BEFORE: Is this another superhero film, one in which the main character's parents get killed in a bizarre gardening accident, and he commits himself to mowing down criminals, with giant blades? Just kidding...
After "Iron Man", I could easily transition into films about warfare, but that's too easy. I'll stick with the "people with powers" angle for now.
THE PLOT: A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
AFTER: This was a real struggle to get through, I'll admit. A copy of the Director's Cut VHS came into my possession, and with a running time of 140 minutes, that's at least an hour too long, by my estimation. The theatrical cut is listed at a much more reasonable 107 minutes.
It's an interesting idea, from the "Flowers for Algernon" playbook, but there's not enough material to sustain such a long movie. Plus I'm not really seeing the connection between a dimwit gardener being made smarter, and all of the virtual reality scenes. How exactly does a trip into virtual reality go about changing this guy's brain - no specifics are really given. Between the VR goggles, the drugs, and the language courses - it's all very technical, you see, so there's no need for details.
A disclaimer before the film warns us that by the year 2000, virtual reality will be an established form of entertainment, and people would be conducting their lives in cyberspace. Yeah, I'll be sure to look for that - bear in mind that a year or two after this film, the internet took hold, and virtual reality became essentially a thing of the past. Umm...the future past. The past's future. Seriously, who needs VR when we've got PS3, iTunes and the internet?
At first I was upset to learn that this was based on a Stephen King story - since I'm saving 5 or 6 Stephen King movies for October. But according to the interwebs, this film bears almost no resemblance to King's story of the same name, and King even sued the producers of this film for promoting it with his name. Which is funny because often writers will sue filmmakers for having an idea that's too close to their book, not for making a film that doesn't resemble their book at all.
Some unintended connections to last night's film - like Tony Stark, Dr. Angelo here is tasked with creating better soldiers (though again, I fail to see how making soldiers smarter with virtual reality will help them in the long run) and Jobe, the title character, is a big fan of comic books. Hey, I'll take whatever connections I can get.
Starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey
RATING: 3 out of 10 crucifixes
I remember seeing this in the movie theater. Believe me, even 107 minutes of it felt too long. 3 out of 10 might be a point too generous. I'd read the SK short story well beforehand and I couldn't imagine how they'd make a whole movie based on it. The answer is: they didn't. Name only.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I concur. I read the short story long before seeing this film (back when I attempted to watch all Stephen King films, to see how the compared to the books. No connection what so ever, but honestly I cannot see anything worthwhile in that short story that can be made into a movie. That said, I don't think that title is of any benefit either. Guess they were just trying to attach Stephen King's name to the project.
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