One of the Best Looking Dark Films Ever Made

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2012)

Blade Runner (1982)
** 1/2 (out of 4) Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is one of the best Blade Runner's in the business. A Blade Runner is a person who is paid to go after illegal replicants and the most recent case has him going after four including the sadistic Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).
Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER was released with minor fans but overtime it grew into what many consider one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made. It's really hard to judge or rate this movie because it's available in so many different versions. This viewing here was actually the third version I've seen and I gotta say that if you have to keep re-editing, adding and altering a movie then I question how good it is to begin with.
I know many people consider BLADE RUNNER to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I honestly get their reaction but I certainly don't share it. The film is certainly one of the most brilliantly looking movies ever made. Visually this film is rather incredible as director Scott has no problem creating the mood of this dark city as well as the rather grim nature. The special effects, costume design, sets and music score are all flawless and perfectly capture a terrific vision.
With that said, I think there's a lot more style than substance here. Not for a second did I ever get totally involved in the "story" going on. I thought it was a rather interesting idea but storywise there's nothing great here. I also thought the slow nature was a bit too boring. I know this is a thinking man's approach but it just didn't work with me. With that said, the ending is quite excellent and I thought the scenes between Ford and Hauer were extremely effective.
The performances from the entire cast is another major plus with Ford perfect in the role, which is a throwback to the type of detectives that we'd see in film noir titles of the 40s and 50s. Hauer makes for a great villain and we get nice support from Sean Young, M. Emmet Walsh, Edward James Olmos, William Sanderson, Joe Turkel and Daryl Hannah among others.
Again, I understand why some call BLADE RUNNER one of the greatest films ever made. In my opinion, the original theatrical cut is quite poor. The Director's Cut was certainly an improvement. Having now just watched "The Final Cut" it reall didn't improve too much from the director's cut. As is, I'd probably recommend the Director's Cut.