I first became aware of this movie at a young age when a couple of stills from it were replicated in a sci-fi book I owned. One of those pictures showed an elaborate colourful nightclub set with giant inflatables and girls in large translucent spheres. Needless to say, I had to check this movie out! I was aware of the character Jerry Cornelius without actually having read any of the Michael Moorcock books which featured him; in fact I first became aware of the character when Games Workshop brought out a metal figurine of him for use in role playing games. Anyhow, I am digressing somewhat, so back to the movie. Its story isn't really its strong point to be perfectly honest. It essentially boils down to Cornelius hooking up with a computer expert called Miss Brunner in order to retrieve a micro-film containing details of the Final Programme, which is a revolutionary scientific process conceived of by Cornelius' late father, which will lead to the creation a self-replicating hermaphrodite messiah. But first the micro-film must be taken by force from Cornelius' deranged brother Frank.
The director for this one was Robert Fuest, who was responsible for the 'Dr. Phibes' movies. Like those inventive horror films, this one is visually very interesting, with great set designs and lots of colour. It's a mid-70's future, so it is wild and over-the-top in the manner that many of the best sci-fi films from the period were. The night club for instance is a pop art masterpiece with gaudy décor aplenty and a fantastic colour overload all round. It also has nuns playing fruit machines, and seemingly the members of the space rock band Hawkwind lurking in the background. You could almost say that this scene encapsulates the film as a whole, as it has a primary focus on visuals and a healthy dose of humour, with narrative logic a distant third. This basic formula is maintained throughout with cool detached characters played with distant ironic performances populating a highly stylized world in a story with a screenplay which could charitably be described as 'uneven'. So in order to get anything out of this one I would suggest that you really have to be interested in its visual ideas and overall weird ambiance, as opposed to the narrative itself. Like many of its 70's peers it is a slice of pessimistic sci-fi, set in a possible post-apocalyptic Earth where there is a suggestion that there is an impending disaster yet to come. The ideas don't truthfully seem to be treated entirely seriously, with the jokey tone suggesting that you shouldn't pay too much attention to the story-line. The odd, half-baked ending merely cements this notion further.
But I definitely got a kick out of this one. The performances are commendably game, with Jon Finch really very good as Cornelius, the chocolate biscuit addicted dandy of the future. Even better was Jenny Runacre in a thoroughly commandingly sexy performance as Miss Brunner, a bi-sexual predator who literally absorbs her lovers (somehow). There are also some solid cameo appearances from the always weird Patrick Magee as an associate of the demented Frank and Sterling Hayden giving a somewhat bizarre turn as an unhinged military expert. This very strange British sci-fi movie can fairly be described as a cult item. Its anarchic devil-may-care presentation, with some interesting characters and pop art future stylings make it one for fans of weird 70's sci-fi in particular and of strange 70's movies in general. Definitely something of an acquired taste though that is for sure but if you have a taste for baroque, left-of-centre movies and don't mind flippant disregard for trivialities such as plot, then you could have a good time with this one!
4 out of 6 found this helpful