The Lucifer Complex (1978) User Reviews

conquering the world by boredom

[FieCrier · 3/10 · 21 May 2006]

The trivia says this movie was never released to theaters, and I believe it. It's pretty bad.

It doesn't help that there's some sort of frame story involving a guy sitting inexpressively in front of a bank of TV monitors, watching a library of all the videos ever recorded (or something like that). He muses to himself in voice-over how there is more about wars than anything else. Most of the movie is something he's watching about a war in 1986 (or 96?). That story doesn't start until about twenty minutes in; probably once you realize how long the opening drags, you'll fast forward judiciously like I did.

A bunch of important people are killed on a bus. Robert Vaughn's character investigates, after he watches a belly dancer in a bar. He finds a camp of Nazis and is captured, and they try to convince him he never saw the Nazis. It turns out they're cloning world leaders, and the women in the camp help Vaughn fight the Nazis. That might sound sort of exciting, but it's not terribly engrossing at all, and it doesn't help that they keep cutting back to the guy watching all of this on video.

Not recommended at all. This is the sort of movie that would be helped by some special features explaining what they were going for with the movie, the trouble with releasing it, etc. I saw it on video, though, an old big box from a closing video store.

I Thought It Was Hilarious

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 14 November 2006]

This is a horrible movie. But it is also quite charming in the best bad movie way. What does it have. It has a man living in some mountainous (Scandanavian?) country with the entire knowledge of the earth on crystalline rocks, reviewing the decline of the human race. Interestingly, most of the history is in black and white with projection streaks running through them. The main story, however, involves the rise of the Fourth Reich. It is a convoluted story that really makes no sense. People are being captured and turned into zombie like clones. They then do the bidding of a Herman Goering type leader who sits back and yells out orders. There are women with machine guns that can fire up to 50,000 bullets without loading. The Nazi's are utterly incompetent. They leave a fully loaded tank around that can easily be commandeered by anyone who knows how to run it. What happens is apparently what causes the downfall of civilized society, but I'm not sure why. Keenan Wynn plays an old guy with a Santa Claus beard who rants and raves. We can't tell the clones from the real people and what, exactly, happens at the end. It's just the silliest piece of junk, but those women, running around in their gray prison uniforms, firing machine guns, is quite remarkable.

The Man from B.O.R.E.D.O.M.

[wes-connors · 1/10 · 21 March 2010]

"An intelligence agent is set off to investigate events surrounding some of the world's leaders and he comes to a shocking discovery. A plot by former Nazi scientists to clone the world's leaders, in order to return the Third Reich to power, has been undertaken and he must try to stop them from completing their evil plans. Tracking down the headquarters of the Nazi scientists brings another surprise to the agent, when he uncovers the madman ultimately behind the sinister plot," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

One of the most boring films every created. Dare an insomniac to stay awake during the first twenty minutes. If you can keep your eyes open, as William Lanning seems strangely able to do, watch for the "Area L7" sign (probably the film's highlight). Then get ready for a spit upon Lesbian prison guard and a few explosions. A not so shocking surprise guest appearance would make the most ardent xenophobe racist swear off holocausts forever, lest they be exposed to more films like "The Lucifer Complex".

* The Lucifer Complex (1978) David L. Hewitt, Kenneth Hartford ~ Robert Vaughn, Merrie Lynn Ross, Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray

Dave Hewitt strikes again!!

[madsagittarian · 21 November 2002]

(spoiler in third paragraph)

After a near decade-long layoff, the Grade Z genius David L. Hewitt (WIZARD OF MARS, THE MIGHTY GORGA) once again blesses us with his cinematic charms with this dreary espionage flick whose history is almost as obscure as the film itself. Apparently someone had made a no-budget "Man From UNCLE" wannabe featuring none other than Robert Vaughn, and either the film was not completed, or simply too short to warrant theatrical release. Therefore, the film is padded with a wraparound story of a man on an island (presumably the last survivor of this planet) who watches footage of previous exploits of mankind-- hence, the inclusion of this twisted spy fable.

I'm not sure at which point Hewitt (one of the two directors) was hired for this film. It is unclear whether he directed the underlit spy movie or the cold wraparound post-apocalyptic stuff which was meant to "rescue" the movie. In either case, this is classic Dave Hewitt material-- namely, futile attempts at trying to make something out of nothing. Plus, with the tacked-on footage of the sole man watching the other film (abetted with impossibly unenthused voiceover), the ending is thus anticlimactic. It adds nothing to the other story.

