Reviews

As much as I like Fred Ward and David Warner and the noir detective genre, this film is just a bit too silly. Filled with references to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, this film seems to be satirizing Lovecraft's work rather than paying homage to it. The ending is way too predictable.

There are lots of interesting concepts (zombie henchmen, etc.), but they just seem like individual characters/gimmicks made for a Role Playing Game.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd hooked up with Fred Ward after she split from James Cameron (who hooked up with Linda Hamilton after making Terminator 2). They worked together on films like "Tremors"which have credits for 4- Ward Productions, so I wonder if that's a company she created in honor of Fred Ward.

I saw this when it originally aired as a 2-part TV movie. I really enjoyed the premise of people forming their own society while trapped in a sunken ocean liner for a generation. The moral theme about society despising the Nazis but still becoming fascist is also good. Christopher Lee and Frank Gorshin play very intriguing characters. Alex Cord, Jean Marsh, John Carradine and Eddie Albert make great supporting actors as well. Mark Harmon is okay as the hero. (Ironically, he appeared in another sunken ship film: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.) The film also has one of Duncan Regehr's early roles, before he went on to roles in "Wizards & Warriors" and "V". Emma Samms is charming as a girl who grew up in the ship. http://tinyurl.com/cwcqarv She would later gain fame as Fallon Colby on "Dynasty".

The first half of the story explains the history of the ship and how it is found. There's a really shocking scene where the first diver enters the old sunken ship and we see barely see through his foggy diving mask that there are living people on board! The hauntingly iconic image of a diver seeing the lovely Emma Thompson's face through a watery porthole was used in the commercials for the movie and when the movie itself cut to commercial breaks.

The second half of the film deals with the cultural and political implications for this isolated society which has been stuck in 1930s culture. They have adapted their lifestyle and morals to survive. Do they want to be rescued?

After many years of searching for a video release, I was able to catch film on TV again, but it was HORRIBLY edited to make it 60 minutes shorter. The film was obviously sped up and many lines and dramatic pauses had been removed, which totally messed up the acting and script. It's hardly worth seeing if it's not the full 3 hour version.

Peter O'Toole (who starred in another great desert epic, Lawrence of Arabia) is wonderful as the general who knows peaceful negotiation is better than war, but is forced by political wrangling above and below his rank to try to crush the Jewish resistance group. The Romans learn that it is one thing to conquer a country, but it's altogether another thing to occupy it. And don't we still see that to the current day? In another telling analogy, if it considered valiant to kill yourself (& family) just to defy your enemy, what does that say about modern suicide bombers? I recall a bit of controversy when this film came out. Some critics worried that the mass suicide at Masada was too evocative of Jim Jones' cult suicide in Guyana.

There's lots of interesting historical detail about ancient social classes, technology, military strategy - even an example of early political satire shows! This is not just "Hollywood spectacle". The characters are realistically portrayed going through real human struggles. As I recall, the sole historical account of Masada comes from Josephus, a Jew serving Emperor Vespacian. Josephus supposedly got the inside story from one of the few Jews who didn't commit suicide. Therefore, 80% of the film and most of the characters are probably fictional, created to add drama. Even so, everything supports the main story and brings the event to life. The only bit that is too exaggerated is the opening credits in the first part, set in the present day, which comes across like nothing less than an advertisement for the Israeli army.

Oh, and the musical score is fabulous! I remember faith-healer and Christian evangelist Maurice Cerullo had a massive fund-raising campaign to help produce this film. For an adequate donation you got a commemorative bronze movie medallion.

This sequel to the great "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" is such a let down. The first TV movie had charming performances from Robert Hayes, Pam Dawber, and Jill Ireland. Sorry to say that, aside from Morgan Fairchild (who appeared of "Mork & Mindy" with Dawber), the cast of the sequel is very poor. I guess Dawber's and Hayes' starring roles on the sit-coms "Mork & Mindy" and "Angie" made them unavailable or too expensive for the sequel.

Perhaps it was the sloppy script that was the problem. The way Kirby rescues his friends from the barn doesn't make sense. The watch allows him to stop time but doesn't give him super strength. And then one of his friends assumes that Kirby just moved really fast? The first time this aired on TV I recommended it to my friend, because I thought it would be as good as the first one, which he hadn't seen. I was very embarrassed.

What everyone seems to be missing is the significance of Ambrose Bierce. He's a real 19th century author, and the film takes it's title from one of his books. He's best known for the classic twist at the end of "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge". (It was made into an episode of the original Twilight Zone.) This film hints a few times that a similar twist will take place... but it never does. Why is there no payoff after building up the Bierce character with so much historical detail? Anyway, the film is not bad, which is surprising, considering that they just rewrote the script from the first film into a Old Western setting.

Bierce's story "The Damned Thing" was produced as an episode of Showtime's "Masters of Horror."

Oddly, less than a year before this series (an action-drama), there was a short-lived zany comedy series about a cop with a robot partner called "Holmes & Yoyo".

Decades ago, I saw an interview with famous (and often disgruntled) SciFi author Harlan Ellison, in which he said that the "Future Cop" series was ripped off of an idea for a series which he had submitted. Apparently, Ellison's proposed series, called "Big Mac", was about a very scientifically plausible police robot that was more along the lines of R2-D2. Yeah, that seems like quite a stretch from that to "Future Cop", but he won the lawsuit. I've also heard it called the "Brillo" case.

Although the cover art is reminiscent of a kooky social satire in the vein of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Circuitry Man is not that. We see so many mega-budget films that are so uninspired, that it always brings a smile to my face to see a low-budget film that rises to the challenge and is actually entertaining. The characters are interesting, from Juice (a big woman who breaks easily) to Yo-Yo (who changes allegiances back and forth) to Plughead (I didn't recognize him from The Road Warrior.) and there's the mechanic and the big tough guy in the oxygen bar...

It's by no means a classic, but it's fun and deserves respect for what it accomplishes, given what they had to work with.

I liked the way that people would expect Starman to be a jerk (because the guy who's body he copied was kind of a jerk), but he would end up inspiring hope in everyone. I was impressed with how he handled his captor, George Fox, in the next to last episode.

In the motion picture, I always felt that it was wrong for Starman to get Jennie Hayden pregnant and just leave her. The TV series sort of helped to redeem that.

It made sense that, as an alien, he had a completely fresh perspective on things, and thus was a very creative photographer.

The stories were all set in the southwest U.S. The scene of Starman first emerging in Paul's body was cool.

A unique show that appeals to lovers of peace & social justice. I remember seeing a bumper sticker after it was cancelled: "Starman will return in a moment." The show was something new under the sun.

The series was created by the same guy who gave us the emotionally powerfully "Beauty and the Beast" TV series.

I loved the way that, no matter how sad the events in Ben's life would be, you knew that as an old man he would be able to look back at it with peace. Hopefully, we all will be able to share what we've learned in life with our grandchildren.

It was really able to put life's events in perspective. Like one of the previous comments said: It was just too good for TV. I can only hope that the series will be made available to view again through some means.

I recall a major gag of the first episode was that someone was pressing a remote garage door opener and it caused Yoyo to spin head-to-toe in mid-air. Another time, he couldn't enter a building because the sensor of an automatic door caused him to turn and walk in the opposite direction.

The show received quite a bit of public attention (or at least its catchy name did) but was obviously quickly forgotten. On an episode of the TV series "Maude", a game show host (Conrad Janis) complained that he barely missed getting the lead role in "Holmes and Yoyo".

The following year, ABC attempted "Future Cop" - a dramatic series about a cop (Ernest Borgnine) with a robot partner.