★★★½ Blade Runner ("director's cut")

[Gino: 3.5]

Gino says: 'This is a review of the director's cut, but not the 2007 actual director's cut, which was called the "final cut". The picture quality was not so great on this DVD. I think I saw the theatrical version back in college. Anyway, this version has the slightly ambiguous ending and has no voice-over narration. I admit to being distracted by the synth-heavy soundtrack.

But in the end, it still retains the good idea of a classic film noir set in the future. A future where we have flying cars and amazing androids but still use grainy cathode-ray TVs and 8-bit computer sounds and newspapers. I kid, but this is a serious film about an ex-cop specializing in tracking down renegade androids having existential crises. What really stands out to this day is the monumental art direction and vision of the world created here. Apparently, you people living in LA have only a couple years left to learn Japanese and buy an umbrella.'