Because this is a Gold Key release (remember those late-night fillers like FOES, CAPTIVE and TARGET EARTH?), this is also impossibly lethargic. Its attempts at suspense are so dismal (so many meaningless POV shots going through reeds during a chase scene), that even such ingredients as a sudden last-reel change to womens-prison-genre conventions fail to light any sparks. Its sole novelty is the revelation that the mastermind behind the cloning which Vaughn is sent to investigate, is none other than Adolf Hitler! Otherwise the only other memorable moment is the inevitable dramatically ironic moment when Vaughn faces his own clone. In an inspired bit of bad filmmaking, the two Vaughns fight... in a shot that is so underexposed that you can't see either one of them!!

Whew. What an ordeal it is to survive this film. I haven't seen this in over fifteen years (and the late-night movie programmers paired this with INVASION FROM INNER EARTH to make for one unforgettable evening of Grade Z badness; I had to watch them both twice), and now that the late show has been overrun with infomercials that cost even less to program than drivel like this, I doubt it will rear its head again. However, THE LUCIFER COMPLEX is another of those strange dichotomies of our youthful memories-- even though it is an unpleasant experience, for some reason we want to relive it, simply because it reflects a crucial time in our lives. That is the perplexing behavioural pattern of those like myself who have a strange attraction-repulsion to bad movies. They outrage and bemuse us at the same time. And now because there is so little in today's watershed of cinema to have such audacity to confound us, perhaps that is why we pine for these films all over again. At least they make us feel something. If anything, you'll probably find this film way, way in the back of some independent video store, with a now-yellowing box with enticing cover art and foisting the names of Robert Vaughn, Aldo Ray and Keenan Wynn to make one think it's better than it is. Ah, the days of the video age-- when any no-buck releasing company would try to transcend the dreck they were trying to put on the shelves. Enter if you dare.

Light on the bump, heavy on the grind

[Chase_Witherspoon · 4/10 · 23 May 2013]

Near-abominable tale of an intelligence agent (Vaughn) assigned by his boss (Leo Gordon, uncredited) to infiltrate an island outpost where he discovers a shocking plot to clone world leaders in an audacious plan to resurrect the Fourth Reich, forty years following the end of WWII.

Vaguely reminiscent of its contemporary "Boys From Brazil" has a great cast that aside from Vaughn sleep-walking through his role, includes Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray, the lovely Lynn Cartwright (in a distinctly unlovely role as a sadistic Nazi), Kieu Chinh as a female prisoner, Victoria Carroll as a double agent and Corinne Cole ("The Party") in a frivolous bit part as a potential one-night stand, though our secret agent is so inept, he manages one corny pick-up line ("you need less bump and more grind"), before duty calls.

And let's not neglect William Lanning in the ostensibly unrelated scenes that punctuate, as he narrates the tale watching it unfold from a laser-read time capsule. If you're confused by that plot synopsis, you're starting to appreciate what "The Lucifer Complex" has to offer the patient viewer.

The film is absolute dross, pure guff, atrocious in almost every department, totally bereft of suspense, thrills or coherency, BUT, in my opinion it does qualify as 'so bad it's funny' and for that reason, coupled with the distinguished cast of Hollywood A-listers and B-movie personnel (Cartwright was always a scene-stealer, and she alone earns this turkey one star for pure camp value), it's essential for any film buff's burgeoning collection.

Stunningly stinky schlock

[Woodyanders · 1/10 · 2 August 2006]

I've seen more than my fair share of malodorous cinematic stinkers, so claiming that this horrifically horrendous dud is perhaps the smelliest celluloid skunk I've ever had the grave misfortune to stumble across is say a whole lot. Things get off to an unpromising start with a lone man stranded on a remote island wandering through the woods. His meandering thoughts serve as insufferably tedious narration. The man finds a cave and ventures inside. He discovers a bunch of old computers. He watches about twenty entire minutes worth of stock footage of both World Wars, Woodstock and Vietnam. Sound exciting? Well, trust me it sure ain't. Boring? Most definitely. It's more boring than watching two snails copulate for five hours straight.

