Prelude to Johnny Mnemonic

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Brought to you by Johnny Pneumatic. Keanu Reeves and Rosmand Pike gets trapped in an annoying steampunk world and gets his armed replaced with a drill (just go with it).

Its time for us to finally see what the Internet looks like from the inside with 1995's Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves and Dina Meyer, with fun appearances of Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Udo Kier and Ice-T doesn't screw it up!

Streaming Do's and Don'ts

• The Lost Boys - Netflix
• The Howling V: The Rebirth - Netflix (no longer availabe, bummer)
• Cyborg - Netflix

Good Neighbor, Bad Neighbor

• Mr. Anderson (Not "The One", but Neo before he takes the red pill) - The Matrix
• Ted "Theodore" Logan - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
• Officer Jack Travor - Speed

About Johnny Mnemonic - Movie Information

Sam's Boring Bullshit

I have chosen Jonny Mnemonic for 2 very specific reasons:

Item 1: 

It will be the Stinker Madness debut of one Keanu Reeves. The spelling of Keanu Reeves does not create a grammar alert in Microsoft Word. That is when you know that you are a big fucking deal, when Microsoft puts you in the dictionary. Keanu Reeves is the acting version of the mediocre quarterback of the 70s, 80s and 90s. In today’s NFL, teams won’t sit through 7 years of their starter having a 60 passer rating. In the 60s, 70s and 80s that crap happened all the time.  I am looking at you Trent Dilfer. Though the possibly talented Mr. Reeves is certainly no Dilfer he is a bit of a Vinnie T. People remember Testaverde for the Jets and the Midnight Miracle. They forget about the previous 8 years where he was painfully under-performing at every stop. But were better for letting Vinnie figure it out on Sundays and we are better for letting Keanu figure out how to act after being a Hollywood star for like 9 years. I am being generous here. I am calling Speed a fine performance. I think it is though and I think it is also the point when he started pulling his own weight on screen. I wonder why he worked out so nice in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, that may be the real Reeves, who knows. He also had an anomalous performance in My Own Private Idaho, as Gus Van Sant was able to do something with him. From Speed on he seemed to have realized that he was in movies. I would venture to guess that there is a mile of film on the cutting room floor of post takes from Point Break where Busey turns to him and say’s; “You know you’re in the movie right?” and he responds; “Yeah”, which promotes a “Huh” from Busey. This is the film following Speed in his filmography, and though he realizes he is in the movie, there are some kinks that are still getting worked out with the whole acting thing. I think the finest delivery he has ever given is in this film when his character snaps and wishes for creature comforts. There are some other moments in here where you think he is going to revert to the Keanu of Babes in Toyland and Little Buddha. Oddly, his nickname, “The Wall” was given to him for outstanding performance as a hockey goalie and not for his particularly rigid portrayal of Don John in Much Ado About Nothing.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Reeves and I think America is a better place because of the Canadian who was born in Israel. We all must admit that he is a bit of a late bloomer as far as acting was concerned. He seems to have it figured out though as he was solid gold in John Wick. It should be noted that he made his directorial debut two years ago with Man of Tai Chi, which I consider to be the best tournament fighting movie ever made.

Item 2: 

This film involves something that Stinker Madness has not yet seen that is a hallmark of a shitty movie; visual representations of the Internet. Apparently if movies like this one and The Lawnmower Man are correct, the Internet looks like Tron had diarrhea in my eyes. Keanu will swim through that diarrhea in this film and if I recall, his acting is middling at best when doing so. 

Robert Longo directed the film.  He is a painter and sculptor who directed various music videos, an episode of Tails From The Crypt and this film. He is quoted as saying “a film kicks your ass” and has not returned to feature directing. He also did the album cover for the Replacements album Tim.

The film deviates from the short story significantly as it is back story to the character Molly Millions from William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy. Though being the main character in the source material the closest thing to her in the movie is the character Jane. For those not in the know William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy is the seminal work and front end of the Cyber-Punk Genre. Gibson coined the term cyberspace. The first book in the series; Neuromancer has been optioned and has been in development hell for about 20 years through 40 sets of hands.

Reeves beat out Christopher Lambert for the role of Johnny, as Val Kilmer had already turned it down for Batman Forever.

The film was produced by Academy Award winning producer Don Carmody. He won his Oscar for Chicago, so fuck him.

Dina Meyer takes her shirt off… again… Actually it might be the first time she does it as this is her first feature film. 

Are old pal Dolph Lundrgen shows up for one of his most unique and memorable performances. 

Ice-T shows up and sucks as bad as ever.

Keep an eye out for Henry Rollins, Udo Kier and one of my favorite Japanese directors Takeshi Kitano.

I contributed to the $19 million this movie made domestically against a 26 million dollar budget. I also bought the VHS and have seen it at least 20 times. I don’t think I have watched it in about 15 years though.