wow a bad review.. You must really dislike it ….

New Rose Hotel is the kind of movie you look at and angerly say, “Who talked me into watching thiis???”

* This movie has NO cyberpunk visuals - true
* This movie has NO interesting philosophical message - true
* This movie has NO cyberpunk themes embedded in it, and - false
* This movie takes place in modern time, not in a near future - true

Hi P2501, I wish you had elaborated a bit more. I really can’t address what you wrote above. But I will say this - if this movie did not have Gibson’s name on it, NOBODY would even consider calling it cyberpunk. They just wouldn’t. Is it a corporate espionage movie? Sure, but I don’t consider all (or even most) corporate espionage movies to be cyberpunk.

U are Mad! this is one of the best and most oryginal, interesting movie with fenomenal philosophical message I’ve ever seen!! For me it’s beutifull vision of cyber punk alternative look… I think that we are NOW in a very cyber punk times.Maybe CB its not only about great fx visuals and more about the concept of how people live, what’s important for them, what they do & why.
And a corporation “problem” is sooo cyberpunk anyway…

I found this movie in my hometown Lisbon, from the Thief’s Fair (the city’s big yard sale), and basically bought it because it said it was cyberpunk on the back cover. I became 4 euros poorer but frankly I liked the damn movie for some reason I cannot discern. The cold atmosphere while I watched it alone at night, and the theme song really sunk into my memories, and it seemed to last an eternity floating away in time, and digesting quietly each scene. Weird, for a movie that’s only 80 minutes long and the third part being just reedited flashbacks, this was the one of the worst films I enjoyed.

This movie is definately infused in cyberpunk.
Your focus into “cyberpunk visuals”, “near future” and “cyberpunk themes”
leave me worried that you have no clue whatsoever about what cyberpunk
really is about. The beauty of this movie is the focus on the individuals of
a technologically corrupt society and their attempt to hustle their way out
of their problems. This is WHAT CYBERPUNK IS ABOUT.

EXACTLY! thank You xristos, that Was what I was trying to say, but maybe my english is not so clear

beverly hills cop is more cyberpunk than this

You are so right!
You forgot to mention that this pile of @+#+ß was nominatet in Cannes. I cant imagine why! Btw. I Love the shortstory New Rose Hotel and waited 2 years to see this Movie in Germany ;(

I have to agree with the reviewer… this film fails Gibson’s story in almost every single imaginable aspect… the action is dull and slow paced. The actors are good but their perfomances are mediocre. And you can barely feel any type of empathy for the corporate drama that is the basis of the story. It seems Hollywood is destined to screw up perfectly good Gibson stories since now they’re thinking of casting that brat from the new Star Wars (don’t even remember that asshole’s name) on the Neuromancer flick, he must be like, the suckiest actor to ever emerge from the depths of the earth.

Actually I still describe “New Rose …” as cyberpunk. Like this: Ok imagine a really cool William Gibson story made into a great cyberpunk movie, then imagine all the parts that didn’t get put in because they had nothing to offer, nothing going on or were simply the between takes extra footage, now imagine all of the footage that was even more worthless than that and that is what went into “New Rose..” oh and then a main character jumps off a balcony.

Seems YOU don’t know what you’re talking about. For you it’s only a cyberpunk movie if it has a guy with a jack in his head, huh?

New Rose Hotel absolutely has both cyberpunk themes and future tech in it, if you’ve bothered to actually see it. Corporations killing and fighting eachother with any methods, above the law.

The use of the hooker and her key containing the virus sequence that wipes out the entire lab.

Dude, you better go read up on what cyberpunk is. You’re SO wrong it’s not even funny.

Most definitely a cyberpunk short story/movie. Easily recognisable as such with all the political, sociological elements. Even the corporate names , Maas and Hosaka, which I seem to recall in other stories. Also, the ubiquitous Asian influence which feature very heavily in most of Gibson’s scenarios.

Cyberpunk doesn’t depend on gee-whiz techo stuff, but it certainly pays lip-service to it.

For an interesting “retro” type view of things, have a read of the Gibson/Stirling joint effort, “The Difference Engine” - a great tale - sort of reverse cyberpunk often referred to as “Steampunk”.

Gotta add another comment, specifically for the dweeb who wrote the review.
Seriously son, you view is particularly childish and shallow.

Just by way of a quick example, because at this hour 2:45am I really CBF going on too long.

However, you whine about the last 15 minutes being a rehash of flasbacks. If you read the book, you’d probably get it. Let me only say, Ferrara is at least making a sincere effort to convey the tone, mood, and lets not forget emotion, of Gibson’s story.

I would have to agree with people who disagree that this film does not have cyberpunk elements because it is actually pretty faithful to the short story about warring zaibatsus.

Unfortunately its still a pretty damn dull and boring film and the latter part of the story with the depressed isolation of the character in the cubicle hotel is interpreted a little too literally and is the result of basically stretching the premise of the (not one of Gibson’s best by a long shot, IMO) short story and adding nothing interesting as filler. What worked well as melancholic prose in the story is very hard to translate compellingly to film and although Ferrara makes a valiant attempt I did not find the long mental disintegration of Dafoe’s character to be particularly compelling.

It should have been a short film and it would have worked quite well, just like the movie of Dick’s Impostor could have worked well as originally intended (also a short).

Agree with xristos… New Rose Hotel is cyberpunk, it leaves out the cheesy pop-infused fluff that whines “i just hate my parents!” and instead delivers on a well-devised character study with a heart of pure cyberpunk.

I’ve heard yeah people call it boring, which is the same response to a lot of good character-centric films. Such pieces require you have experience in life that extends beyond adolescence (it is amazing how many 30 year old children there are today).

It’s a great film to boot. Left me cold when it came out, but watched it again recently and there are interesting layers and developed relations there; has aged really well I think. It performs more like theatre (with the always excellent and theatric Walken), but it still strongly works.

Think early Gibson or Shirley, not bubblegum cyberpunk like Stephenson.