In keeping with my gripes about Hollywood in a previous post, I have decided to periodically write movie reviews. Not reviews about brand new, still-in-the-theaters-movies (because we never, ever go to the theater anymore), but old movies. The stuff you browse for on Netflix or down the aisle of your favorite book/music/video store where the dvd cases are jammed so tightly together that it takes knocking half of them off the shelf to get one out, and you have to walk with your head turned at a rather painful, sideways angle and squint really hard to read the spines. Where "Pan's Labyrinth" is labeled a family film, movies from the 80's with Burt Reynolds in them are filed under "classics" and store clerks don't know that the word "The" in a title doesn't usually count when you are alphabetizing.
I will use my own ratings symbols in lieu of stars, partly because everyone else already uses stars, and partly because there are no stars on this keyboard (no, sweetie, *'s an asterisk, and while we can argue for eternity over the word's prefix meaning star, IT ISN'T A STAR).
! = Isn't that symbol obvious?
@ = At what point in this film are we going to see any sort of plot?
# = The pound of flesh given by a superb cast member
$ = Lots of product placement and/or special effects substituting for content
-$ = Dim lighting throughout substituting for special effects and content
% = Ridiculously high percentage of film obviously shot in a location other than where it is pretending to be
(doesn't apply to studio lot films ...the background cheesiness is to be expected in pre-1990's movies)
^ = Make a point of seeing this film, if you have any taste at all
& = Sequel available
* = Recommended, but with following qualifiers or reservations
? = What the hell?
First up is Michael Crichton's cinematic debut, "Westworld". Yul Brynner stars as a realistic android gunslinger in a town populated by android humans and animals, created for vacationers seeking to experience life in a past period of history.
True to nearly every sci-fi story involving computer technology, things start to go wrong....Very wrong. Heroes played by Richard Benjamin and James Brolin discover the trouble and try to stop the ensuing madness.
While the film seems somewhat campy when compared to sci-fi movies of today, one can see where ideas for later movies and television shows came from. It's essentially "Fantasy Island" meets "The Terminator".
A number of cast members have familiar, 70's and 80's-era faces (remember Dick Van Patten, from "Eight is Enough"?), and certain scenes definitely date the picture (people smoking while working at their boxy, pre-Atari-style computers).
"Westworld" definitely has some of the "Captain Kirk fighting the Alien dude" suspenseful action, and I've always thought Yul Brynner was sexy. Something about bald guys with an attitude....The fact of Richard Benjamin's disappearance from the cinema has been confirmed as a "Well, no wonder" kinda thing.
All in all, I'm glad to have seen it. I've noticed the box on video shelves for years, and always wondered about it. If you are someone who can appreciate the campiness, allowing for the time frame of the movie, I think you might enjoy it. My scores: **& *(don't expect much for special effects) *(Yul Brynner does more stalking than talking) & (Futureworld is out there somewhere).
Next in line, coincidentally will be Michael Crichton's second film, "Coma". Didn't plan for a Crichton bingefest, but what the heck...Perhaps we will eventually revisit "Jurassic Park" as the most recent sequel to "Westworld"............................Keep the remote handy!
No comments:
Post a Comment