Cypher (2002)

I'll admit that "Cypher" almost lost me in the first 15 minutes - it dragged a bit, Jeremy Northam's character was almost completely uninteresting, I found Lucy Liu a turn off, and I wasn't looking forward to investing the time or the mental energy to watch these uncompelling characters work through whatever huge plastic hassle the plot was going to provide.But I knew the director was capable of interesting, quirky work ("Cube" and "Splice" take the viewer in some novel and uncomfortable directions), so I came back to this movie the next day and picked up where I'd left off, and (as they say), my patience was rewarded.We (the audience) seem to up to our nostrils these days with movies about evil all powerful monolithic corporations and their various shenanigans, but as far as these things go, "Cyper" is pretty fair. Things look pretty good when they need to (for instance, Digicorp's huge underground "datavault"), and the depiction of how the brain-washing is managed is really creepy, and the action sequences manage to be reasonably exciting and grounded in physical reality.Also, Northam shows his acting chops as his character morphs quite believably from a nerdy salary man to a far more dynamic and impressive man of action in the course of events. His performance is worth the price of admission. I can't really say the same about Liu (I'm not a big fan, although I liked her in "Kill Bill" and "Charlie's Angels"), but she's a pro, and she does that thing she does as usual, and it works OK.I guessed the ending about 2/3rds of the way into the movie when it became apparent that the plot was really about the identity of the mysterious "Brookfield", but that's OK. And the director, for once, actually let us have a relatively happy ending.Good movie, worth your time if you have a couple hours to spare and like this kind of thing.

This isn't so much a review as a note on the visual style since it wasn't presented objectively in other reviews. If you love movies with stark visual elements like Aronofsky's PI, Cube, or Dark City, stop reading here, you'll probably love this movie.There was a time I savored the effect of high stylization that nears artwork, but I now find its presence a distraction to the story. That said, the visual elements here are so strong and so present that if you're not a fan, it's an impossible movie to watch. I thought the cast with two Hollywood actors would make it borderline Hollywood fare; it decidedly is not.For example, the opening sequence is shot in almost black and white, with actors staged unrealistically far apart with a very unnatural acting style, circa a comic book style. The black-and-white visual theme continues into the following scenes, as the protagonist seems to be the only living element moving freely. This is clearly a directing decision, and one that the viewer has to reconcile to enjoy. I believe the film would have benefited if it had, say, the same feel and the performers were allowed the same acting range as Truffaut's Fahrenheit-451. As it is the film makes sense that it was released for the anime-heavy Japanese audience.

Let me just start out the box by saying that this movie bears no similarities whatsoever to the movie The Matrix. Heard someone say it did; it does not. What it IS is, IMHO, perhaps the coolest spy flick of all time. The story line is intriguing, the plot twists and turns unpredictably, the anti-hero wins, sort-of, in a way that you'll never see coming.Jeremy Northam gives an excellent performance, as his character transforms from a nerdy uptight white guy to a gritty, no-holds-barred super-spy of the type that you do not want to have mad at you. Bond has nothing on this guy. If you've seen The Hitcher, the real one with C. Howel Thomas, you'll have an idea what I mean. Sadly, Lucy Liu, as the heroine, gives a decidedly less impressive performance. There were several scenes that I would not have settled for had I been directing. But she did do well enough for the most part, so it doesn't detract from the movie as a whole.It's a shame this little gem didn't get greater play, it really does deserve more. My advice to you is definitely do invest the time watching it; you'll be glad you did.

Cypher starts out with an interesting premise -- corporate espionage -- but then attempts to add twists & turns and layer upon layer, before pretty soon you have no idea what is going on, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys...what you're watching at all.The (apparently) deliberate monochromatic visual tones, pedestrian acting and dull CGI sequences don't help either. By the end I was rooting only for the film to end so I could get more space on my DVR.A film with some similarity, far better done, is Inception.My rating should really be 5.5/10. Hard to understand what why so many folks rated it so highly -- one of the few times IMDb ratings have steered me wrong.