What's the Deal with Dark City

It's a sleeper that many people missed. I got it after hearing about it via comments on THE MATRIX - I'd never heard of it before, either. Roger Ebert's commentary track will further add to your appreciation of the film. Plus, it's anamorphic, even though the DVD case only says "widescreen," as I recall. If you like this genre, get THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, a similar movie that was also overlooked by many: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...s=dvd&n=507846

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I like Dark City. I like Buffy. I see no influence from Dark City to Buffy.

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Probably the latter. I saw it long ago and really enjoyed the film.

I for one was on top of this when it first came out -- got the DVD when it was first released and it became a favorite. I generally like this sort of thing and would have alerted to it even without the enthusiastic embrace of Ebert who did something I thought quite unusual at the time, which was to put his commentary track on the DVD. I guess it seemed like the equivalent of a network news anchor concluding the nightly broadcast by endorsing a presidential candidate. I'll have to revisit the soundtrack, but at the time I recall thought of it as state of the art.

One of my favorite films. I only own about 12 DVDs, and this is one of them.

If you like Dark City I second the comment by Eweiss to also check out The Thirteenth Floor. It is unfortunate that gems like these are often overlooked due to the hype over A Big Studio Release Film(s) that comes out about the same time. Thank goodness for DVD!


Richard Fogg

I believe Ebert made Dark City his number one movie of that year. You can't always trust his judgment but he sure got that one right. Not even his promotion made it a big hit, though.

I saw this one in the theater as well, but I saw little promotion for it when it was released and it opened to about $5 million if I recall. The real reason that I saw it in the first place was because it was done by the director of The Crow which I was a big fan of.


Wow was I pleasantly surprised. Fantastic movie. One of my top 5 of all-time and I have seen it dozens of time. I'm surprised you've never heard of it though, this movie has developed a pretty big following over the years. Ebert did name it his "Best movie of the Year" in 1988 and he definitely got that one right, though I remember that Gene Siskel disagreed. Ebert's commentary is great so be sure to listen to that as well.


I was not a fan of Thirteenth Floor. Very boring in my opinion.

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Design influence - The Gentlemen from Hush for example.

By the way, New Line thinks so highly of Dark City and it's cult following that it was on the list of titles to be released in the first wave of HD-DVD at the end of the year. So if you are thinking about purchasing Dark City, you might want to wait a few more months.

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I know that mine also has the Fullscreen version. I don't know if it's unmatted or cropped. I haven't seen it on our 80" DIY 4:3 screen (X1 PJ) yet so I'll have to revisit this favorite. (Fullscreen Classic films are really a treat on a BIG screen - we sit 8 - 10 feet away, just beyond SDE )


And maybe I'll try "THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR". I thought it was a slasher/horror flick. Or a film that might be as bad (to me) as the remake of "The Haunting". (The original is still great, IMO)

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I knew that was exactly what you were going to say. Never seen a Cenobite before, huh?

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/24500/24905_w.jpg

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Although, I paid only $6 including shipping from DDD. Ebert's commentary is excellent and illuminating, and there's no guarantee that it'll also be on the HD-DVD.

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Actually, Ebert made mention of that, saying they need to give Proyas the reigns. But, after trying to get Aranofsky (Pi, Requim for a Dream) they got Nolan (Memento).

Ebert has gone to the University of Colorado annually to spend a few days discussing a movie in detail. I heard (maybe on his commentary track) that Dark City was his choice for one of these sessions. If Dark City was his topic at a seminar, it would explain the well thought-out commentary on the DVD.

aren't those characters a little bit too much of a rip of the Cenobytes of Hellraiser? Either that or vice versa


Love the movie, just can't help the similarity between those two archetypes

I do like both this movie and 13th Floor, though I prefer the ending in Dark City to how 13th Floor decided to conclude.

As you can tell by the third image down I really liked the movie. It's a great rollercoaster ride that leaves you wondering about all of the questions it didn't answer.