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45
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71
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Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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71
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44
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75
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55
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49
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65
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xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
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43
Women in Trouble
69
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Dark City
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Alex Proyas (also story)
Lem Dobbs
David S. Goyer
Directed by: Alex Proyas
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 20, 1998
DVD: July 28, 1998
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violent images and some sexuality
Starring Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, and Colin Friels
Alex Proyas directs this futuristic thriller about a man (Sewell) waking up to find he is wanted for brutal murders he doesn't remember. Haunted by mysterious beings who stop time and alter reality, he seeks to unravel the riddle of his identity. [New Line]
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
If you don't fall in love with it, you've probably never fallen in love with a movie, and never will.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A great visionary achievement, a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like "Metropolis" and "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
It is as cool and distant as the planet the Strangers come from. But, Lord, is Dark City a wonder to see. [2 March 1998]
New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein
Full of provocative concepts, but, like most films that attack such metaphysical concerns head-on, things have become a tad too jumbled by the end to be altogether satisfying. It's a problem built into the subject matter...This all said, Dark City is immensely entertaining, as well as visually dazzling.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Andrea C. Basora
Proyas floods the screen with cinematic and literary references ranging from Murnau and Lang to Kafka and Orwell, creating a unique yet utterly convincing world.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
Obliged to go from lost soul to demigod, Sewell's performance is as fascinating as Proyas's mystical vision.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Dark City has as stunning a visual texture as that of any movie that I've seen...Visually, this film isn't just impressive, it's a tour de force.
Read Full Review >USA Today Marshall Fine
Fascinating, visionary filmmaking. With its amber-tinged palette and its distinctively dystopian view of life, it may be the most unique-looking film we've seen in ages...[but] defies logic and makes frightening and unexpected leaps.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Proyas' movie lacks a truly rich or compelling story -- although the city secret is certainly a rich and compelling idea. All too often, Dark City seems a great production design in search of a movie, an ultimate modern film noir pastiche, in which the images are so strong they overpower the drama. [27 Feb 1998]
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The story is dark and often violent, but it's told with a remarkable sense of visual energy and imagination.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
So relentlessly trippy in a fun-house sort of way that it could very easily inspire a daredevil cult of moviegoers who go back again and again to experience its mind-bending twists and turns. Although its story doesn't add up when you analyze it afterward, the movie does take you on a visually arresting ride that offers many unsettling surprises right up to a sentimental sunburst of an ending that has a paranoid undertone.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
It's full of visual flash, and can be enjoyed as a giddy ride, but you would waste your time trying to puzzle out the nuances of the story.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
An almost really good movie...risks leaving the viewer feeling like one of the bewildered automatons that move through the plots.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
[Proyas] hasn't yet learned how to enliven his characters as fully as his sets. Part of this is structural (somnolence is built into the script), but the greater fault lies with Proyas' direction of his performers, most of whom deliver their lines in a strangulated whisper.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's all about the amazing look, cobbled together from an astonishingly evocative range of sources: "Nosferatu" and "Mad Love," "Brazil" and "Metropolis," a haunted mosaic of bits and pieces of movie memories.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Anthony Miele
Hurt and Sewell are both quite believable as their respective characters, while Sutherland's performance is lacking in more than a few catagories.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr
It's a little short on coherence and long on comic-book sensationalism -- dig the hokey, climactic Battle of the Minds between the hero and a cadaverous Mr. Big -- but there's no denying the nightmarish pull of the film's aesthetic.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
What they have done is taken a few second-hand ideas from noir and speculative fiction and mixed them in occasionally striking ways, even if, in the end, the result isn't all that much fun.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Looks like a million bucks (or rather, a million bucks gone to compost), but at its dark heart it's a tedious, bewildering affair, lovely to look at but with all the substance of a dissipating dream.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times John Anderson
Proyas is trying simultaneously to create a pure thriller and sci-fi nightmare along with his tongue-in-cheek critique of artifice. And this doesn't work out quite so well.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
One reason this production-design vehicle is so incredibly boring is that the characters keep having to explain the plot to one another.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ramon L gave it a9:
Visually stunning and extremely good sci-fi storyline. It's like "Brazil" meets "The Matrix".
James K. gave it a9:
It was entertaining and deep, it also looks utterly superb.
john e. gave it a10:
Fantastic visuals that still look good even compared to todays standards. I Have no complaints it is what it is, a piece of good inspired artwork. What more could you want?
Ender W gave it an8:
Great movie. Two of my biggest gripes about the movie are supposedly going to be fixed in the director's cut (which should hopefully be released soon): - The unnecessary intro at the beginning which ruins the plot. - The shallow exploration of many of the ideas in the movie (Proyas stated that the director's cut adds a good 10-20 minutes of extra scenes that further develop and explore the plot and story).
Ben R. gave it a7:
I have to say the writing was excellent, very twisty, and it keeps you interested, guessing for more. But Proyas's directing was waaaaay to iver-the-top. Great writing, see it for the plot alone.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Good.
David W. gave it a10:
Visionary filmaking a wonder to see. I loved it !
