKom is a Japanese company). I was particularly amused at the user who launched a furious diatribe against the idea of the Lo-Teks being so visible in the ruined bridge, despite the fact that the only time in which they actually identify themselves as the source of anti-establishment activities is the very end, when they also announce they'll be going off the air.

The list could go on. But this is supposed to be a review, not an answer to those who dislike the movie so vehemently.

I believe this is *the* film which, despite its occasional artistic shortcomings, connects "Blade Runner" to "The Matrix". It was a courageous endeavour, portraying an all-too possible near future, and reminded me of another picture, similarly vilified by simpletons who couldn't see beyond the surface - "Starship Troopers".

The sad fact is that the movie was mistreated, and what we ended by seeing on DVD in most of the world is not what the director intended. There is an alternative version (briefly mentioned on this site) which makes some significant changes, and it's available only in Japan.

First of all, the prologue is different and more poignant. Here it is, in this exact form:

"New century. Age of terminal capitalism.

The armored towers of multinational corporations rise above the ruins of the democracies that gave them birth.

Soldiers of the Yakuza defend them.

Hackers, data-pirates, LoTek media rebels are the enemy, burrowing like rats in the walls of cyberspace.

A new plague convulses the cities: Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, incurable, fatal, epidemic, bringing fear and misery as old as the species itself.

But the most precious data is sometimes entrusted to elite private agents, wetwired to function as human data banks.

Mnemonic couriers."

In this day and age, in the post-Enron, post-9/11 world, all the above doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

The film is more somber in the Japanese version. We see more of Takahashi's inner desolation, and there are some added bits of gore and violence in the Beijing fight. Johnny himself is much more of a corporate puppet - we see it from a longer dialogue with the hooker in the hotel room, or in the scene in which he acquires the memory doubler. We see J-Bone sticking a syringe in the dolphin, sadistically commenting how the creature is a junkie.

There is also more realism involved (Spoiler alert!): the hero doesn't somehow miraculously recover his childhood memories after being connected to Jones. And we see how Johnny, exhausted, decides to get it over with, despite a dire warning that the "looping" procedure through the dolphin will most certainly kill him. That is a moment of pure redemption, sadly lost in the official European and North-American film versions.

Last but not least, the extended cut gives more screen time to Lundgren's "mad preacher" character. We see him sermonizing in his church, in front of a rapt audience, using words and gestures that are scarily familiar to anyone who has watched an Evangelical TV channel. He discovers along the way that Johnny's "load" is the miraculous cure for NAS, and he covets it for himself - he even shouts he wants to "become (like) God." It's easy to see why "some circles" decided to eliminate all this potentially uncomfortable content... but we ended up with a caricature, instead of a cunning and shrewd film villain.

Johnny, we barely knew you.

Great Concepts need better visual effects

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 9 October 2013]

It's the year 2021, and the whole world is suffering from the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS). Johnny Mnemonic (Keanu Reeves) has an implanted memory chip, and much of his memory erased to create space to store computer data. He's been hired to transport important data while trying to escape from the Yakuza. On his journey, he's helped by bio-engineered muscle Jane (Dina Meyer), and anti-government group led by J-Bone (Ice-T).

The similarities to The Matrix is astounding. I'm not saying there's any copying, but I'm sure the Wachowski brothers had a lot of this in mind when they cast Keanu Reeves. He's basically playing the same cool emotionless hero. There are guys in black trench coats. They're dealing a lot of issues with computers. There is a lot of Asian motif. In the end, they are not really the same. I like to call this the trial run for the Matrix. You can see some of the problems. The budget isn't big enough. The real effects are too clunky. The computer FX and graphics would vastly improve in the Matrix. Overall there are all kinds of ideas in this movie that a real world setting just won't do it justice. The story is simple enough. It's a quest and a road story. There are good guys and bad guys. What this movie really need is a better visual effects department.

Information Overload

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 23 June 2022]

You know you're getting old when you've caught up with films you saw first time round set in what then seemed the distant future; like this piece of feverish cyberpunk that predicted a pandemic in 2021. Thank goodness something that far-fetched couldn't really happen!

Several Gibson concepts thrown together

[ParanoidAndroidMarvin · 24 May 2003]

Johnny Mnemonic could have been a wonderful movie, had William Gibson not strayed so far from his original story when writing the screenplay. Having painter Robert Longo direct the movie, the first and to this date only full length feature he has directed, was probably not the best idea either. While Longo may present the occasional intriguing image, his inexperience shows in other areas. The acting is terrible for the most part, with Henry Rollins taking the cake for worst performance. Reeves, contrary to popular opinion, is alright and has a few great scenes, most notably his angry breakdown on the pile of garbage under the bridge.

