Review of Gog

I actually found myself somewhat impressed by certain aspects of "Gog", notably the science based "mystery and suspense" scenario in a secret underground science base, which predated the "Andromeda Strain" by many years and the Cold War paranoia elements of the story, which contributed even more to the sense of menace. And a few of the performances were pretty good - Herbert Marshall turned in his usual classy, understated, yet humane performance, and the Cherman professor type kept the scenes he was in going with sheer personality. And the robots had a nice, innovative design and a couple of the techno-murders were nicely staged (the opening scene, where first one scientist is frozen to death in his own freezer, followed by his assistant, had a nice, mean ghoulishness to it).

But the movie gets strangled by its overly talky 2nd act, where the director and screenwriter get way too wrapped up in their Hugo Gernsback style explication of all the cool technology in the base.And the last 10-15 minutes, which were supposed to be the action filled climax, collapse under poorly choreographed action, underdone special effects, the most improbable nuclear reactor design in the history of cinema, and a bunch of scenery chewing spear carriers. Also, all these brilliant scientists and designers seemed to have never considered the idea of "off switches" on their machines, or the idea of a firewall.

Still, this movie is fun in spots, and worth seeing if you are a fan of the genre.