Michael Crichton’s much maligned (though not really by me) science fiction thriller finally makes it to DVD, for the first time is in widescreen, and actually gets some special features.
Dr. Larry Roberts (Albert Finney) is a successful plastic surgeon. He had several beautiful women come into his offices wanting surgery to make specific changes down to the millimeter. One of those women is found dead and the clues lead back to Dr. Roberts. Another of the models storms into Roberts’ office convinced that someone is trying to kill her. He tries to help her, but she leaves the office. He goes to her apartment just in time to see her plunge from her apartment’s balcony and land on a car (in a spectacular stunt with the fall on the car being done in camera by a stuntwoman).
Jennifer Long and John Reston are up to no good
He sees a mysterious figure on her balcony and runs up to the apartment to catch him but only arrives in time for police to see the good Doctor on the balcony. Dr. Roberts knows that there’s only one more model who had those specific changes made, Cindy Fairmont (Susan Dey). She’s modeling for the Reston Company under Jennifer Long’s (Leigh Taylor-Young) supervision. Seems that John Reston’s (James Coburn) company is up to something and it’s up to Cindy and Dr. Roberts to find out what.
Michael Crichton was supposed to follow Coma and the Great Train Robbery with a big screen adaptation of his novel Congo. When he started doing the research into what it would take to do the special effects (in 1980s dollars and makeup effects) he found it was going to nearly impossible and cost prohibitive to recreate the apes of the story. The project was abandoned and he moved onto this film.
Looker is not based on a book of his, but was written for the screen by Crichton. It plays as a commentary on media obsession and using that obsession to control the masses. It seems downright prescient in today’s media driven world. I’d heard some bad stuff about Looker before actually watching it and maybe since it really didn’t live up to that badmouthing is why I’ve always had a soft spot for it. It doesn’t hurt that it has one of my favorites, James Coburn, in it either.
Since it’s probably not the most loved film in Crichton’s repertoire it’s pretty surprising that Warner Brothers actually puts some special features on the disc. The film is a bit of a time capsule and the computer technology is almost comic to us nowadays. Crichton even comments about it on the commentary. He has to have a rather long establishing shot of a magnetic card entry system since audiences of the time had no idea what it was. He says that these days just a shoulder gesture in front of a door would let the audience know what it was. I wonder in twenty years time what our current movies will look like to those future audiences?
Dr. Roberts admires his work
Looker has elements of science fiction mixed in with its media commentary in the form of a light gun that causes the victim to freeze and lose sense of time. This leads to some effective set pieces, one in which Finney freezes on and off as someone searches his house and another one where he’s beaten up by unseen hands. The movie has a lot of “how,” but what it likes is the “why.” It comes off somewhat convoluted at the end. I know why they want to control the airwaves, but why exactly do they kill the models? These days you’d have people lined up to be in the commercials as long as they appeared on TV and had their 15 minutes of fame.
Even dead celebrities have been digitally resurrected to shill for the Gap (Audrey Hepburn) and I recall Paula Abdul dancing with Groucho Marx for Pepsi. Crichton’s vision of a computerized media seemingly came true, just with out the murders (ominously – so we’ve been lead to believe – stay tuned for Looker 2). Supposedly the TV cut of the film adds about 15 minutes of exposition and explains things better.
Fans of Looker will be disappointed to learn that none of that extra footage appears on the DVD. Since Crichton was involved in the DVD, one wonders if he didn’t want it on there (was it shot by someone else?).
Looker appears for the first time in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Michael Crichton provides a four minute on-camera introduction and a commentary on the film. The final extra is the theatrical trailer.
Dr. Roberts gets knocked around the room by unseen hands
It’s all true! Stop the Reston Company before they kill me! I knew that fella saying “We’ll sell no wine before it’s time” for the Gallo Brothers looked familiar. Seriously, Looker is an okay science fiction film and features a trio of stars (Finney, Dey, and Coburn). Fans of the film will be happy to see that some special features have been provided, but will be disappointed that the extra TV footage was not.
Looker is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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