flory@zaphod.UUCP (Trevor Flory) (09/19/85)
I have a small question: Being a Peter O'Toole fan of the most dedicated sort I would like to know if the recently released flick _Creator_ is worth a pinch of 'coon chit? Is it worth $5? Any would-be movie critics care to expound? ***** Trevor K. Flory Develcon Electronics Ltd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA UUCP: ...!ihnp4!alberta!sask!zaphod!flory
terryl@tekcrl.UUCP (09/22/85)
> I have a small question: > Being a Peter O'Toole fan of the most dedicated sort > I would like to know if the recently released flick > _Creator_ is worth a pinch of 'coon chit? Is it worth > $5? Any would-be movie critics care to expound? Well, yes and no. My first gut reaction was that I felt cheated. The ads I've seen go something like this: "Dr. Harry Wolper is an eccentric genius. And, with the help of his loyal assistants, he's closing in on one of the greatest discoveries of all time. All that's standing in their way is the University, the faculty, the laws of nature and about 20 local ordinances. But, with a little luck, they just might pull off a miracle." The miracle is that Harry is trying to clone his wife, who has been dead for over 30 years, with some cells he saved from her. Well, he sort of succeeds, but we really don't know for sure, because about an hour into the movie, the university comes busting into his lab at his home, and thereby destroying all of his work, including something that looks like(and apparently is) a human embryo, his new-cloned wife. Now Harry, who in previous scenes was somewhat of a rebel-rouser, meekly accepts this all, definitely not in character. Then Harry disappears, and the last 40 minutes or so of the movie turns into a very bad rehash of "Love Story" as one of Harry's graduate student's (Vincent Spano) girlfriend(Virginia Madsen) develops a brain tumor and goes into a coma. Her parents are called in, and there's a few tear-jerker scenes between Boris(Vincent Spano) and his girlfriend's parents, and the parents decide to pull the plug on the life support system. Harry magically appears (from where it is never made apparent, but it is assumed from a retirement-type home for the college Harry teaches at, where he has just been sent), gets some sort of magical paper from the Dean of the college to give Harry two days to see if he can do anything to save her. Harry tells Boris that there's nothing he can do, and to talk to her. Well, surprise, surprise, she pulls out of it and everyone lives happily ever after. The first hour or so of the movie is pretty good, with O'Toole giving his standard off-the-wall weird character, which works pretty well. Mariel Hemingway also stars as a nineteen year-old nymphomaniac who Harry happens to meet by chance, and he uses an egg from Mariel's character for the cloning of his dead wife. As I said before, the last 40 minutes of the movie just degenerates into a very bad "Love Story". If the movie would have just been about Harry trying to clone his dead wife, succeeding or not doesn't matter, it would have been a much better movie. Vincent Spano's and Virginia Madsen's characters seem to be in the movie mainly for the "R" rating, and to bring in the teenage audience. David Ogden Stiers(Winchester from TV's "MASH") also co-stars as Harry's main nemesis, and he gives a credible performance. I didn't like Mariel Hemingway's performance that much. She seems to be in the movie solely to bring Harry back to the present(there's quite a few scenes where Harry sees his dead wife, but we're never really sure if he's seeing her ghost, or if he's just dreaming about her). Mariel falls in love with Harry, and Harry finally falls in love with her after one final scene where Harry asks his dead wife if he can get on living again. What a letdown!!! My advice is if you like O'Toole, then go see it, but you can leave after Harry's lab is destroyed. Otherwise, be prepared for a very drippy and lackluster performance as Boris wonders whether she going to live or not. Terry Laskodi of Tektronix
michele@ISM780.UUCP (09/23/85)
>/* Written 6:23 pm Sep 18, 1985 by flory@zaphod in ISM780:net.movies */ >/* ---------- "Creator - stay away?" ---------- */ >I have a small question: > Being a Peter O'Toole fan of the most dedicated sort > I would like to know if the recently released flick > _Creator_ is worth a pinch of 'coon chit? Is it worth > $5? Any would-be movie critics care to expound? Trevor, If you like Peter O' Toole (as I do), I believe you will enjoy _Creator_. In my opinion, his is not the best of the acting performances, -- I would give that title to the actor who plays his male assistant -- but his character is believable and I don't believe it is easy to play a believable "mad" scientist. He adds depth to a character that could have been simply funny and trivial. This film is _Love Story_ modified for the '80s audience, funny at times, emotionally charged, and upbeat instead of depressing. I personally enjoyed it. A +1.5 on the scale of -4 to +4
mjc@cad.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Monica Cellio) (09/26/85)
From: flory@zaphod ? (Trevor Flory) > I would like to know if the recently released flick > _Creator_ is worth a pinch of 'coon chit? Is it worth > $5? Any would-be movie critics care to expound? I saw Creator last night (for $2, I was willing to try a movie I'd never heard of...). I don't know how it compares to O'Toole's other work, but I enjoyed Creator. It had a reasonable distribution of humor, sentimental stuff (well, maybe a bit too much of that), and actual plot. Not much of a review, I know, but you asked.... -Dragon -- UUCP: ...ucbvax!dual!lll-crg!dragon ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg
flory@zaphod.UUCP (Trevor Flory) (10/04/85)
[My original query] >> I would like to know if the recently released flick >> _Creator_ is worth a pinch of 'coon chit? Is it worth >> $5? Any would-be movie critics care to expound? Well I finally went to see _Creator_ (thanks guys for your comments). I liked it. Peter O'Toole is simply excellent, Miss Hemingway plays herself --very well in fact, Spano seems to restrain himself from giving a full performance, and David Ogden Whateverhislastnameis plays a pretty decent antagonist --he doesn't have the fangs to be a villain. All in all a good flick. * / Creator gets * * / / * * / * * -- ***** Trevor K. Flory Develcon Electronics Ltd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA UUCP: ...!ihnp4!alberta!sask!zaphod!flory