Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, December 15, 2009
Film / Nerd Walken in a Winter Wonderland
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 4:24 PM
You want to hear the weird part? Just last night I was watching Brainstorm, a 1983 science-fiction thriller starring...
(wait for it)
Other than the above sequence, it was not a good movie.
1
i like it when the robotic arm looks like it's succumbing to a drunken rage and knocks over those cans.
2
Brainstorm is only a visionary masterpiece among masterpieces. It was how I fell in love with Walken. The "acting" between him and his wife, knowing they were bugged; his response when having the input line switched with a chimp; and his obliviousness when his partner gets furious for their company selling their invention to the military are cherished moments in the Walkenlogue.
3
P.S., Hate to say it, Paul, but as sci-fi goes, it was brilliant. It wasn't written as a high drama or dialogue-driven piece, and even though they lost Natalie Wood during filming, there still remains a Philip K. Dick gee-whiz-what-if-oh-my ethical questions underlying the storyline.
8
I like Walken, although I find celebrity and 99 percent of pop culture referenced art a stain on civilization. My favorite, Walkenlog describing the wedding-ring-up-the-asshole-scene in True Romance. Or Truther Romance, we're on the same page.
Deer Hunter is great, though most geology students are aware that mountains like that don't exist in Pennsylvania, another one of hollywood's crooked liberties, which is just one of many reasons why art that references to celebrity and pop art is sinking modern times. Call me a traditionalist; I'm from the Allan Bloom school of thought, many years ago, but it still lingers. THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Bloom
Deer Hunter is great, though most geology students are aware that mountains like that don't exist in Pennsylvania, another one of hollywood's crooked liberties, which is just one of many reasons why art that references to celebrity and pop art is sinking modern times. Call me a traditionalist; I'm from the Allan Bloom school of thought, many years ago, but it still lingers. THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Bloom
9
Paul you could not be more wrong, stick to comics and henta porn my friend. This movie is fairly prescient and deserves a lot of credit--its not a triumph but it sure is a good movie...dated but still really sharp as attested by it many imitators. Douglas Trumball--SFX creator behind some of the most iconic movies of the 70s and 80s--shoulda make another film that is not plagued with problems.
10
It is not at all a good movie, but in our age of 300 Avatars CGI motion-capture 3D Coraline Whosits, it's fun to remember that "Brainstorm"'s big gimmick (outside of marketing manna over the recently and scandalously late Natalie Wood) for getting butts in seats was that most of it was projected in 35mm, but key portions were done in....(gasp).....70mm!!!!
11
Ahem...
In the movie "Brainstorm", a guy loops a recording of what an orgasm feels like so that he can constantly feel that and nearly dies from it.
BECAUSE GUYS WOULD TOTALLY DO THAT.
...and that ends my defense of the movie "Brainstorm".
In the movie "Brainstorm", a guy loops a recording of what an orgasm feels like so that he can constantly feel that and nearly dies from it.
BECAUSE GUYS WOULD TOTALLY DO THAT.
...and that ends my defense of the movie "Brainstorm".
13
@11: Ohhhh, all the things you really don't think about when you're seeing a film as a ten-year-old. I couldn't figure out what his deal was until years later — at which point, "EWWWWW SICK," followed years later by, "What a dumbass," followed by, "Typical."
14
Who is this guy Constant anyway? Man doesn't know his head from his ass. What's your idea of good sci-fi there Paul, 'Battlefield Earth'?
15
#6 That's Louise Fletcher, not Lasser. And yes, I agree, that scene had an impact on a much younger me--first time I'd ever thought about what dying might actually be like.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
NYC Man Ticketed for Not Riding in the Bike Lane by Jonathan Golob
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (15) RSS