A blend of science fiction and noir detective fiction.

Rating: 10/10 (21 May 2010)

Blade Runner is a richly detailed and visually overwhelming trip to 2019 which sticks with you like a recurrent nightmare. In a futuristic Chinatown district of Los Angeles, an ex-cop (Harrison Ford) with carte blanche to kill is charged with tracking down and eliminating a group of androids, who escaped from a remote colony, hijacked a space shuttle and made their way to Earth.
It's a film with a cult following that has gradually grown since it opened to distinctly mixed reviews and moderate box-office success. A huge influence of subsequent attempts to re-create science-fiction on film; its production design, all urban grunge and slick, acid-rainy streets, was widely copied, not least by director Ridley Scott himself. Its story is just the right combination of coherent but elusive to inspire multiple readings; the film's appeal to successive generations seems limitless.