The story proper finally kicks in and things only get worse. Much, much worse. Poor Robert Vaughn, a long way off from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," portrays a drippy stuffed shirt bargain basement James Bond-style government secret agent who discovers a nefarious Nazi plot in South America to start a Fourth Reich through cloning. Cranky superior Keenan Wynn huffs and puffs his disapproval. Leo Gordon is shamefully wasted in a nothing bit part as a useless FBI chief. The ubiquitous Aldo Ray pops up as an evil Nazi rat. None other than Hitler himself (badly played by a pitifully unconvincing actor) turns out to be behind the whole thing. Wynn also is revealed as being in cahoots with the Nazis (that's a big surprise -- NOT!). The limp direction by Kenneth Hartford and notorious Grade Z blunder wonder supreme David L. Hewitt (who also co-wrote the stale cookie cutter script), David E. Jackson's ugly, washed-out cinematography, the lethargic pacing, the infrequent and ineptly staged action scenes (the undeniable low point occurs when Vaughn very meekly fights a clone of himself), William Loose's terrible droning slushy score, the crummy acting, and the dreadful tin-eared dialogue ("I think you could do with a little less bump and a lot more grind") are all uniformly abominable. Naturally, this gruelingly godawful ordeal spent two years gathering dust on the shelves before it was purchased by legendary cruddy late-night TV titans Gold Key Entertainment so it could be rerun an endless amount of times at 1:00 a.m. in the morning much to the dismay of insomniacs the world over. This appalling atrocity comes across like a fifth-rate watered-down version of an "Ilsa" picture. The absolute pits.

What?

[hengir · 5/10 · 2 July 2007]

Poor Robert Vaughan. Perhaps he did this for the money though as the budget wasn't that large one can't imagine he got that much. It begins with an almost unending scene where the last free man on earth (I think) watches a potted history of the twentieth century (apparently this is meant to be an awful warning about human behaviour) before it begins proper with agent Vaughan in the course of his investigations discovering an island where the Fourth Reich is sending out clones of influential people to take over the world. This might have some entertaining camp value if the film wasn't so slow. Still, any film with a Robert Vaughan clone and an Adolf Hitler clone can't be all bad. There were lots of girls clad in blue dresses whose function escaped me but they were nice to look at. So look at your government leader close. He may be a Nazi clone....

Le Bad Cinema

[davepitts · 1/10 · 19 January 2009]

WARNING, SPOILERS. Despite lurid elements, such as Nazi cloning and a bull-dyke prison matron, this one is cold beans, snuffed out by dawdling pace and crummy acting. The opening 20 min. is the framing device: an apocalypse survivor with his own techno cave watches blurry video of past wars and rock festivals while he philosophizes in a monotone on Man's History. Eventually, and it's a mighty long eventually, we realize he's watching "Lucifer Complex." Then it's Robert Vaughn Vs. the Nazis. Vaughn uncovers a compound where chubby "Uberfuhrer Frobe" (!) is creating a master race, most of whom seem to be women cast from the checkout line at a Piggly Wiggly. Johnny Quest-type caper music with plenty of bongos plays over the action. This is Career Hell for Vaughn, Keenan Wynn, and Aldo Ray (who is barely given "Uh-huh" to speak.) Whatever they were paid, it wasn't enough. Filmmaker incompetence provides enough laughs to get you through its 91 minutes: ... underpopulated action scenes, with the same 5 or 6 Nazis getting shot or punched out, over and over ...Middle-aged Vaughn taking out younger opponents with catlike karate chops ... the shag-blonde shooting Nazis, then spitting on them ...Vaughn fires a tank shell at Nazi HQ, and all it does is blow out a window and start a fire ...Adolph Hitler shows up, but he looks more like Mr. Whipple than Der Fuhrer. Pic is like an old stick of gum you find at the back of your suitcase. It's crummy but you stay with it. Anyway, I did.

Well, its NOT the Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[KennethEagleSpirit · 5/10 · 16 January 2007]

But it has its moments. Not a great sci-fi flick, but not a total waste of time either. I thought the choreography was poorly done, and certain special effects, principally blowing stuff up, weren't done to well. But Robert Vaughn was, as always, cool. The "Nazi bitch" with the bride of Frankenstien hair style was kind of campy. Aldo Ray, and I've always enjoyed his work, didn't have much of a part or come across that well. The premise is okay but the plot, not to mention the characters, is never really developed. And the guy in the cave, watching all of this via computerized film footage? Well, lots of what he sees, which is what we watch with him, took place behind closed doors and in swamps and ... Who was holding the camera? Ahh, nothings perfect. This is OK sci-fi if you don't set your expectations to high. Its worth a watch.

