Kojacque

Yes, that's Jack Hawkins (best known to most of us as T.E.'s uptight CO in "Lawrence of Arabia") in brown goo and a metal skirt! His makeup looks worse (if it's possible) than Charlton's in "Touch of Evil," but that's half the fun. Hawks claimed that there was no one to root for in this movie--I disagree wholeheartedly. I was rooting for Joan the whole time. Well, at least for her to get her comeuppance! This movie deserved MST3K treatment, but is well-worth watching on a rainy Sunday. The last five minutes alone are worth the price of rental!

It's now 2:12am, and I have to leave for work in 2 hours. I'm up, with ALL the lights on. I laugh at "scary" movies costing tens of millions of dollars, but a couple of kids spent $75,000, and now I cannot turn out the lights. Sure, you've seen "The Shining," "Nosferatu," and "The Exorcist," but you haven't seen anything like this. How am I ever going to sleep again? You can bet I won't be camping anytime soon.

An unjustly-overlooked masterpiece. The almost-unrecognizably young Robert Stack plays the hardened CO of a company entrusted with delivering a treaty. If the chief for whom it is intended does not receive it within the week, he will declare war. Of course, complications ensue...Many of the characters and plot points seem cliched, but only because the film shows its age. Look past the vestiges of '50s moviemaking--blue-eyed squaws, etc.--for strikingly modern subject matter: divorce and Native American rage at continued injustices in particular. Tremendously taut and exciting, to boot. See this movie!

I clearly remember watching this on PBS when I was a boy, and being horribly depressed by it. It's a challenging little story (_very_ "Bradburian") more about the cruelty of which children are capable than life on another planet (where it takes place). Thoroughly top-notch.

Nobody does Cronenberg like Cronenberg, and he's working at the top of his form. A talented cast works from a challenging, underrated (if the other reviews and Ebert's criticism are any indication) script, all framed with the obligatory organic grossouts we demand from Mr. C. I have read in several places (including the column of the usually infallible Ebert) that the dialogue was stilted. Yes, it is, but pay close attention, because it's _intentionally_ so. The fact that the performances sometimes slip into Mametish woodenness is a key plot point. Writing his own script for the first time in 15 years, Cronenberg also manages to transcend the shaggy-dog "it was all a dream" corniness to which "Jacob's Ladder" fell prey, staying fresh through the last frame of the movie. Jude Law and Christopher Eccleston continue to prove themselves to be two of the most talented young actors working today.