46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Embryo / DVD, June 14, 2000
By A Customer
Shame on Passport Video. My VHS Tapes look better than this DVD. The transfer looks to be off someones 6 hour tape. What a waste. I'll think twice before I purchase another Passport Video.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Barbara Carrera, Where Art Thou?, August 12, 2004
EMBRYO is about Dr. Paul Holliston (Rock Hudson), a scientist who has recently lost his wife (also a scientist). Holliston hits a doberman with his car (a 3 ton cadillac) on his way home one stormy night. He rushes the dog home to his lab, where he is unable to save her. However, the doberman is pregnant, so the good doctor keeps the doggy fetus alive, injecting it with an experimental growth hormone. The little canine grows at an amazing rate, reaching adulthood within hours! Holliston names the dog "Number One" and is astonished by it's intelligence (the dog gets it's own food out of the fridge, drops the empty bowl in the sink, opens doors, etc.). Unbeknownst to the doc, Number One also has a mean streak, as is displayed when it kills another dog and hides it's body. Of course, Holliston thinks everything's great, and soon looks for a human fetus to try his serum on. He gets his chance when another doctor helps him acquire a fetus from a doomed prostitute. Back in the lab, Dr. H. performs his latest experiment with similar results. He watches as the fetus grows up at super-speed. Next thing he knows, he's got an adult woman on his hands (Barbara Carrera), with superior intellectual powers matched only by her exotic beauty. Some of the best parts of the movie come when she is busy absorbing knowledge. Named "Victoria", she is introduced at a party as Holliston's new assistant. In one fun scene, Victoria plays an arrogant chess master (Roddy McDowall) to a humiliating finish. Unfortunately, things get serious when Victoria starts getting sick and figures out that she is not long for this world. This causes her to seek out the method by which she can stay alive, at the expense of others. A pretty good mad scientist thriller, EMBRYO has enough creepy / funny moments to keep my interest...
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting movie about the dangers of cloning, May 22, 2000
I have seen Embryo twice on television and I have enjoyed it both times. It is an interesting drama with a touch of science that presents the dangers of cloning, which is quite a futuristic view since the movie was released in only 1975, decades before "Dolly", the cloned sheep. For the most part, it is scientifically sound and is an original concept for a movie.
Rock Hudson stars as the doctor who finds an injured dog on the road and takes it home to nurse back to health. The doctor has been working on advanced growth formulae, however, and is able to regenerate (or clone) the dog within a matter of weeks. He is thrilled with his success and decides to make the giant leap to cloning a human. Not only does this intrigue the viewer, but introduces an eerie and suspenseful feeling about what is going to happen, especially when his "cloned" dog has an encounter with a small white dog (you'll have to see the movie to find out what happens here).
His "cloned" human is a girl named Victoria, nicely played by Barbara Carrera. Within days she is a beautiful, fully-grown adult with the remarkable ability to learn quickly and retain knowledge. She becomes very close to the doctor and helps him with his research. Then, near the end of the movie, something goes terribly wrong. It shows how an experiment can take a turn for the worse and is a warning to the limits of human testing. You will definitely have to watch the end of the movie to understand what I mean.
Embryo is successful as both a drama and pseudo-science movie. It was merely by chance that I watched it on T.V., but I'm glad I did because it was well worth it. The acting by Hudson and Carrera is well done, but I think the story idea itself makes this movie good. I recommend this movie to anyone who has an open mind to science and the future.
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