Customer Reviews

Nightfall [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

When I first read Isaac Asimov's short story "Nightfall", I was stunned and left gasping at its powerhouse of a closing. When I finished watching the filmed version, I was also stunned and left gasping--but for quite different reasons. All the mystery and beauty of the short story that sought to explain a millenia old phenomenon of a planet's first and last nightfall was not only lost in the movie, but even on a technical level of competence, from the wretched directing of Paul Mayersberg to the incompetent acting of David Birney and David Carradine, this movie quite unintentionally presents both a challenge and a dilemma to those whose job it is to pass judgment on its merits. For truly abysmal efforts like ROBOT MONSTER or PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, these efforts nevertheless retain the saving grace of something that clicks with the audience, whether that something be the excessive exuberance of John Barrows waving his arms in a gorilla suit from ROBOT MONSTER or the perversely androgynous heavy-handedness of director Ed Wood in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Even 'bad' movies can have a style of their own that comes into play usually late at night in a marijuana filled college recreation room. But what separates the fun of enjoyable bad movies from the torture of having to sit through garbage like NIGHTFALL is the deadening seriousness of the collective hands of all concerned from director to writer to actor. In such movies as this, there is nowhere to be found any lightness of attitude or just plain old fun. It is as if such films serve only to remind the audience that there are indeed moments in our lives that call for infinite patience while someone drives sharp needles under our fingernails. Yet, I do not want to have to pay for such dubious pleasure. With films like this one, I did.

This movie, I am thinking it is very very bad, and not good at all. Do you understand?

I won't describe it, but at least one scene was simply vile, and simply wasn't needed.

The original short story is fine. The long book which Silverberg wrote is fine also. But this movie is not in tune with either Asimov's or Silverbergs writing.

Even if I wasn't comparing it to a previously published story, I would say this movie is miserable. And vile.

The script is miserable. The acting is miserable. All of it is miserable. And some of it is vile.

This is what I am thinking. And by the way, it sucks worse than any movie I have ever seen. And some of it is vile.

There are so many complaints for this film that it would take too much time to enumerate. On a world with 6 stars and constant light, the entire planet is of a middle-eastern/Indian skin tone, except for our handful of protagonists, who are surprisingly caucasian. The societal conventions, including such things as dress and makeup are also uninspiringly late 20th century American, down to lipstick and pony tails. Our heroes use camping lanterns to explore caverns yet whip out laser pistols to fight off sword-wielding attackers.

Robe-wearing religious fanatics are our antagonists, and seeing a similarly clad David Carradine confronting them makes one expect to see a sudden kung fu showdown, and a Japanese anime-style soundtrack clashes horribly with all too 'Roger Corman' plain cinematics.

An hour and a half of my time I wish I could get back.

I was a big Asimov fan and made the mistake of seeing this film when it came out in the cinema, since it was the first movie made from an Asimov idea since "Fantasic Voyage" YUCK! Over half the audience LEFT the movie and by the time it was over I wished I had, too.

This movie has nearly NOTHING to do with the original novella and undoubtedly was the major reason that no other works of Asimov have been adapted to film (even though they are among the most deserving to be adapted)

I continuously wondered throughout the film what major chemicals the cast and crew were consuming throughout the production. The acting, the cast and the production values are among the worst I have ever seen outside of old 8mm student films with budgets of less... I think we have a film here that can easily displace "Plan 9 From Outer Space" as the worst movie of all time.

Please boycott this film.

Okay, okay, this movie was as rotten as a reeking week old carcass under the blazing sun. I can lament for hours about the MANY horribly done 'effects' and the fact that it did not match the original tale, clinging only to several very BASE-ic threads to what was an Asimov Masterpiece. I could also go on and on about how this horrific movie was cast with what I would think are the dregs of the Screen Actor's Guild (if not just ordinary passers-by abducted off the streets of Calcutta and forced to perform in this heinous waste of celluloid under the threat of their demise) -- but I can only say this... As horrid as it was... as tasteless, and wasteful of cash and human life-moments as this travesty of film has been, it is not half as horrid as its 1988 predecessor. *That* movie was some product of a bodily function from a mushroom-dazed idiot, and like some movies & games have been known to induce epileptic fits, this movie nearly caused me catatonia. Anyway... this movie bites the big one, but if you enjoy MST3K as a show, and like to do as they did... it's the perfect candidate for such activities. For anyone who enjoys Sci-fi, and is looking for good entertainment, find the book by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, and read that... These film adaptations of the story (probably spawned from some evil parallel universe) should be shot into the sun.

