Customer Reviews

The Outer Limits: Tourist Attraction [VHS]

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

 

 

If any good came out of this episode, it would probably be the fact that "Tourist Attraction" is the touchstone for how NOT to waste money on a uninteresting idea.

The underwater photography is fairly good, even if the critters are not very convincing. The performances are fairly perfunctory and even Henry Silva as the maniacal dictator seems rather uninterested in what little is going on.

The ending, where an already weakened dam breaks, flooding the city below, comes as a welcome relief to anyone who managed to make it that far into the show.

Absolutely one of the worst--and possibly THE worst--Outer Limits episodes. Usually, OL was a brilliant, if sometimes erratic series. Tourist Trap is aptly named; after watching it, you'll feel as if you've been an unwilling prisoner for the last hour. "Horrible" is too kind a description.

It could have been worse. It could have lacked the presence of Henry Silva, as a South American despot. Its locales and sets could have been less exotic and lush. Even Janet Blair's legs are surely worth a point or two.

Unfortunately, I've named about all this episode is worth. Tourist Attraction has the sad distinction of being the reason many worthier OL entries looked so [bad] - it ate most of the production budget for the first season. And the saddest thing is, you'd never guess it to look at it. The lungfish beasties (they could only afford three, made to look like more through the miracle of recycling) are really unconvincing.

Let 'er sail! (Blub, blub, blub...)

If you can get over the laughable creature from the deep, then this episode is at least watchable with a few decent moments. It all starts out well, in fact, it has the feel of "The Creature From The Black Lagoon." The characters are not too annoying and the premise is solid, but it completely unravels halfway through the episode. It seems that after 20 minutes, the director had the actors do the script as an improv because NOTHING happens and everything just goes in circles. Which brings me to the end.............errrrrrrrr.........hmmmmmmm.....no comment.

In short, the opening is solid and the premise is good, but the script and plot execution is awful.

The thirteenth episode in the series, this is probably one of the most senseless episodes that I have seen of the Outer Limit series yet.

John Dexter (played by Ralph Meeker), is a rich tycoon who is sailing in the Caribbean with his team, searching for something which they do not tell us about (so much for the starting)! He soon finds a strange creature swimming underwater, and is determined to make it his prized possession. Eventually he gets the creature, which is a mammal, evolved from a whale and a dolphin. Now, Mercurio (played by Henry Silva), the dictator of the island, wants to get a hold of the creature to gain his reputation (even though we see that he keeps a statue of it in a room at his mansion, proving that he knows that the creature is supposed to be worshipped, but he disregards that fact anyway). But Dexter wants to take the creature back to the United States. So the two men start fighting over it, while the creature somehow breaks free and sends signals to its kind to come rescue him. The creatures do not take what happened to them lightly and make sure that the humans pay for what they did.

In between all the above lies a love story between Dexter and his assistant Lynn Arthur (played by Janet Blair). I was a little surprised that she actually chose him in the end instead of Tom Evans (played by Jerry Douglas), the marine biologist who is in the team with Dexter, since she was displaying affections for him for thirty minutes in the episode, while insulting Dexter. Anyway, that's not the main reason I was so disappointed in this episode. I just don't see what the whole concept of it was. Does this mean that we are supposed to worship our deities, otherwise fear an apocalypse (like how the creatures destroyed the dam)? Or is it simply supposed to tell us that being arrogant and treating people like objects (like how Dexter did) is wrong? If the second option were true, couldn't the writers of this episode have chosen a much more simpler storyline to tell this, without going through such extravagant twists in the storyline and over the head production costs? Even though the creatures and the locations were good, and the cast acted well (except for Ralph Meeker as Dexter, because he didn't show all his emotions were the same), this episode just doesn't cut it.

To quote Vic Perrin (The Control Voice): "The forces of nature will not submit to injustice. No man has the right, nor will the checks and balances of the Universe permit him to place his fellows under the harsh growth of repression. Nor may he again place the forces of nature under the triple growth of vanity, greed and ambition. In the words of Shelley, `here lies your tyrant, who would rule the world immortal'."

This episode is not a strong one; the creatures and some of the characters are too stereotyped to be believable. I also do not understand why there needed to be so many shots of the birds flying around. None of the action takes place in the air. The one aspect of the show that I liked was the conflict between the egotistical Latin American dictator and the arrogant American corporate tycoon. In their own way, both are completely self-centered. The dictator believes that he is always doing what is right for the people of his country, even though they are terrified of him. He is always dressed in a fancy military uniform, and is unhappy when others do not conform to his ideals.

The tycoon always dresses simply, is extremely courageous and treats people like disposable cameras. He barely acknowledges the feelings of anyone else, is very vindictive and fires people for the slightest mistake. While exploring a lake, the tycoon encounters a large marine creature and believes that he kills it. The "carcass" is placed in a freezer and transported to a lab at the local university. The tycoon plans to transport it back to the United States and the dictator wants to keep it for a tourist attraction. To prevent the transport of the creature, the dictator places an armed guard on the freezer containing the creature. The tycoon overpowers the guard and proceeds to begin transporting the creature. However, the thermostat on the freezer is turned up and the creature regains consciousness. It calls for help and additional creatures arrive and set it free. Other creatures act on a dam, causing it to break and flood a major city. At the end, the dictator is dead and the tycoon has received a lesson in humility.

The conflict between the tycoon and dictator is a metaphor for the relationship between the United States and the countries of Latin America. Americans go to the countries in that area and believe that they can simply take what they want, even over the objections of the local rulers. The term "tinhorn dictator" was coined to describe the characteristics of many of the leaders of the countries of Latin America.

Unfortunately, this is not enough to overcome the stereotypical actions of the other citizens of the Latin American country, the predictability of the other Americans and the silly depiction of the creatures. The secretary of the tycoon expresses a combination of disgust and affection for him and it is easy to see early in the episode that they will end up together at the end. It was a simple matter to anticipate almost everything that happened after the first ten minutes.

This ranks as the third worse episode in my book. If you don't find many reviews here,it's due to the fact that no-one wants to see this god-awful episode!