# Strange Days **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 3, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563 "2023-01-03T03:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/1 "2023-01-03T03:19:09Z")
This movie is infamously hard to find because its DVD is long out of print but it is in HBO Max this month so I was able to watch it for the first time in probably 25 years. It has some pacing problems but otherwise holds up pretty well. It’s interesting how the themes still hold up today and how with minor changes the script could have been written this year instead of decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/2 "2023-01-03T04:25:23Z")
Thank you. I have been waiting for this to come to streaming forever. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/3 "2023-01-03T04:38:32Z")
Wow, I have not thought of this movie in quite some time, but I remember being gripped by it. I’ll take a look at it again. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/4 "2023-01-03T10:14:30Z")
For anyone who cares about this kind of thing, HBO has it in the wrong aspect ratio. It was originally produced and released in widescreen, 2.39:1, but instead of properly letterboxing it, HBO has it matted to the common TV ratio of 1.78:1, which means you’re missing fully a quarter of the image on the sides. Par for the course, a good movie that has historically been mistreated by the studio in its home versions. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/5 "2023-01-03T11:01:05Z")
the only problem I had with it was supposedly due to internal and external politics they backed off on the whole LAPD was behind everything and rewrote the ending so his ex girlfriend and the hacker were behind it the last 30 minutes ruined what was a good movie … ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/6 "2023-01-03T12:45:41Z")
This file > **[outlines-and-treatments](https://www.obswriter.com/docs/outlines-and-treatments/?bp-attachment=Strange-Days-1999-James-Cameron-Scriptment.pdf)** > > 1398.04 KB by James Cameron purports to be “…unchanged, unedited, unpolished. It is the first hurling of paint against the wall…” He says he wrote it in about four weeks based on a few pages of notes he made in 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-days/977563/7 "2023-01-17T07:24:27Z")
I remember seeing this movie once upon a time. I thought that it was pretty good. I don’t know if I would have sought it out, because I had already started to find Juliette Lewis to be kind of annoying, except for the fact that Roger Ebert gave it such a positive recommendation.