Reviews

I saw this at a preview screening. The premise of mysterious strangers controlling our destiny comes from the eccentric imagination of Phillip K. Dick; everything else in the movie is cookie cutter Hollywood fluff. None of the characters are remotely believable either in their everyday lives or in the nonchalant reactions to learning mind bending secrets about themselves and human destiny. What could have been an entertaining and creepy paranoid fantasy instead becomes a by the numbers sermon on the power of "true love" (which seems to refer to the infatuation you experience after spending a few hours engaging in cute banter and rolling in the hay with a virtual stranger). Has a number of unintentional laughs, not the least of which involves a character recounting a skewed history of the human race that ignores everything outside of Western Europe and America. Beyond all the silliness and the immaturity of the script, however, what really surprised me was how lazy it all felt. The performances were lackluster, the tense scenes were boring, the love story was passionless, the fantasy elements pedestrian. Towards the end I thought we might be at least being heading toward something really outrageous, but even that turned out to be a false hope.

Just watched this recently; saw it on it's first run when I was seventeen and Treat Williams was a hot young actor destined for stardom. I liked it then; now, I don't know what I was thinking. Way too long, badly plotted, and the acting by Williams was just atrocious. Scenery chewing at its worst: "you guys don't understand (wracked sobs, facial contortions) we're the only thing between you (arms flailing] and the (bows head, shoulders shake spasmodically) jungle!!!!"

Did I really like this when it came out, or did I just read the reviews by Ebert and the like and convince myself that I'd better like it? Pauline Kael nailed it pretty well even back then, but other than that the critics loved it.

Meryl Streep is fantastic, always convincing as a Polish survivor of a concentration camp. Rest of the movie is at turns silly, grating, and maudlin. Seems inappropriate to make the real life outrages of the Holocaust fodder for a sappy southern boy's bildungsroman. "Stingo" is an annoying Thomas Wolfe stereotype of the sensitive genius writer; unfortunately we are subjected to examples of his overwrought purple prose in voiceovers that sound lifted from The Waltons. If we only could have been spared the confession that his climatic tryst with Sophie was the end of his virginity; I had bad flashbacks to "Summer of 42". Still gets four stars because Streep is just so good.

Sad but sweet little teleplay featuring the "Family" from the Carol Burnett Show. Act 1 tells about Eunice and Ed, Act 2 takes place after Ed has left and Eunice is stuck alone with Momma, and Act 3 deals with Eunice trying to deal with Momma's passing away. Very funny, but also very sad. I have only seen this once, on it's live broadcast in 1981. I hope that it finds it's way to video someday.

I first saw this movie at the Old Fort Drive In in Lebanon, Ohio. Perfect setting. Now the Old Fort is long gone, and so are movies like this. Real stunts, fluid crane based camera work, mythic scripts. The best action movie ever made, probably about the best movie overall of the eighties (Blade Runner and Excalibur come close). "Lord Humoungus Rules the Wasteland". Mad Max #3 dropped the ball, too much Tina, too little Max. Here's hoping for a #4 to even the score.

Yes, I'm another one of those "Did I see this as a youngster or was I dreaming" types. I saw this on "Shock Theater" with Dr. Creep in the late seventies on Ch. 22 WKEF out of Dayton, Ohio and it scarred me for life. What a bizarre and twisted plot for a movie. The "Popcorn", "White Meat or Dark" and "Death by Toaster" scenes alone should guarentee this piece of Drive-In filler a place in the halls of 70s horror history forever.

Often entertaining but ultimately depressing look at the American lust for fame. Mark B has wasted his life and shamefully neglected his responsibilities as a parent, and for what? "Coven" makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look coherent. From the clips of "Northwestern" it seems to consist of endless shots of drunks and potheads getting high and stumbling through junkyards. For this this guy avoids payiing child support? For this he scams his sad old uncle and everyone else in sight?

On another note, I would recommend that "American Movie" be shown in every high school in America so that kids can see the effects of drugs first hand.

Carpenter's best movie. Paranoia runs amok in a fascinating setting. Kurt Russel shows that there is more to him than Dexter Riley. Wilford Brimley shows that there is more to him than oatmeal. Vastly superior to the overated fifties propaganda piece that it is based on, and much closer to the original "Who Goes There"

A wonderful movie, with a dense, multilayered, script, good understated performances, and an accurate vision of the relationship between the US and its neighbors. A favorite of Bruce Springsteen, who based his song "The Line" on it. Affected me powerfully as a teenager seeing it in a theatre in 1982. Seek this one out, they really don't make them like this anymore.

The special effects aren't all that special (give me a Ray Harryhausen stop motion dinosaur anyday; cgi creatures just don't seem to have weight or substance), the story is a ripoff from Land Before Time and Lion King, the characters are beyond annoying. I was rooting for the "Carnataur" or whatever to eat all of the principles. Even worse I saw this on a double bill with "Chicken Run", which was stylish, funny, thrilling, and original. After seeing what could be achieved with lumps of clay, patience, and geniune creativity it was just too much to sit through this bland lowest common denominator garbage.

A few clever moments (Like the cameo by Jacobean schlockmeister John Webster) do not make up for the fact that this is basically a soap opera in Elizabethan drag. Am I the only person who finds a "love story" about a married man who abandons his wife and children a bit disturbing? This is the type of movie that pats a middlebrow audience on the back and makes them feel intelligent and cultured because they can appreciate that Shakespeare guy: hey, he was just a regular horney guy who knew how to use words to get girls! I also could have done without the new age therapist scenes (Get it? Its like he's seeing a psychologist! Isn't that just so clever and modern!) A film about the real Shakespeare that showed something of the real creative process (the source material for Romeo and Juliet is pretty well documented; it is a shame that people watching this film get the idea that WS wrought it out of personal experience; the myth of the 'tortured artist' didn't exist yet) would be greatly appreciated, but will probably never be made. A few points for those close up shots of ink stained hands though. Best part of the movie.

A lot of crummy movies have been made out of Stephen King material. This is one of the few times when everything clicked. Christopher Walken is flawless as the lead character; Martin Sheen does a great prophetic impression of Ross Perot nine years before the fact.

This forgotten movie just gets better with age. Jack Nicolson suppresses his usual hamminess, and the resulting tension makes this one of his best performances. Bruce Springsteen must have enjoyed this one too; he's performed the haunting Ry Cooder theme song in concert, and borrowed the story line for one of his "Ghost of Tom Joad" songs.