Sorry to be boring but....(some spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2000)

....at the beginning of this film why did Holden bother to use that gadget when all the replicants were clearly registered on a visual data base as shown in the scene in the police station? And they were actually AT the Tyrell Corporation. Why did Deckard go to all that trouble of getting a blurred, half picture of Zhora off a photo when he could have shown a perfectly clear picture of her off the same data base? And why didn't he just arrest her instead of posing as an investigater from the committee of moral abuses? He knew who she was. How did Roy Batty know Deckards name? They'd never met and Leon was too far away in noisy traffic to hear Deckard talking to his chief after he shot Zhora. Why, if Replicants were illegal on earth by penalty of death was Rachel allowed to wander the streets? Why would Deckard go in alone against two superhuman androids? In real life they'd call a SWAT team, throw in gas cannisters and storm the place. Instead he goes in and gets his arse kicked. Why did Pris run the full length of a room, thus giving Deckard time to get hold of his gun and shoot her? Would America, which fought a bitter civil war over slavery and is so obsessed with personal freedom that it allows it's own citizens to blow each other away with assault rifles; allow a sudden return to slavery of intelligent, lifelike androids? It's all terribly silly.
And this business of Deckard being a replicant. How does that enhance the story? Replicants are illegal on earth, so they're unlikely to let him wander about even BEFORE he quit. And aren't replicants superhuman? Wouldn't he have noticed that hot water doesn't scald him? Daft.
But it all works because of brilliant performances, art design and Ridley Scott's direction. After this you'd think he'd become one of the great auters but instead he ended up making routine fare like 'White Squal' with it's embarrassing court scenes. It always puzzled me that straight after Blade Runner he took the least interesting bit with some dwarfs and made a film around them.
Apparently Ford didn't like the film but I suspect this was because Hauer stole the film from under him with a rivetting performance. It is unusual that the cop was the unsympathetic assassin and it's also unusual for the lead to disappear for a large section of a movie. I think a remake would be pointless as it couldn't top old Rutger's speech on the roof. Scott is said to be a fan of Tarkovsky's Solaris and I see a certain influence. The slow direction with a lot of action happening in real time rather than dictated by rapid cutting and pounding music. This slow pace lulled you into the brutal final confrontation unawares. Also the relationship with Rachel and the meditations on memory were reminiscent of Tarkovsky's film.
I remember when I first saw this at the flicks everyone was taken aback at the brutal head crushing scene and were immediately on edge at what was going to hit them for the rest of the film. We left wondering why it had arrived in the UK so unheralded. Funny how some of the best films make the least money.