Having read Johnny Mnemonic several times the character of Jane is one of the most annoying factors of the movie. In the story the character is Molly Millions, a confident, tough as nails mercenary who sports several augmentations, most important being retractable blades under her fingernails. However, they had to change the character since Molly Millions is also a main character in Gibson's book Neuromancer, and another company owed the film production rights for that book, including the character of Molly. But they could have made Jane more like Molly. Instead, she's as insecure as Johnny, and he spends more time protecting her than she does him, which is supposed to be her job.

There are other little inaccuracies in the movie, such as the Magnetic Dog Sisters. In the story they are the door guards at the club and Johnny claims that they are "bad news in a tussle." In the movie they are Ralfi's bodyguards and portrayed as pathetic and outdated rather than dangerous. The story doesn't have anything about NAS, that's all a fabrication to fill space for the movie.

Gibson seems to try to shoehorn several of his concepts into the Johnny Mnemonic movie. Instead of living in the rafters high above the streets, as they do in the story, the Lo Teks live on an old bridge. Gibson has people living on the Golden Gate Bridge in his books Virtual Light and All Tomorrow's Parties. The bartender Hooky, at the club where Johnny meets Ralfi, is an approximation of Ratz, a bartender from the book Neuromancer. Johnny never accesses the matrix (the internet) in the story, but he does in the movie, for no apparent reason other than allowing director Longo to show off some CGI special effects.

Longo also chooses to mimic Blade Runner in the opening scenes, and later on one character tells another that it's "time to die", a famous line from BR. I thought this was unnecessary, and cheapens the movie, as blatantly ripping of Blade Runner, whether it's for the purpose of homage or not, is the signature of several B-Movies, which is sadly what Johnny Mnemonic ends up being anyway.

I still like the movie. It does have some good elements to it, and if you're a fan of Gibson, you should see it. It's better than Abel Ferrera's terrible adaptation of New Rose Hotel, because it at least portrays Gibsons technological world. I hope that Johnny Mnemonic is remade one day because it is a great story. I'd ask Reeves to play Johnny again, because I like him in the role. Gibson's writing is so descriptive, that a screenplay should follow the story as literally as possible. Ideally, I think that Johnny Mnemonic would work out as a short film, something no longer than an hour. It is a short story after all, and adding filler to extend the time certainly didn't work the first time.

A Severe Disappointment

[lefty-17 · 2/10 · 5 April 1999]

A terrible movie, and a hack adaptation of a decent story by William Gibson -- the saddest aspect of it all is that this will never be done right. Keanu Reeves does his typical "acting" job -- his emotional range goes all the way from "wooden" to "histrionic", with virtually no stops in between. The fact that Mr. Reeves fails to die, graphically and horribly, is another disappointment. Should have been titled "Johnny Moronic"

UNDERRATED CULT-MOVIE...EXPLORING INTERNET INFORMATION...FIRST-WAVE OF CYBER-PUNK

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 17 August 2021]

Author William Gibson, a Leader in the "Cult of Cyber-Punk" World, Wrote the Screen-Play from His Own Story.

Kneau Reeves, in an Exercise Exploring the Possibilities of Becoming a Better Actor,

Shouts Lines with Over Gesture.

More Lessons in the Art of Acting Needed Forth-With.

The Computer Graphics, circa 1995, are State of the Art, and Look Like Painting with an Electric Brush.

It has a Sort of Retro-Charm Today.

The Story is a Simple One.

Reeves Mnemonic, has a Brain that has been "Wet-Wired" with a Device to Store Memory.

This Makes Him a Cyber-Courier.

He Overloads on the Data Causing Him Impending Death and Immediate Convulsions.

The Yakuzi have been Hired to Retrieve Reeves' Head (literally), because the Information is in High Demand from "Take Over the World" Types.

The Info Contains a Cure for a Current Spreading Virus NAS, that was Caused by Electronic Pollution from all of Society's Plug-In Demands.

Dolph Lundgren Shows Up as an Apocalyptic Preacher Stereotype and Almost Steals the Show from the Real-Life Actors,

Chanting "Come to Jesus" as He Ministers Death and Destruction.

An Underrated, Little Appreciated Stab at Turning the Quickly Evolving Internet and Computers that was Very New in 1995.

Certainly Not as Good as the Sum of its Parts. Some Things Resonate and are Prophetic.

But Some Things Miss the Mark of Predicting the Future Technology.

It's Loads of Fun and Stuff and Tries Hard at its Dystopian Vision.

It Smacks of too Much Hollywood and Not Enough from the Emerging Silicon Valley.

As an Entertainment, a Relic Worth a Watch.

A truly AMAZINGLY BAD film, props to everyone involved.

[bbgrlshock44 · 1/10 · 8 October 2006]

Keanu Reeves acting performance in this film was one of the worst ever in Hollywood HISTORY.

This mindblowingly, disastrous film combines horrendous acting, horrible directing, horrible dialogue, horrible EVERYTHING. Johnny Mnemonic is worse than a B-movie. I remember wanting to see this in the theaters when I was a kid, I probably would have liked it back then. Having seen this recently, how was this even released in the theaters?

I'm a fan of cheesy movie (and the early 90's was filled with cheese) so I was able to sit through this...I did enjoy it somewhat thanks to it being unintentionally funny. Let's not kid ourselves though--

Johnny Mnemonic is one of THE worst movies of the 90's. Batman and Robin has company.

btw, Ice-T is truly a no-talent a$$clown.

I want room service!!!!!!!!!!

[reddiemurf81 · 6/10 · 15 December 2020]

Lol,, cheesy scifi from the mid 90s. What more do you need to know?

Johnny Mnemonic

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 27 August 2023]

Perhaps back in 1995 the year 2021 did seem like it was an aeon away, but now that we are all actually here, this film really does struggle to resonate on just about every level. Keanu Reeves is a good looking star, but that's about the height of it. The scenario is nothing new - mankind is dependent on technology and about to be subject to a criminally backed corporation's attempts to dominate us. This time, it falls to our hero and his semi-luddite pals to access a micro-chip embedded in his brain to save humanity from oblivion. It's quickly paced, to be fair, and the star does an adequate job trying to keep one step ahead of his deadly, if not terribly effective, Yakuza pursuers but the dialogue is flat (and not terribly audible) and the supporting cast - drawn from a collection of B-listers, musicians and featuring the discobolus-like Dolph Lundgren as baddie-in-chief just follows a join the dots pattern. Maybe it's unfair to look back on it after 25 years with today's eyes - but sadly, like so many of these films, neither the talent not the visuals really stand the test of time at all well. It wasn't great then, it certainly isn't now.

Great storyline, outdated special effects...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 27 June 2022]

I remember having seen the 1995 movie "Johnny Mnemonic" once before, but I honestly don't recall it as an impressive movie. So as I had the opportunity to watch it again here in 2022 I did sit down to revisit the movie.

And while "Johnny Mnemonic" definitely shows signs of aging, it is actually still an entertaining movie. I have to say that the storyline was interesting and there was a great cyberpunk feel to it. I was definitely enjoying the storyline, as written by William Gibson, despite of all the rubbish with the Loteks and the laughable costumes that people were wearing throughout the course of the movie. It was a bit difficult to take the cybernetically enhanced dolphin serious though.

The movie is starring Keanu Reeves and Dina Meyer, and also have the likes of Udo Kier, Takeshi Kitano, Denis Akiyama, Henry Rollins and Dolph Lundgren on the cast list. Personally I am no fan of the rapper turned actor Ice-T, even the name alone is laughable, so I wasn't impressed with him being on the cast list. I will say that Keanu Reeves was actually nicely cast for this movie and carried it quite well.

"Johnny Mnemonic" is definitely well-worth watching, if you can live with the antiquated CGI effects and the laughable costumes.

My rating of director Robert Longo's 1995 movie lands on a six out of ten stars.

Can't Decide What's The Worst!

[scotts-19960 · 2/10 · 9 April 2022]

Okay, to be fair, I just watched this in 2022, almost 30 years after this film was made, and a year after its dystopian future world of 2021 has passed. I think I've avoided this film for so long due to its negative reviews, but I like Keanu Reeves. Still, those negative were not unfounded.

The screenplay by internet icon Gibson is terrible, forcing Reeves, Meyer, and other actors to come off as stilted and unnatural; unfortunately, this deficit is not overcome by either the actors nor the weak direction. The special effects are truly special, and not in a good way. I'm still debating with myself whether the screenwriter's character of a dolphin, or the director's depiction of a dolphin was worse.

Underrated Sci-Fi Cyberpunk decent Action Flick from the 90's

[ivo-cobra8 · 9/10 · 30 July 2015]

My review of the underrated cyberpunk film, Johnny Mnemonic(1995) starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Denis Akiyama, Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Barbara Sukowa, and Udo Kier. Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 American cyberpunk sci-fi action film directed by Robert Longo. It was loosely based on the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson.Keanu Reeves plays the title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. The film portrays Gibson's dystopia view of the future with the world dominated by mega corporations and with strong East Asian influences. Seriously this movie kicks ass. Keanu Reeves and Dina Meyer are awesome. I love when An assassin try's to kill Johnny he aim his gun on his back and says "Time to die" and Johnny says "Time" and he switch's his watch and the bomb explodes. Dina Meyer as body guard Jane throws a grenade and kills a few assassins. Dina Meyer also co started in her latest movie in the 90's Starship Troopers unfortunately her character in that movie was killed. I really love Dolph Lundgren as Street Preacher "It's Jesus time!" "HALT SINNERS!" Dolph shows up after next 45.mins. in the movie I wish he would have showed earlier. He's acting is still pretty good. Ice-T and Udo Kier did a great performance in their roles.

