| Terminal Man | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4524
Category: Video
Actors: George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, Michael C. Gwynne
Director: Mike Hodges
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Label: Warner Home Video
Format: Color, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 107 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6300269590
UPC: 085391121237
EAN: 9786300269590
ASIN: 6300269590
Release Date: December 13, 1993
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 How to ruin a good premise August 31, 2004
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Of all the popular authors of recent years, Michael Crichton has to be the one with the most uneven track record of film adaptation. Success with material like "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park," and even TV's "ER," is tempered by sludge like "Congo" and this near disaster. Should only be viewed by film students who want to learn how NOT to make a film.
The premise is that a man named Harry Benson (George Segal) has suffered a brain injury that causes seizures resulting in uncontrollable violent behavior. He volunteers to undergo implantation of a "limbic pacer," which is kind of like a pacemaker but it's in the brain, controlling the seizures. Naturally the procedure (first ever in a human) doesn't work, and we see the disastrous results of said failure.
Yes, the entire plot is really as simple as that. It is a situation fraught with opportunity for psychological drama that would draw us in, involving the subject's mental anguish on a personal and interpersonal level. Instead Segal practically sleep-walks through the whole thing, apparently bored to death with his psychotic life.
Adding to the boredom is the bizarre directorial decision to use practically no musical soundtrack. Perhaps the belief was that it would heighten the otherworldliness and detachment of the characters from their situation, as much of the other direction goes to great lengths to dehumanize almost everyone in this film, taking its cue from Benson's belief that the computers of his day (1974) were competing with humans and would eventually take over the world. Any resemblance to "The Matrix" abruptly ends there, as the director chooses to use that belief as a backdrop that only makes the film dull to the point of somnolence.
I could nitpick about the technical errors regarding the OR, such as (1) having virtually no conversation among OR personnel, (2) horrendous sound editing, and (3) postoperative dictation in which the surgeon feels he has to carefully spell the inanely common term "limbic." There are even two embarrassing moments early in the film when two different characters voice their opposition to the surgery, one who states "I'm against it" at a moment when a more thorough explanation would be appropriate, and another who inappropriately rambles on and on with a veritable sermon on hell fire and brimstone. Laughably bad.
The story is interesting enough and most of the supporting actors are credible, but overall this turkey should be left as a monument to bad ideas in filmmaking of the early 1970s. Those were the days, my bud, but this stinker is a dud.
 Brilliant film September 29, 2001
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
A brilliant film with superb acting, and an absolutely fascinating exploration of the human brain and its relationship to consciousness and behavior. This is an early work, and represents the author's scientific imagination at its best.
Brilliant film September 29, 2001
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
A brilliant film with superb acting, and an absolutely fascinating exploration of the human brain and its relationship to consciousness and behavior. This is an early work, and represents the author's scientific imagination at its best.
 Can I get an S...L...O...W... June 27, 2001
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
Holy nun monkeys is this movie slow! I've seen molasses on concrete move at a rate faster than this. Good storyline (that's because it's based on the Michael Crichton novel) the film it self is just a tad bit dated for the times. The story as I said was good execpt the ending which left me clueless. They obviously changed it from the ending in the novel. I really don't recommend this film to anyone not even the Michael Crichton fans.
Mike Hodges is the terminal man August 20, 2000
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
One has to wonder, after the success of Westworld which Michael Crichton wrote and directed, why he would allow Mike Hodges to make such a mess of The Terminal Man. At least Crichton had the sense to do his own Coma. The premise of this film is akin to Crichton's ongoing concern with the impersonality that seems to go with advances in medical technology. Here it is believed that surgery can correct violent behaviour, since it is thought that those disposed to violent acts are simply brain damaged. George Segal plays Harry Benson, a computer genius who suffers from "para-epilepsy" which has resulted him in having blackouts with uncontrollable rages. He agrees to surgery, which is untried on humans, (we never find out the effects on the animals that came before him, but presumably they are no longer "brain damaged") and has an electronic computer implanted into his brain to tranquilise and abort the violent impules. There's no prize for guessing the treatment is a failure and soon the computer is overloading stimulants and pushing Harry into regular seizures. Hodges gives such painstaking detail to the operation that we soon realise that his interest is the miniature of the surgery and not in giving his audience a good time. His hospital plays Muzak in the corridors and he otherwise has Glenn Gould playing Bach on his soundtrack. The fact that he doesn't use an action score is probably symptomatic of Hodges' inappropriate restraint. He teases us with eye through a peephole observations as Harry's mind (I think), Them on TV, and one great image of Harry running maniacally through cemetary headstones. Just when the final cemetary scene arouses your interest, with Harry fallen into an about-to-be used grave, Hodges disappoints us by turning him into a Christ-figure. George Segal has previously demonstrated his range in comedy and drama, but here his uncontrollable rages are pretty tepid. I guess when one considers who to cast as a paranoid psychotic, Segal doesn't come to mind. Hodges actually never shows him in a direct attack, and when he tries to break through a locked door a la Jack Nicholson in The Shining, I was waiting for the "Here's Johnny" gag. It also doesn't help that Segal is dressed in a ridiculous wig and white suit as if he is in a dubbed Italian movie. Playing Segal's girlfriend, before her Unmarried Woman breakthrough, Jill Clayburgh is given thankless scenes but still manages to contribute some goofiness. As Harry's doctor, Joan Hackett is also under-used. Hodges recalls the infamous photos of Frances Farmer being arrested with similar pics of Harry, and there is an objection to the surgery from someone who reminds us of how disastrous frontal lobotomies were at the time. What is unintentionally amusing is how one of the doctors on staff is played by an actor with a huge bare forehead, as if he has already been under the ice-pick.
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