The Worst Movie Ever Made

[TheBryanWay · 1/10 · 17 January 2015]

When asked about the worst film ever made, it might be safe to take the easy road of listing cult favorites like 'Plan 9 From Outer Space', 'The Room', or 'Birdemic', but I firmly believe that films giving viewers the perverse pleasure of laughing through them, or indeed the type that invite midnight screenings, cannot truly be considered the worst. If you had fun watching it, how can it possibly be that bad?

'The Lucifer Complex', on the other hand, is the worst film I've ever seen.

It starts off promisingly enough: a man walks alone on the shores of a deserted island, rhapsodizing over the collapse of society and the fall of humanity. He returns to the confines of his man cave, full of futuristic tech that would've looked dated on 'Star Trek', and has a seat to reflect on the folly of his erstwhile descendants. Seemingly off to a great start, right?

Then, he watches film of what life was like at the turn of the century. War. Newsreels. Concert film? Five minutes becomes ten, and the next thing you know your brain is slithering out your nostrils. The story proper finally kicks in as one of these films, featuring a tired and bloated Robert Vaughn as the world's least convincing spy, uncovers an island where existing members of the Nazi party look to revive the Third Reich using clones. Yeah, it's basically an unauthorized rip-off of 'The Boys From Brazil', but even a plot this outlandish can't save the film for the midnight movie crowd.

Cheesy movies can be fun. 'The Lucifer Complex' is only cheesy enough to be depressing. Uninspired camera work, dialogue too stale to be droll, exhausted performances, locations that kind of work, editing that drains the energy from each scene... it's as much fun as waking up to discover that your arm is asleep.

I won't spoil the film more than the description already does, but rest assured, the film within a film ends, leaving our terminally bored, island-locked protagonist to mumble some commentary on mankind that was probably insightful before the transgenerational degradation of bad writers borrowing from good ones reduced it from Arthur C. Clarke to L. Ron Hubbard to Stephanie Meyer; it's so bland it's useless to mock.

On the plus side, it's a fascinating experiment in relativity. If you really want to make 90 minutes feel like forever, watch 'The Lucifer Complex'.

Amateurish garbage, cobbled together from a seemingly half-finished negative. The result? Perhaps the worst film ever made.

[barnabyrudge · 1/10 · 22 July 2010]

Make no mistake about it, The Lucifer Complex is a genuine contender for the title of worst movie ever made. The most remarkable thing is that recognised actors have been persuaded to appear in this dismal offering – it's quite depressing to see the likes of Robert Vaughn, Keenan Wynn and Aldo Ray appearing in such cheap, inept, amateurish rubbish. The Lucifer Complex bears all the hallmarks of a film that hasn't been fully completed, with irrelevant stock footage and additional scenes crudely inserted into the existing material in a desperate bid to cobble together a releasable film. Alas, everything is so clumsily done and so achingly inept that one is left wishing that the film hadn't been released at all.

In the near future, an explorer on an island discovers a hidden cave containing computers full of old archives. After watching some war footage, he stumbles upon a film showing the adventures of a secret agent on a top secret mission. The agent Glenn Manning (Robert Vaughn) is sent to investigate something called the "Lucifer Problem". Manning crash lands on a remote island and discovers a camp emblazoned with Nazi swastikas, run by a gang of neo-Nazis. The island natives are kept as slaves, and a group of women are held prisoner there too. Manning soon discovers that the women's bodies are being used to give birth to genetically cloned foetuses of various world leaders. He befriends April (Merrie Lynn Ross), one of the women held in the camp, and together they try to stop the sinister plot. Their quest doesn't become any easier when they learn that their Nazi enemies have succeeded in cloning Adolf Hitler himself!

Very little of The Lucifer Complex makes sense. For one thing, if our explorer is watching all this as if it is actual archived footage of a spy mission, then who the hell do we suppose filmed it all?? In fact, the whole explorer subplot seems suspiciously unrelated to the film and one is left convinced that it has been included as an afterthought to stretch the film's running time a little, and perhaps as an attempt to provide a way of linking the rather choppy main narrative. Vaughn tries to give a professional performance in the midst of all this, but his efforts are continually shot down by the very non-professional work behind the cameras. The characters are completely uninvolving, the audio poor, the camera work hopelessly wobbly, and the action sequences incompetently edited. Sometimes this sort of film becomes a cult favourite amongst collectors of bad movies (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster, etc.) but this one slumps way below the level of "so-bad-it's-good". It is abysmal, pure and simple. It would receive a minus rating if this were possible, and even that would be generous!

I can tell you what it's like to be an actor in a Hollywood production like this

[Matthew_Capitano · 10/10 · 16 November 2013]

I was a Hollywood actor for some 20 years from 1982 to 2001. I lived on Hollywood Boulevard (the famous street with all the stars embedded in the sidewalk) and I had the famous Hollywood Sign outside my residential hotel window. I ate drugstore-bought canned meat with pork-n-beans and had Snack Wells for dessert.

I performed in plays, TV shows, movies, and even... (*cough*)... porn films. Most actors in Hollywood are willing to accept any role they can get at any time. That's true even for old warhorses like Aldo Ray, Keenan Wynn, and Robert Vaughn, the 'stars' who appear in this movie.

This film is a little video-taped thing directed by sci-fi schlock master David Hewitt. It was just another quickie production, but luckily for Dave, Bob Vaughn of all people, was 'available' (no doubt Hewitt saw him in the old Candy's coffee shop on Ventura Boulevard at 3 A.M. - where a lot of us salad day actors hung out - and said, 'Hey man, would you be in one of my flicks?', and Vaughn, being a nice guy, obliged).

Smash-cut to the film set, early on a Saturday morning, 'on location' at an unoccupied commercial office building which Hewitt rented out for the day. And here they all were.... Aldo Ray in the parking lot talking with Keenan Wynn about how many miles his pickup truck has weathered, Vaughn eating an Egg McMuffin in his car, and Hewitt inside the building lining up camera shots for the day's work with his trusty weekend film crew.

This is what it's like to be a Hollywood actor, unknown like so many of us, or a long-toothed former TV star, like so many of them. Something special, is Hollywood, California. On time for the 'shoot' in the early morning SoCal air, did you even sleep last night? Always wishing for an 'opportunity' like this - and this IS an opportunity. So many hopefuls waiting to be in a production, any production.... and this classifies as Any Production.

You have to see this obscure, off-the-cuff, off-the-wall film to understand what the phrase 'low-budget' or 'weekend warriors of the movie industry' really means. It's something unique to be a big star in the Los Angeles entertainment machine, but so is being a struggling actor in Hollywood U.S.A.

To the masses of unknown actors like me who pounded the gilded pavements of Hollywood and vicinity looking for that 'big break', or to appear in a lost-at-sea production like this one, it was a long, tough, obstacle-strewn road of penny-pinching budgets and donut shop all-nighters....

.... and I wouldn't trade those 20 years for anything in the world.

A war movie? A suspenseful espionage drama?

[Tim-177 · 6/10 · 24 June 1999]

Yes on both counts. It seems that the Nazis are on the rise, this time coming to power by abducting and cloning world leaders. Robert Vaughn turns in a credible performance in this movie, but the pace is uneven. This movie begins with several (too many) minutes of stock scenes from wars, and this sequence could do with some trimming. This is where the pace lags. I would have liked to see more character development. Also, the photography/lighting leave much to be desired; it's too dark and there are shadows all over the place.

However, war movies are not interesting to me. That may explain why I was disappointed with this film. If you like the genre, you'll probably enjoy this film.

What a TERRIBLE film !!!

[GeoData · 1/10 · 26 January 2008]

If ever a film deserves obscurity this one should be completely eradicated from the first to the last frame, to prevent cruelty to viewers, to film making professionals, and to the actors trapped therein. Watching snails mate IS much more entertaining.

An obvious attempt to "rescue" already shot footage from some aborted movie project, the result is the best demonstrative excuse to outlaw cloning yet devised ...referring to the movie, not the biological process. Even worse, you can tell when the editors intentionally "stretched" the film by repeating the same scenes over and over and over and over and .... sow on. It is shocking to see reference to "script" personnel in the closing credits. I suspect this was an attempt to perpetrate a fraud. In the film there is no evidence of a script, nor coherence or continuity. The only plot possible for this film is the one into which it should be put.

Bury this movie, don't view it.

