I think for the obsucuritie of laws look Robocop I
To see the sunshine of a doomed civilazation Starship Troops espialy the first part of the movie
And to name a good dutch movie to with every one can relate to Fighting Fish. (in the movie they talk dutch & chinesse but mostly English.? )

I wish people would stop calling Equilibrium a Matrix Knock off, because it's not. The story is definately something else and unrelated in whole. It also doesn't have any bullet time slowness. All of the gun fight's are in real time and definately pretty bad ass. Nobodies watching or stopping bullets. They're simply calculating the given trajectory of a number of individuals and the path of fired bullets and making sure to not be where a bullet will strike and maximizing their own firepower. Hence Gunkata.

Some people seem to widely use the term "knock off" when "similarly themed" or containing "similar content" is probably more accurate and less likely to cause fanboi outrages.

I'll watch Firefly. If it ever shows back up on cable. Hell, Sci Fi reran the entire series of Roswell last year. Granted, running Firefly in its entirety won't take long, but I'm sure their are enough folks out there to make it a worthwhile broadcast. Maybe if I ever get bored and have cash (unlikely with my current mortgage payments), I'll rent the dvds at Blockbuster.

I mentioned the Blade stuff, because the series is new, and the movies are more accessible than Day Watch and Night Watch. Plus, they aren't that bad for inspiration.

Mhm. To be honest, it's been a few years since I saw it, so things are a bit blurry. But the dystopian high-tech future always reminded me of Shadowrun and that's even before you add the emphasis on gunplay and martial arts.

As far as it being a Matrix knock off ... mhm. The Matrix came out in March of 1999, Equilibrium came out sometime in 2002. It's roughly a three year difference, and while it's not a lot time to produce a movie in, it's certainly possible it was produced in response to the Matrix's popularity. I mean, even it's own US movie poster tag line links them: "Forget 'The Matrix'!"

Both movies are dystopian futures, set in post-apocalyptic worlds. In the Matrix, you've got robots and AI's oppressing the human population. In Equilibirum, you've got humans oppressing the human population by keeping them on an emotion suppressing drug. Both operations have a sort of Big Brother feel to them, Neo's interogation by Smith. Preston's being monitored by his own agency. Both main characters ultimately rebel against the system, fighting the oppression. (Of reality and emotion, as the plot dictates.)

You've got both films placing a heavy emphasis on gunplay and martial arts. Both with an abundance of cool people in cool clothes doing cool things to uncool people.

Werb. I don't mean to imply that the Matrix is the better movie. Equilibrium is wholly cool in it's own right, but I think there's at least some indications that it was spawned by the Matrix's popularity. Movies tend to work like that, where one does well, you'll have soon have several simliar movies being produced in the same vein. It's possible Equilibrium was released prior to 2002 in Europe (and thus probably started production before Matrix was released), but I wasn't able to find anything on that in the imbd.

... to everyone else, go watch the movie. :> Then we can all make gun adepts and pistol whip each other into absurdity.

But wait!  Shadowrun was released way before either one of those movies so they are BOTH rip-offs of the Shadowrun books! Gasp! 

Just 'cause it has a similiar theme or even similiar plot lines doesn't necessarily mean one is based off the other.  Yeah, maybe Equilibrium was started because of the popularity of the Matrix, but movies do it all the time.  And really, if they wanted to ride coat tails and rip-off the other, it would have been in theatres a lot sooner than three years later.  For instance, Over the Hedge and similiar movies, Madagascar and the Wild.  Those last two movies, if I remember right, have exactly the same sort of plot, but they came out within a year of each other.  I'm more apt to say that the Wild is ripping off Madagascar than some movie from three years ago. 

Rent it. Or we'll eat you.

Gattaca implents a SIN-like system that uses genetic coding as a means of identification.  Also, Tony Shaloub (from Monk fame) plays a kind of streetdoc who helps Ethan Hawk's character by giving him such things as fake fingerprints filled with blood samples, fake retina contacts, even steel leg implants to increase his height.  He also builds a dry-shower apparatus that Hawk's character uses to wipe off all excess skin flakes and hair particles that contain his DNA-signature.  Not to mention Hawk's character is infiltrating a megacorp-type space aviation facility.  There's even a metahuman!  Well, kind of--it's a pianist with twelve fingers (genetically altered at birth, of course).  All in all, Gattaca is an excellent film.

Another great movie that often gets left out of sci-fi discussions is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which stars Jim Carrey seeking to rid himself of the memories of his girlfriend, played by Kate Winslet (both of whom do so very well in their roles).  And who do you go to in order to rid yourself of your memories?  Why, a "streetdoc" of course!  Granted, the doctors in this film are a bit more "legit" than a streetdoc, and streetdocs can't get rid of anything but datajack memory, but the same kind of concept applies - people in the medical professional messing with other people's brains for money.

That's all I got for now.

I'd say that Equilibrium is a 1984/Brave New World knock-off, but definitely not a Matrix knock-off.

Unfortunately, all movies that feature fighting and have special effects of any sort and are futuristic are termed matrix knockoffs.  It's a limitation of the cultural lexicon 

It is indicative of how many people haven't been exposed to similar entertainment. Therefore, they wrongly assume that everyone making any futuristic, martial arts flick since the Matrix is copying the "original" and "revolutionary" idea that the Wachowski boys had.

The rest of us know better since we've read Neuromancer, watched Johnny Mnemonic, watched Ghost In the Shell, and half a dozen other movies/anime/books/graphic novels that came out well before the Matrix.

The reality is that the Matrix is really the "knockoff" of a lot of Asian influences. Those other influences were just never exposed to the mainstream audience and therefore widely unrecognized.

Six String Samurai. Post-apoc setting with a katana-wielding 1950's rocker named Buddy. What's not to like?

The fact that he's a rocker.  I hate rockers.

Six String Samurai is incredible, it's a total head trip.  It has all the surreal insanity of the 1950s put in a surrealist setting, and one hell of a sound track.

Though I'm sorry to say, it's not cyberpunk.  Though Buddy would be a great model for a streetsam, guitar in one hand and sword in the other, on a mission to kill death and become the greatest fighter who ever lived.

I heard about that movie because some friends of mine were way into the Red Elvises, who are in the opening bits and did the soundtrack. If you liked the movie (or even if you didn't, whatever!) and get a chance to see them, do so, because they're incredible.

And yeah, the sad truth is that there's nothing that captures Shadowrun in its entirety, and even cyberpunk cinema in general is few and far between. But if you assume that other Shadowrun fans have similar taste - and judging by the movies in this thread that's not a stretch - it doesn't matter what's suggested.

I wouldn't imply that it's even mostly asian influences. The Ghost in the Shell  influence in particular is rather overestimated by many, many people; Asian and US entertainment dealing with technology dependent future dystopias aren't exactly rare concepts, it's just that for a long time western fiction tended to view science as the great solution rather than a double edged sword, an attitude that didn't really start to change 'till the aftermath of WWII. I'd say the Matrix is asian influenced in the sameway beatniks were asian influenced. There's some goofy faux-zen vibes floating around, but nothing really that substantial. Toss in psychedelic literature and counterculture comic influences, like Grant Morrison, and it once again becomes really damned apparent how bloody impossible it is to say anything truly original these days.

And, yeah, have to agree with Django, if Equillibrium is anything, it's Orwellian.