It could have been a university. A lot of cheap sci-fi was filmed at universities that had campuses with unusual modern architecture.
4 Likes
I always have thought of the movie as a “PBS, more like PB-Mess”!
3 Likes
So for my Birthday Dinner last Monday at Disney World, I had the Filet Mignon- WITH, BERNAISE SAUCE!! (yes, MST3K had me eager to try it. Very rich, indeed)
4 Likes
That may be my favorite riff. The way Crow says ‘with bearnaise sauce’ with such gravitas always makes me giggle.
3 Likes
In the town where I grew up, there was a campus bar called the Other Place. (It’s no longer in business.)
2 Likes
Someone on Facebook linked to a PDF of a short story collection that included John Varley’s original story, which I had wanted to read for some time. So I downloaded it, which I guess is piracy? (Ssshhhh! Don’t tell anyone!)
Turns out the original story is pretty good! It just didn’t contain enough material by itself to fill out a feature-length movie, so the filmmakers decided to shoehorn in “scrolling up cinemas” and Casablanca and the corporate dystopia and the obese Chairman character and Fingal’s dead mother and, and, and…
I recommend Varley’s story, especially if you appreciate the good plot ideas that the video adaptation just couldn’t develop properly.
4 Likes
You can also “check out” the story collection as a library book from the Internet Archive (with a free account there). Overdrawn is a nice little story (38pp?), given that it was written in the mid-1970s. The story is kind of fun, much like in the film, though easier to follow. And even though that extraneous stuff you mentioned isn’t there, you can sometimes see where they got those ideas from.
The authors of other stories in the collection include Adams, Dick, Gibson and Bradbury, though I didn’t read any of those. The book is “Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality” (1993), ISBN-13: 978-0806514062.
2 Likes
Just watched this the other day with my wife (someone out there, possibly a member of this forum for all I know, has been doing AI upscaling work on the episodes and putting them on YouTube, that’s how we watched it), we both enjoy the episode.
This is a nostalgic one for me as it was a memorable episode back when I watched the series as a ten year old kid. Seemed like Sci Fi reran this one a lot on Saturday mornings. I love the riffing, the constant coughing, farting, wheezing and heaving noises they heap upon The Fat Man during his monologue never fail to make me laugh, cruel as the jokes are in retrospect. Also, now that I’m older and have seen Casablanca, there’s a whole lot more to enjoy from revisiting this episode as an adult.
Also, between this and Street Fighter I’m convinced that Raul Julia really was an actor capable of elevating whatever he was in. His performance makes this movie much better than it would otherwise be with someone else in his role, and he absolutely made Street Fighter about three times more enjoyable than it would’ve been without him.
Vincent Price was like that too, he knew how to make any movie he was in more enjoyable than it would otherwise be without him. He knew when a movie needed a good serious performance, and he also knew when a movie needed him to be a sneering ham. I love it when an actor seems to know, “I’m not going to be able to make this good, but at least I can help make it fun.”
9 Likes
I wouldn’t want to bungle or bobble the Fingal doppel
Was it one of the surgically enhanced episodes on the Gizmoplex? I can’t seem to find a definitive list anywhere.
I always try to use the Gizmoplex to watch old episodes so it’d be nice to see the best computer graphics 1981 had to offer in 1984 in “high” “def”
3 Likes
I’m just going to say it, this is my favorite episode. The riffing and the host segments make it all worthwhile. I added this information to my profile as well!
5 Likes
(Edited)
3 Likes
This movie feels like a 1980s Doctor Who serial with the Doctor inexplicably missing, complete with it being shot on videotape and the shoddy chroma key effects. But that’s only the start of the many issues to be seen.
First off, our alleged “hero” Aram Fingal is a self-absorbed jerk who never displays any redeeming traits. In particular, his unwanted advances towards one of his co-workers early in the narrative make him unappealing. Then there’s the flagrant violation of the screenwriting principle of show, don’t tell. Now many an inept screenwriter will use narration to convey bits of exposition which they are unable to present in the dialogue in a convincing fashion. But in this case, the narration focuses on exposition that is obvious to the audience. It’s like one of those really bad DVD commentary tracks where the commentator just describes what’s happening on the screen without offering any insights.
I suspect the major issue is that (as I understand it) the original short story didn’t have much in the way of conflict, so some was added to pad the adaptation out to feature length. This worked out about as well as you might expect. Again, Fingal proves to be an issue, as he instigates the conflict rather than react to it. In particular, his misadventures in the Novicorp mainframe result in mucking up weather control systems, resulting in much offscreen damage and loss of life. Now it’s certainly possible that Fingal might not be fully aware of the consequences of his actions. Even so, asking the audience to regard him as a lovable rebel is a bit much.
Another movie where Julia portrays a slimy cad is Eyes of Laura Mars. Though the ones who uplift that one due to their presence are René Auberjonois and Brad Dourif. Because Brad Dourif is good in anything. He was even good in Dune, and no one was good in Dune.
4 Likes
More than a bit, I’d say.
2 Likes
Another way the grafted-on conflict doesn’t adhere well is Novicorp’s response. Fingal is running amuck in Novicorp’s systems, and causing havoc in the real world.
So what does Novicorp do? Sit down with him and tell him what is happening and get him to understand the consequences of what he’s doing?
No, they give arbitrary instructions (“go to work” “change things” “don’t change things”), make veiled threats, never giving a straight answer and preferring instead to be oblique and elliptical and that’s not a reference to the chairman’s shape.
The only attempt at a justification seems to be a spluttered “but corporate secrets!” excuse.
4 Likes
Remember, you’re going to have to qualify that these days.
1 Like
I saw one review a long time ago that said Fingal giving away the credits and stock bonuses was a bad idea, given the company’s performance and if he succeeded in damaging their reputation, that stuff was probably going to lose value let alone the possibility that people would be laid off due to the trouble he caused.
1 Like
My fave episode! 
5 Likes
No wonder he had to wipe his identity and go to ground at the end.
1 Like
Still, that must be a crazy world where the Chairman can be sent for a required rehab and not get out of it.
1 Like