QUID is the new technology in 1999. Slip the electrode cap onto your head, flip a video clip into the playcase and you're plugged into someone else's real-life experience. First used as a surveillance tool by the police, it's gone underground -- the new cyber drug hawked by pushers like Lenny Nero (Fiennes, 26K GIF and bio) as the ultimate turn-on. Nero, himself a disgraced ex-L.A.P.D. cop, sidewinds between repo men, the law and his next score. When he periodically teeters over oblivion, he is frequently bailed out by Mace (Bassett), a single mother and martial arts expert, trying to eke out a living as a chauffeur.

Nero pines after Faith (Lewis), an ex-prostitute who dumped him for a scaly record producer who can launch her singing career. While lamenting his unrequited lot with fellow dispossessed cop buddy Max (26K .wav file), Nero and his satellite acquaintances gracelessly stumble into a complex series of events which include rogue police, SQUID snuff clips and the murder of a black political-activist rap star.

As a new technology venture film, Strange Days holds its own. It does a good job grafting virtual reality onto a near-future L.A., and the social speculation is plausible, if heavy-handed at times. There's lots of fisticuffs action and a fun scene involving escape from a flaming limo. However, it is saved from meaningfulness at every juncture through the efforts of director Kathryn Bigelow. At two and a half hours, it runs overly long and careens with confused styles -- awash in cyberpunk, smarmy hipness, false grit and delusions of social commentary.

Watching Strange Days is like playing Loser Roulette. Except for Bassett, none of the characters or actors are interesting or engaging enough, even in a voyeuristic way, to last the film's length. On the pretext of examining trash, the film rolls in it like a razorback hog -- it was assigned an R rating, but deserves an NC-17 for scenes that are graphically violent and a hair short of hardcore pornography. Strange Days makes seemingly sincere obeisance to the examination of racial justice. However, these efforts are perversely discredited by matter-of-fact misogyny -- two rape/torture scenes (one in which the woman apparently regularly likes being raped/tortured by her lover).

The film is pretty uneven, and most of the audience will probably bounce over the sexual violence in favor of slick production values and flashy techno speak to feel fairly compensated for eight bucks. In its own way it sets a dubious standard for the films that follow it.

Without the way cool Angela Bassett, Strange Days is a big cyber yawn. -- Tamara

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