This movie is very underrated an solid Action flick I wish there would be more Action flick like are this today. In my opinion The Matrix and Johnny Mnemonic are my top 2 best Action Sci-fi flicks from Keanu Reeves of the 90's. Movies like are this don't exist today anymore.

The film was shot on location in Canada, with Toronto and Montreal filling in for the film's Newark, New Jersey and Beijing settings. A number of local monuments, including Toronto's Union Station and Montreal's skyline and Jacques Cartier Bridge, feature prominently.

The film premiered in Japan first on April 15, 1995, with a longer version (103 Min's) that is closer to the director's cut and features a previously composed score by Mychael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Japanese star Takeshi Kitano and Dolph Lundgren notably. Val Kilmer was originally set to star, but left the project after he was offered the role of Batman in Batman Forever.The character Molly Millions, from the original story, was changed to Jane for the film. They are very similar characters except that Molly had retractable razor blades under her fingernails and augmented vision. It is believed that the change was due to the "Molly" character being attached to the rights for any possible future Neuromancer film adaptation.

The script was rumored to have been dumped on the doorstep of Keanu Reeves' house, a tactic that piqued his interest and led to him accepting the role of Johnny.

B.J. Rack, one of the producers, is still credited although he left the project due to creative differences with director Robert Longo First of all, the prologue is different and more poignant.

Here it is, in this exact form:

"New century. Age of terminal capitalism.

The armored towers of multinational corporations rise above the ruins of the democracies that gave them birth.

Soldiers of the Yakuza defend them.

Hackers, data-pirates, LoTek media rebels are the enemy, burrowing like rats in the walls of cyberspace.

A new plague convulses the cities: Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, incurable, fatal, epidemic, bringing fear and misery as old as the species itself.

But the most precious data is sometimes entrusted to elite private agents, wet wired to function as human data banks.

Mnemonic couriers."

10/10

It's not "Strange Days" or "Until the End of the World" (5 hr. vers.), but ...

[SmileyMcGrouchpantsJrEsqIII · 7/10 · 3 July 2018]

... it's still a shot in the arm.

Before it wears out its welcome in the last 1/2 hour (too many set-ups where people "break" and run off as though dance routine-ing, when someone had the upper hand on the other, guns incl.), this is a rich body of material come to life with recognizable actors who, one would think, would want to be part of the next generation of art/culture/thought: Ice-T and Henry Rollins in a William Gibson movie? Lo Teks brought up out of the story (et al.) and located in a milieu where they could broadcast back, using technology that, by then (1995), would be familiar to filmgoers? Methinks there was more than a sly hint or two up Gibson's sleeve as towards pushing the audience a bit "left-of-center" and more towards a sustainable future that didn't entail asking corporations in their benevolence or governments in their competence and infinite wisdom to look after us. Radical chic don't work if it ain't "got that swing," though, and this movie's a hoot and a holler ("All ... I ... want ... is: laundered .... shirts, a (hand gesture) club sandwich ... and colllld Mexican beer," or however the line goes -- yeah buddy, that's how they get ya!), and fun for people who're willing to climb on board.

I'm surprised I regretted missing it more than I thought I would ... 2018's a little late to catch up, but as they say better than never. Now go read Neuromancer before I look at you funny and you start stammering out excuses.

THIS MEGABITES

[Mitch-38 · 1/10 · 23 January 2001]

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* This critique will be short, attempt to be creative and guaranteed painless, in other words, everything this reprehensible film was NOT. Keanu Reeves, having just hit the ground running from a hit (SPEED), crashes and burns in this turkey involving cyber information carriers in the far off future. Johnny takes on the beat-to-death cliche of a company man doing "one last job." He jets off to Beijing where the formula to cure a pandemic disease is downloaded into his brain. Without a doubt, the only active mind in this whole production.

International baddies, in the form of (who else?) a colossal Japanese conglomerate want the data at any cost. The cliches are too many to keep up with in this badly edited fiasco.

Reeves character goes strictly by the numbers formula. He starts out apathetic and self-serving. Gets a girl, and somehow a conscience. Feels bad and wants to sock it to the bad guys. (yawn). At least the special effects made up a little for the tedious acting. Reeves looks positively bored, and probably could have phoned this one in from the corner callbox.

Ice-T, who seems justifiably embarrassed to be in this, is wasted as an intelligent, street smart renegade. In JOHNNY MNEMONIC, he's relegated to playing the supportive, second banana. An interesting twist, and better casting choice, would've been to star Ice-T in this vehicle. Just a thought.

This two hour exercise in masochism finally concludes, when a quick thinking, telekinetic porpoise saves the day. Pay up your dues to Greenpeace, and consider yourself warned.