Cypher (2002)

Please don't spend money on this.

From my favorite movies..

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Jeremy Northam plays a corporate spy caught between two rival firms in a cyberpunk future where he's not always quite sure who he's working for, who's on his side, or even of his own identity. Lucy Liu plays a femme fatale of sorts who helps (or is she manipulating?) Northam. It's a clever twisting plot, though the film suffers some from it's limited budget and suffers more so from under developed characters, which made me less interested in what happens to them. These strengths and weaknesses were also true of writer/director Vincenzo Natali's previous film "Cube" (he also later directed the underrated "Splice"). Overall, the Byzantine plot is so clever and so much smarter than most science fiction films, it makes this film well worth checking out by sci-fi fans despite it's deficiencies.

Let me just start out the box by saying that this movie bears no similarities whatsoever to the movie The Matrix. Heard someone say it did; it does not. What it IS is, IMHO, perhaps the coolest spy flick of all time. The story line is intriguing, the plot twists and turns unpredictably, the anti-hero wins, sort-of, in a way that you'll never see coming.Jeremy Northam gives an excellent performance, as his character transforms from a nerdy uptight white guy to a gritty, no-holds-barred super-spy of the type that you do not want to have mad at you. Bond has nothing on this guy. If you've seen The Hitcher, the real one with C. Howel Thomas, you'll have an idea what I mean. Sadly, Lucy Liu, as the heroine, gives a decidedly less impressive performance. There were several scenes that I would not have settled for had I been directing. But she did do well enough for the most part, so it doesn't detract from the movie as a whole.It's a shame this little gem didn't get greater play, it really does deserve more. My advice to you is definitely do invest the time watching it; you'll be glad you did.

A cult movie, nuff said. The casting was strange yet workable, the music was forgettable. But the more I watch it, the more I like it. A great indirect story about identity and modern society.I liked the color in which the movie is slightly tainted, reminder of a film noir and yet with a modern twist (kind of a Minority Report set and feeling). The story unfolds gently and every part has a proper function of the whole. It's perhaps about how your life can turn into something else... and still be part of you. Fully recommended!

Dominate our attention for several minutes, with brief and intense lapses of excitement, is the least a movie can do for us. Most usually considered ''average'' films serve exactly that cup of tea, not much to be remembered, but innovative and stimulating enough to renovate the feeling of enjoying a movie with no further interest. The sci-fi/noir thriller Cypher lies comfortably in the realm of average productions described above.Entertaining enough, stylish to delight the eyes, compelling to caught the minimum of our deliberation and with a capital twist in the plot to regale the enduring audience. These are basically the positive points. Although, truth be told, it is hard to go wrong with a corporation's espionage story; this whole theme is charismatic by nature, and director Vincenzo Natali's credentials made him just the person to administer such a topic. The direction and production, nifty as always (although as always blatantly unhewn), could not survive without Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu, the perfect faces to incorporate the somehow impersonal emotionless of the film.Clearly, the purpose of the plot revolves on sustaining its trickiness and glamour, way occupied on that to demonstrate any concern on character appeal or development. And despite the good effort on preserve the interest, the major twist was not revealed in the most exciting way possible, being followed by a rather silly happy ending. But well, a stereotyped finale and forgettable characters are the main trademark of average movies anyway.