Johnny Mnemonic (1995): Almost a Cult Classic

What do you get when you mix an expensive courier with Keanu Reeves in the 90s? Ninety minutes of cyberpunk ambition slowly losing a fistfight with its own budget. Johnny Mnemonic was meant to be William Gibson’s big screen moment, but it looks more like a dress rehearsal for The Matrix where someone forgot to pay the lighting bill.

Instead of sleek noir paranoia, we get polygon VR, a cyber-preacher assassin, and a dolphin that feels more like a punchline than tragedy. It’s not a cult classic because it nailed cyberpunk; it’s Almost a Cult Classic because you can see the good movie straining to get out from under the rubble.