Anyone Bored? That Movie I Always Talk About, Looker, is on YouTube

Obviously a copyright violation but whatev's. I didn't do it. I'm an innocent here.

It's a Michael Crichton movie. As usual, he jams a bunch of neat ideas into the thing. In this case, it's all about digital manipulation of images/computer generated avatars replacing actors/the fusion of entertainment and sex and politics/and television's power as the greatest propaganda system in the history of the world.

Plus, a really neat gun. I really want the LOOKER gun.

This was made in 1981, so some of this stuff was actually science fiction when it was made. How time flies. A lot of is, of course, no longer science fiction, but rather stuff that's so commonplace we hardly notice it now.

So I don't know how that would make the movie feel to a new viewer.

But even though we don't notice it... maybe we ought to.

Eh, I used to love this movie. Still do. It's slow in parts, doesn't quite all fit together (I suspect some important connective tissue of the movie was left on the cutting room floor), and is very 80s. Albert Finney's Casual Business wardrobe is kind of funny.

It's also got that Michael Crichton vibe, where you can tell he's just using a Thriller format as a vehicle to talk about the stuff he wants to talk about but really doesn't care all that much about the characters or story. The Murders and Suspense and Sexy Things are just there as bait to get you in the door, so he can talk about futuristic ideas in advertising.

But it's got Albert Finney as the Good Guy and James Coburn as the Bad Guy and some graphic violence and a great shootout at the end that achieves a very strange effect-- balancing somewhere between horror and hilarity.

Anyway, it's free, until they yank it, so enjoy Looker if you're bored.

posted by Ace at 08:44 PM

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