10 Underrated Science Fiction Movies You Must See
4. Strange Days
Is it fair to call Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 science fiction thriller underrated? Certainly the director herself is still held in high regard, but we're not sure this particular entry in her body of work gets the love it deserves.
Set in an imagined 1999, Strange Days is set in a world where new, illegal technology enables users to directly relive memories recorded by others. Ralph Fiennes, very much cast against type at the time, stars as Lenny, an ex-cop who now works as a black market dealer of these clips. But in the midst of serious civil unrest in LA, Lenny comes into possession of a clip that shows the murder of a prostitute, setting in motion a very dramatic, potentially world-changing chain of events.
By setting itself only a few years ahead of when it was made, there's very little mistaking that Strange Days is commenting directly on the sociopolitical climate of the time, particularly in the wake of the LA riots; unnervingly, it might even be deemed to predict the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG.
Beyond this, it's a compelling and furiously inventive blend of science fiction and mystery thriller, and on top of its political overtones, it also delves into some thought-provoking psychosexual territory, which might seem even more relevant in the age of internet porn and sexting.