Somewhere between cop movie and music video, Strange Days may be a disappointment to many cyberspace thrill seekers. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this new film portrays a riotous, chaotic Los Angeles right around the end of the millennium.

The only element of the plot that allows Strange Days to play up to the cyberpunk crowd is a piece of technology that can record experiences onto a 3.5-inch minidisc. These "clips" can be recorded or viewed by someone wearing a "wire," a small bit of low-tech-looking gadgetry -- essentially a dandy little skull cap and a portable CD player with a few extra lights and buttons. The movie treats the clips as the next great incarnation of hidden camera, with a little extra punch. And toward the beginning, the film explores the effects of this new technology as the latest and greatest societal drug. But the exploration falls by the wayside as the movie progresses. What's left? A cop flick.

The plot unfolds in a muddle, but ends up being the bad-cops-versus-the-man-on-the-street-trying-to-get-by scenario. Ralph Fiennes plays the shady ex-cop turned pornographic "clip" dealer, who ends up the hero by the end. The film starts out with a fast-action first-person point of view of a robbery of a Chinese restaurant, and continues through numerous violent scenes -- all playbacks of "clips" from the attackers' point of view.

The violence is unsettling in many cases, not because of overt blood and gore, but because it's remarkably real. Rodney King style police brutality, burning cars, and riot gear clad squads and a particularly gut wrenching rape scene -- all parallel today's news reports a little too closely for comfort.

Strange Days is not the film I expected -- nor, really, the film that the ads suggest. Cyber-hacker thrill flicks were big for a while, so it was billed as a cyber-hacker thrill flick. But it's not. It ends up being more a depiction of urban culture and inner city lifestyles. No great special effects, no blinky lights, just 95% real life. "Strange Days" is definitely worth seeing, but be warned: anyone expecting a hacking adventure will be disappointed.