At the time of this review The Matrix wasn't out on video cassette yet. Damn. Plus, it was a good movie. Double damn.

The first time I saw Johnny Mnemonic I hadn't read any Gibson or other cyberpunk authors yet so the movie was just plain confusing. Now, years and many books later, I can see that it, like Dune, probably just bit off more than it could chew.

While Johnny's Earth is our Earth, it's undergone such a transformation from the leaps forward in technology that it's almost unrecognizable. Much the same way a person from 1899 would be lost in our Internet jargon filled reality, average movie viewers are going to be hopelessly lost without the proper amount of time to situate themselves in Johnny's world. Unfortunately, in Hollywood, time is money and in the movies, time spent situating yourself is usually pretty damn boring. And so we have an action film mentality tacked onto a philosophical musing on the harmful effects of over mechanizing and the incredibly strong role that childhood plays on our humanity.

That's not to say that action flicks can't have philosophical themes (see The Matrix), it's just that it's damn hard to do well. Director Robert Longo and writer William Gibson should at least be given props for trying.

But enough rambling.

John Smith (Keanu Reeves), information courier extraordinaire, makes a pickup from some very nervous types who overload his storage implant causing data seepage into the rest of his brain. The 'product' is a time bomb and he knows that he must download it before it kills him. However, before he can even get out of the place, a group of Yakuza assassins, hired by a giant pharmaceutical corporation, kill everyone. Except Johnny, of course.

On his way out he manages to snag part of the retrieval code and decides to make the drop anyway with the information he's been given. Dead end after dead end and with the help of Jane (Dina Meyer), a bodyguard for hire, he finally ends up with a group known as the Lotek, headed by J-Bone (Ice T), who despise the amoral international corporations and do everything to undermine them. It turns out that inside his noggin, Johnny has the cure for a disease that the pharmaceutical corporation has been making millions from by selling an expensive 'treatment' for it. They are desperate to destroy the evidence of the cure and keep on raking in the bucks.

Our hero Johnny has to find a way to get the information out of his head, out into the public, and stay alive as both turn out to be equally dangerous.

DROOL FACTOR: Keanu's first scene involves him waking up pale, sporting a really bad hairdo and looking like he'd been hitting the fast food a little too hard. It doesn't get any better.

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: Maybe it's just my ASPCA leanings, but seeing Jones the dolphin all jacked up gave me the willies. A couple of sliced bodies, some hacked off limbs. Nothing all that serious.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Dina Meyer (Jane), the only reason I'd suffer through Starship Troopers again, kicks all kinds of ass.

Johnny Mnemonic is available on video

-- Linda M. Najera