Word: forded
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...effects and set are the entire movie; plot and characterization are virtually nonexistent. Scott, director of Alien, should know how to make believable sci-fi by now. For Blade Runner, he teamed with special effects magician Douglas Trumbull, of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the dashing Harrison Ford, star of last year's smash Raiders of the Lost Ark. But these three are not enough. The film lacks both focus and depth, and neither electronic gadgets nor excessive violence are sufficient to hold audience attention...
...film sets Ford, as a legal killer, or "blade runner," against the homicidal "replicates," genetically designed slaves. The replicates, laborers for colony planets, are designed with four-year life spans. Not surprisingly, some of these unfortunates resent their mortality and return to earth to meet their makers, hoping to steal the genetic secrets of their existence. The tend to kill anyone who gets in their way, which is why Ford gets called...
...retired blade runner, fed up with the brutality of killing human-type creatures, Ford takes the one last big job reluctantly. His path is littered by a Raymond Chandler-esque parodies. Ford, a natural descendent of Chandler's tough but tender-hearted heroes, runs into more than one beautiful killer between shoot-outs. In Blade Runner, however, the ladies' stone-cold hearts are usually a symptom of automation, which takes the edge off the romance. The monotone Sam Spade narration also becomes ridiculous and does little to characterize a hero who relies on frequent drunken debauches to reveal his emotional...
...notably in the extended final scene, further handicaps Blade Runner. If bits of sadism, broken fingers and the like, pass for drama, this film would be great art Everyone involved experiences enough pain to deserve sympathy Yet this merely highlights the film's lack of focus. Obviously the hero, Ford, first gains our attention; he's suffering, then he's fighting, and then he falls in love. Midway through the film however, the definitions become fuzzy, and a rather trite morality lesson begins. The killer monsters become the oppressed...
Even fantasy sci-fi films should have a capacity for growth, and even the most deadpan hero can learn to appreciate an enemy. Neither happens in Blade Runner. Ultimately, we learn that the truth has been clear to Ford all along, but realization comes very late and very awkwardly. Life and liberty are everyone's right, preach the robots, one of whom grabs a white dove from the air as he "dies...