zeitschik Reviews

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Fantastic Voyage.... a trip that's quite worth taking.

[8/10 · 14 September 2006]

Back in 1966, long, long before the world was turned upside down and inside out on Sept. 11, the world was a very different place. The movies were quite different and science fiction pictures depended more on good writing and less on special effects. Partly because the phrase "computer generated" was years away. In 1966, 20th Century Fox released a very clever, well-written and innovative movie called, "Fantastic Voyage". The on-screen foreword informed the viewers that they were going to be taken to a place that no one had been before, and see things that had been, until that point in time, never been seen by human beings. I'm sure that this film had its fair share of technical advisors putting in a lot more than their 2 cents worth to make sure that the film accurately depicted human anatomy. The plot... A scientist, Jan Benes, has defected from behind the Iron Curtain, has, with the help of Grant, one of our top CIA operatives. Benes has decided to give his expertise with Miniaturization to the US. The "other side" has no choice but to try to kill him before he can breathe a word of it. The assassination attempt is made, but Benes barely survives, falling into a coma. After the movie's credits finish rolling, Grant is brought to a secret, gov't location. There, he meets Gen. Carter, who is in charge of the CMDF - Combined Miniature Deterent Forces. They can shrink anything; cars, planes, tanks, people way down in size, thus enabling them to become unseen military weapons. The problem: both sides have this capability. Another problem is... there is a time limit. They can only stay miniaturized for 60 minutes. After that the object or person automatically starts to grow. Benes had the answer to this problem, but he will need special medical treatment to regain consciousness. That's where Grant and a special team of doctors, technicians and such will have to go into action. After Grant meets the rest of the team, the surgeons in charge, Dr. Duvall and Dr. Michaels go over their plan to remove the blood clot in Benes' brain. They will board a special Navy submarine, called The Proteus, be miniaturized and injected into Benes' body by hypodermic needle. Naturally, the crew runs into Murphy's Law and a job that was expected to take 10 to 15 minutes takes much, much longer. The ending in the movie differs quite a bit from the book written by Isaac Azimov (I know because I read it... twice), and there are a number sub-plot twists that made me shake my head, but seeing Ms. Welch in that wet suit made it more than worth while. I consider this movie to be one of my very favorite sci-fi/fantasy flicks from the '60s. If you haven't seen it yet, for whatever reason, I can suggest you spend the 100 minutes with some very fine actors, some of whom are no longer with us, such as Stephen Boyd (Grant), Edmund O'Brien (Gen. Carter) and Arthur O'Connell who was in charge of the medical team, and others like Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Duvall), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Michaels) and last but not least, the ever-beautiful, Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson, Dr. Duval's technical assistant. One last thought.... if this movie was remade with present-day technology, i.e. computer generated imaging and the like, there's no telling how it would dazzle the viewers' eye.

Lifeforce (1985)

Two or three movies for the price of one.

[7/10 · 22 February 2006]

I have seen this movie both on VHS tape, and on broadcast television. I have read how other viewers were less than impressed by the acting. I can understand this. Railback was frequently over the top and Finlay seemed frequently laid back to the point of coma. Then again, Mathilda May, playing the female space vampire, was able to be very distracting, and all she had to do was walk around completely naked. Knowing about nudity and American TV, I was wondering how they were going to get around this situation without editing the death out of the movie. What did they do?.... when she was on the screen, wearing only a far-away look in her eyes, they showed her in extreme closeup, head and shoulders. The only problem I had with the movie, plot wise, was that it seemed to change plot lines in mid stream. It went from detective story to London vs. body snatchers. The special effects were quite good and I wish I knew what ever happened to the very, VERY lovely Ms. May. Maybe I've seen her and just didn't recognize her with her clothes on.

Legend of the Champions (1983 TV Movie)

Comments on Legend of the Champions (1983)

[5/10 · 7 May 2005]

This TV movie was culled from two separate episodes of the ITC British series, The Champions (1967), starring Stuart Damon (Craig Sterling), Alexandra Bastedo (Sharron Macready), William Gaunt (Richard Barrett) and costarring Anthony Nicholls (Tremayne). The two episodes, The Beginning - worked as a pilot, insofar as it explains who the three lead characters are and how they become The Champions. The action that takes place in the TV movie combines scenes from this first episode spliced, in bits and pieces format with the 18th episode, The Interrogation, in which Craig Sterling is kept in isolation and systematically "grilled" by a Nemesis operative who is trying to determine whether or not Sterling has become a double agent. Throughout the questioning sessions, Sterling is kept off balance with drugs, and other physical and psychological ploys, all in an attempt to help the interrogator (Colin Blakely) get to the "truth".

Having seen the movie a number of times, I can see why anyone would experience confusion or displeasure. Whoever decided to use Episode 18 with The Beginning did not do the viewers any favors. I can only recommend that any person who has recollection of this '60's TV show, and wants to relive those "good-old-days" spend the $50 or so and buy The Champions, which is available on DVD. I've been watching the episodes, in sequence, and have been enjoying them, immensely. Sharron Macready really gives Emma Peel a good run for her money, and as far as I'm concerned, that's really saying something!!