50/50x2: Blade Runner

When I get these 50 lists compiled I usually take a glance and try to leave at least one film for the very last that I think will knock my socks off.

During the first 50 list I definitely guessed correctly with Inglourious Basterds. On this list, I picked a pretty fair film, but not one that really blew me away.

Blade Runner is a film set in the 'not-so' distant future. The film was made in 1982 and the future is the year 2019. So, seeing as it is now 2012 and we are nowhere near the future this film is talking about, it was a little hard to believe. (sort of like Back to the Future II).

Anyway, in this future the human race has created replicants, or a replica for humans, that are much stronger than humans but usually have a small lifespan of about four years. These replicants have been placed on another planet away from Earth, but occasionally a few of them make it to the planet. When this happens, the police send out blade runners to track them down and retire them (or kill them).

One of the best blade runners, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), is now retired but as six replicants high jack a spaceship and make it to Earth, police chief Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) encourages him to go after the four that remain - Pris (Daryl Hannah), Leon (Brion James), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) and their leader Roy (Rutger Hauer).

Deckard goes to the main who creates these replicants, Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), to get more information and discovers that his assistant Rachael (Sean Young) is a new breed of replicant - one that does not she is because of memories inserted into her.

Once Bryant and Deckard's 'partner' Gaff (Edward James Olmos) finds out about Rachael - she is added to Deckard's list to retire - despite the fact that Deckard just may have feelings for her.

Would this film have been better in 1982? I can pretty much guarantee it. The special effects would have been amazing back then and 2019 was so far away at the time that this future may have been plausible.

Now, not so much. But, I still enjoyed the film. It just wasn't spectacular to me, like it may have been in the '80s - and like I have heard it should have been from many others.

Ford was, as usual, spectacular. I have heard the name Sean Young a ton, but honestly I don't really know her from much of anything except Ace Ventura, but she was also good as Rachael. Another standout to me was William Sanderson, who played J.F. Sebastian, a person that worked on the replicants that Pris locates to get close to Tyrell.

Finally, Hannah was pretty good as Pris, but her screen time was rather slim - Hauer, who I don't believe I had ever seen, was pretty over the top as the main bad guy. But, from an '80s film that is what we come to expect.

Grade: