Rose Releasing, 1998

starring: Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Asia Argento, and Yoshitaka Amano

directed by: Abel Ferrara

the plot: In the not-so-distant future, giant corporations have supplanted governments and acts of industrial espionage are the secret battles that drive the world. In Tokyo, Fox (Walken) and his sometimes-partner in crime X (Dafoe) take a job for Hosaka, one of the world’s most powerful companies. Their job: convince Hiroshi (Amano), a brilliant scientist, to leave rival corporation Maas for Hosaka. To seal the deal, Fox and X hire Sandii (Argento), an Italian call-girl living in Tokyo. They offer Sandii $1 million to seduce Hiroshi and beg him to leave his wife, family, and employer, and join her at a Hosaka outpost in Marakesh. While Fox handles negotiations with Hosaka, X teaches Sandii how to seduce the scientist. It should be a perfect plan, but soon, X finds he’s falling in love with Sandii, and Fox starts seeing hints that when two mega-corporations clash, no one—not even small-time crooks—are safe.

why it’s good: Though writer William Gibson’s influence on science fiction has been felt since the early 1980s, only two of his novels and stories have made it to the big screen. The first was 1995’s “Johnny Mnemonic,” a flashy, big-budget flick that pitted Keanu Reeves against cybernetically-enhanced Yakuza assassins and an oncoming brain-meltdown. The second was “New Rose Hotel,” which traded flash and action for atmosphere and actors. That two films could wind up producing such wildly divergent visions of Gibson’s fiction is remarkable, but even more remarkable is that neither film got it quite right. “New Rose Hotel” is close, though, and while it nails the gloomy, sparse quality of Gibson’s work, it can’t seem to figure out what to do with his conflicted characters. Abel Ferrara, best known for “Bad Lieutenant,” “King of New York,” and a host of low-budget flicks from the late 1970s and early ’80s, scrapes away most of the cyberpunk elements of Gibson’s original story and reduces “New Rose Hotel” to its core: a pair of con men find out too late they’ve been conned and can’t escape. It helps that the con men are Walken and Dafoe, both of whom clearly enjoyed making the movie. Walken’s character has a busted back and walks with a limp, but he still finds the energy to dance and shuffle playfully through his scenes. Dafoe, the quieter of the pair, struggles to maintain his edge while knowingly succumbing to Asia Argento’s charms. Ferrara lets the actors do their thing and keeps the technology—and the plot—to a minimum. It’s good stuff for the first hour. But then things fall apart: Dafoe and Walken see they’ve been played, and the film’s last 30 minutes are all flashbacks as they piece together what went wrong. But, to viewers, the things that went wrong were clear from the start. It’s a weak finish that clouds over what could have been a great future-noir. 

why you should own it: If you’re a fan of noir, Gibson, Ferrara, Walken or Dafoe, “New Rose Hotel” is definitely worth watching. It’s flawed and frustrating, but will likely stand as one of the best adaptations of Gibson’s fiction.