the director of the crow ( 1994 ) returns with this happy epic , set in a world where the sun is always shining and everyone is cheerful . only kidding . as you could guess by the title , dark city is a dark , depressive , but somewhat entertaining picture . set sometime in the future , the film begins when we see john murdoch ( sewell ) wake up with no memory . he can't remember his wife emma ( connely ) or the murders that he has been framed for . and when he encounters strange , tall people wearing silly hats trying to kill him ( called 'the strangers' ) , he tries to get answers . with the help of dr . scheriber ( sutherland ) he tries to work out what the hell is going on . hot on his tail on this time is world weary cop inspector frank bumstead ( hurt . ) despite the dark setting , and the depressive mood the picture has , dark city is entertaining . the first thing that makes the film fun is the cast . director alex proyas has managed to assemble a pretty good cast for what is essentially a very silly sci-fi movie . rufus sewell does a good job looking confused , and also does the action scenes all right aswell . sutherland appears to be having fun as the doctor , even if he is overacting just a little . his delivery of his lines really started to annoy me , though . ( he pauses every two words . ) more worringly , he's looking more like his father every day . connelly fine in her role , although it dosen't require much . her singing voice , by the way , is anita kelsey , so don't expect any connelly hits in the chart's any time soon . william hurt is not bad , even though he dosen't really appear to be trying . also popping up is ian richardson and richard o'brian as two of the strangers . both are good english actors , and watching them dress up in the most stupid costumes , blurting out lines which a b movie screenwriter would be proud of is actually quite amusing ( if you're british , that is . ) then again , o'brien dressed up stupid in the rocky horror picture show ( 1975 ) so looking silly is no stranger to him . like the crow , the film is directed like a music video with a large budget . proyas uses fast cuts , quick zooms and a dance soundtrack to great effect , as they manage ( along with the acting ) to drown out the poor dialogue ( written by lem dobbs , david s . goyer and proyas himself . ) the fast paced directing helps the movie bound along . the dialogue just slows it down . it's clumsy , stupid , and in the end , just boring . the best thing about dark city , however , is the look of the film . the city is impressive , it's look the place the crow ( and deckard from bladerunner , 1982 ) would live . the special effects are also impressive , especially the ones in the overblown finale . dark city is a definite case of style of content . if you get bored of the movie , just sit back and enjoy the great scenery , the great directing , and the soundtrack . this things alone probably make dark city worth watching . it may not be the best film of the year , but dark city is worth watching , and is ultimately just good fun . 