The short story is fabulous. The novel is pure genius. Things the moviehas in common with the book: an eclipse, fires, and a few people's names. Things the movie got wrong: the level of technology, the psychotic fear of darkness, the religious nuts, the relationships between the people, the jobs of the characters, the PLOT.

I got abot half an hour into it before I started skipping ahead by chapters. after about 30 seconds of that I stopped it.

Read the book. For that matter, STARE BLINDLY AT THE COVER OF THE BOOK. You'll enjoy it more.

Why was this movie even made? This is the type of movie that Holywood producers see and think "Well, if it was written as a book first, we might as well throw away the script now." It gives a bad name to movies based on books.

I have never read the original book, Nightfall, and have hardly touched any of Asimov's works, but this movie makes me want to keep away from any books by the "Renowned" and "Award Winning" author.

The movie was obviously filmed in India and uses locals as extras. The only people with lines are Caucasian except for the two "villains" who spend more time making faces while speaking than they do making any sense of the lines they have been fed. David Caridine has never been a good actor. The "Kung Fu" series I consider a pathetic excuse for a joke. The only good thing about this movie is the art on the DVD/VHS cover.

The leads are two caucasian women in mid-eighties clothing with bulky purses that contain laser-pistols. They use a modern telescopic camera lens on an antique telescope found in a cave; that would be laughable if they bothered to take a moment to exploit it a bit. Good or bad, not one person in this film is even slightly attractive. Whatever the producers of this film were thinking when they made it, or whatever they were on, it was really a huge waste of time and money.

Don't waste your money on this...

UPDATE!

I read the short story by Isaac Asimov and watched the movie one more time... Suffice it to say, my first impressions were correct.

In the original story, the people are on a planet that is surrounded by three suns and once every 3000 years there is a nightfall. The people are terrified of the dark and cannot even stand to pass through a dark tunnel for five minutes before going insane.

The casting, as I mentioned before, is horrible. The acting is... well... there's not much here to mention.

The movie tore apart what Isaac Asimov wrote (a suspensful thriller of a tale) and made it into a crappy wanna-be action flick that is about as fun as watching a toilet spin the dirty water down the hole in the bottom.

My apologies to those who have seen this movie, even though I had nothing to do with the creation of it.

My warning to all who hold a mild curiosity for this film. You may just find yourself agreeing with me if you take the risk and try to watch it...

This story was originally a short story by Isaac Asimov that was critically acclaimed. It was next expanded into a novel that received mixed reviews. It has now further deteriorated into a dreadful film.

This film was far below B movie standards. Every element of it was poorly done. I've seen better acting in high school assembly halls. The screenplay was horrible with dialogue so bad it could make you retch. The music was shrill and the sound quality poor. The special effects were below 1960's standards. Even the editing was poor. The whole film was simply pathetic.

Asimov's original theme of the battle between science and religion was almost completely lost in an attempt to make the story into a "Raiders of the Lost Arc" adventure. The explanation of why darkness fell on the planet centered on the eclipse of one sun, but failed to explain what happened to the other five.

This film was abysmal. I rated it a 2/10. Stay away.

I rate this as 1 star because there appears to be no option for ZERO which is what it is really worth. I can't believe that Isaac allowed his name to be associated with such a corruption of his brilliant original short story. Its this kind of rubbish that gives SciFi a bad name! Come on you Hollywood scriptwriters, how about an Elijah Baley movie such as "The Caves of Steel" or "The Naked Sun", and stick closely to Asimovs story line this time.

they're all right- this is probably the worst movie ever made.