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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Get Ready to Integrate, March 6, 2006
Here is one of those movies where the box is the most exciting thing about the movie. Once you begin watching the movie, you suddenly realize that this movie is tremendously exciting, much like watching grass grow. Actually, watching grass grow may be more exciting.
The movie begins with some promise. We see a fellow in a white coat flitting about a laboratory while scenes are cut in discussing the fellow and that he has just stolen the super secret files that no one should ever have access to because they are super secret and it is just too bad that he has to be "transferred," which is a euphemism for shot a whole bunch of times in a hotel room while writing a letter to a congressman who already knew about the secret project anyway. Understanding all this really makes little difference, because this movie is confusing much of the time anyway, and the ending seems almost pointless.
We soon learn that the "project" is going to move forward with four volunteers. We pick up bits and pieces that the "project" has something to do with reading minds. Obviously this project has to be government sponsored because in 1977, when this movie was filmed, government was the root of all evil. Knowing what we know today, obviously evil was milder in those days.
Our four volunteers include ditzy Minnie Lee Parks (Anne Latham, in her second and last role), war veteran Judd Reeves (Marcus J. Grapes, who was near the end of his brief television and film career), Reverend Emory Neill (James Best, a veteran of at least 170 film and television appearances, who many will remember best as Rosco P. Coltrane on the television series "The Dukes of Hazzard"), and highly intelligent Willie West (Gerald McRaney, who was one of the Simons in the television series "Simon & Simon," among dozens of other appearances).
Dr. Carol Portland (Barbara Burgess, who had one role after this movie in 1984's "Laughterhouse") spends a good amount of time trying to keep her hair piled high without snapping her neck, and periodically appearing intelligent. To her credit, she keeps herself above the silly dialogue (more about that in a moment). Dr. Portland appears to be intimate with Dr. Roland Roth (Doug Collins, in his only film appearance, ever; this movie must have told him that acting was a poor way to make a living), who appears to be sort of in charge much of the time, and who shares highly dramatic scenes with Gil Peterson as Dr. Elton Morris. I know Gil Peterson is famous because he was the well known "fourth German soldier" in a 1965 episode of "Combat." If that isn't fame, I do not know what is.
There are a number of nondescript government types who lend credence to the whole government conspiracy plot, but other than seeing moving mouths and one high government person's office that looks a lot like a junk closet at Hewlett Packard, these characters are there for comic relief. Just kidding. Actually these characters are there to be sinister and cold-blooded, but only if you can stop rolling your eyes long enough to focus.
What all this comes down to is that the non-descript government types take over the experiment, and soon our volunteers are doing all sorts of dramatic things (yawn). By the time the movie reaches its inevitable conclusion, I was wondering what all the hoopla was about. After all, one of the characters in the movie sure looked to me like a George Bush look-alike.
There is no way that I am able to explain to you how bad this movie is. It is boring. The technical jargon, which uses the word "integrate" more times than a semester of calculus, was obviously bogus. In fact, the dialogue was a concatenation of actual words that made virtually no sense. It did sound impressive. I was impressed by the use of actual oscilloscopes, computer tape drives and other high tech paraphernalia from the 70s that were likely state of the art at that time. However, getting past the equipment, this movie has nothing to offer. The plot takes a long time to get launched. Once you figure out what the plot is about, you get to the "so what" point, and after that the movie goes down hill from there. I spent much of the movie waiting for something, anything, to happen. It never did.
If you have so much money that you have spend it on something, get this movie. Otherwise, I recommend any other movie you can find.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I am immortal and I can not die, September 23, 2007
Filmed in the 70's this is a latecomer to the sixties formula big brother paranoia films.
An experiment is performed to see if "truth" can be told with the hope that the results can correct all the ills of mankind and pollution to boot. The subjects are carefully chosen based on the objective.
Unknown to our guinea pigs and testing staff, the experiment was usurped by the military for nefarious purposes; anyone objecting is dispatched.
Naturally the computers and guinea's are not suited for the plan. This is a brain teaser as everyone has to confess they lied. More insidious is the fact that the computer can not understand that the subject does not believe he can die and sets out to prove this. This becomes a compressing problem.
How will it end? Or will it end? What would you do in the situation?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What exactly was the point of this movie?, July 21, 2006
The Brain Machine is a very vague movie. The writer felt he had something important to say and the way to say it was never let the audience know just what the hell is going on. Four people, including James Best of Dukes of Hazzard fame as a reverend, are taking part in a psychological experiment. They are asked a lot of questions and told that they must tell the truth or the experiment won't work. Then they are locked in a room in which their environment will be controlled and the walls will gradually close in on them. What exactly is the experiment and what is its ultimate purpose? Not a clue.
Unbeknownst to the doctors running the experiment, there is a shadowy government group watching on hidden cameras. They have done something to the computer running everything which, when the subjects are asleep, infiltrates their brains and reads their minds. Then the computer tells the doctors something the subject is lying about and they must get the truth out of them for the experiment to continue. What did the government do and what is its ultimate purpose with this technology? Not a clue.
Besides James Best, this movie also stars a very young Gerald McRaney and a bunch of non-actors. The worst is the man playing the General in charge of the shadowy government group. Stiff as a board and unable to deliver a line with any emotion. The direction is almost silly. There are two locations in the movie. A hospital-like building where the experiment is taking place and the General's mansion complete with a lovely in-ground pool. Apparently the director felt that two locations would be confusing to the viewers, so everytime the scene changes we are enlightened with the exact same shot of either the hospital or the General's home before the actual scene begins. Then there's the wonderful scenes of the General's henchmen, sitting with headphones on staring straight ahead at make-believe monitors saying things like "Mark 5, Camera 3. We have visual. Countdown 5 4 3 2 1. Mark" Now that is scintillating dialog.
This is not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's not good either. if you need it to complete your James Best library, go ahead, but otherwise avoid it.
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