Why did I view this film? I cannot think of a single good reason other than stupid disbelief ...sort of like a deer frozen motionless in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

I was a Clone!

[cdleseurs1 · 30 October 2009]

I was one of the clones! The curly haired guy in a few scenes behind Robert Vaughn. He didn't say much, just smiled and did what he was told. Many of us were acting students from the Lee Strasberg Drama Institute - so much for method acting. It was filmed across the street from Paramount at a small sound stage we entered through a back alley. They feed us from MacDonalds! I never got paid for it, so I guess I might as well not hold my breath anymore. You'll notice there is a strip across where our private parts would be, so you couldn't see our bathing suits or underwear, and we just grabbed the feeding tubes and stuck them in our navels.

The Lethargy Complex

[lemon_magic · 2/10 · 12 August 2012]

First of all, the only reason this gets more than one star is that I like Robert Vaughn as an actor (even in dreck like "Superman III") and he did his best with a flabby premise and a limp-wristed execution of a stale script that Sean Connery himself couldn't have rescued.

There's a pretty nice opening credit scene with some swooping aerial footage that gave me some hope that this might have some good qualities to it...that hope was quickly dashed as an impassive scientist wandered into a computer cave and proceeded to watch 20 minutes of stock footage on a monitor. All this was obviously padding spliced together to extend the footage of some unfinished Vaughn movie (or one that was unwatchable or unreleasable on its own terms, possibly because it was too short.)

The screenplay then jumped between the feature film and unmoving shots of the impassive scientist watching the feature film for about 20 more minutes until the film editor ran out of bourbon and said the hell with it, and let us watch the rest of the "real" movie until just before the end. Then the padding took over and changed the entire premise and ending of the first movie with some clumsy narrative hand-waving.

SOmething of note: at one point, the film tries to go into a subplot about women prisoners in Nazi prison camps, complete with a butch dyke Elsa wanna be and the women breaking out and helping Vaughn by killing their captors. Sorry, just as poorly executed as the rest of the film, didn't help.

Als of note: at one point, Vaughn supposedly climbs into a tank and wreaks destruction on the Nazi camp. This is all done with exterior shots of the tank firing at things and blowing them up unconvincingly. At no point during the entire tank sequence do we ever see a closeup or reaction shot of Vaughn. (He was probably in his trailer downing double Jack and Cokes). That's the kind of movie this is, folks. Even the putative star could barely stand to be in it.

And then the movie just stopped (actually froze in mid-frame) and the credits rolled, and the audience (if there ever was one) burned down the theater and hunted down the producers and directors like dogs....

Sorry, a little fantasy there. I can't imagine this concoction ever being released to an actual theater, except as the 3rd item on a dusk-to-dawn drive-in triple feature.

Seriously, if your goal is to make a spy thriller, and you have Robert Vaughn and Aldo Ray and Keenan Wynn to work with, and you can't even make something as good as a lesser episode of "Man From Uncle"...and then you wrap the "feature" in a clumsy 25 minute collage of voice-over, exposition and unrelated stock footage that makes the movie even LESS watchable...well, suffice it to say that the producers and directors may have made the wrong career choice.If they'd just put two related episodes of "Man From Uncle" together and released THAT as a movie, the results would have been light years better.

I saw this as part of a public domain DVD collection, one of those "50 Movies for $15.00" deals, which means I paid less than 50 cents to see this, and I felt cheated. And I felt bad for the actors - even the lesser spear-carriers in this thing must have been dying inside as they tried to make the dialog and the action work.

Could of, should of!

[noteken-998-396513 · 1/10 · 17 August 2020]

This movie could have been so much better if they would have had the lone survivor discovering that the video he is watching is really the Lucifer Complex and he was in it. Like he was discovering that he was a clone. But as the movie is, it makes little sense of anything.

Vaughn, Wynn, Ray...how could this be so bad?

[udar55 · 1/10 · 17 September 2013]

A reviewer here on the IMDb said this is what THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL would look like if directed by Ed Wood and I have to say that assessment is pretty dead on. A young guy wanders around an island before heading into a cave with computers that have history on laserdisc. After checking out WWII and Vietnam, he heads to the "big war" of 1986 and the movie begins proper. Government guy Glen Manning (Robert Vaughn) catches wind of the Fourth Reich when his plane crashes on a small island off the coast of Florida and he finds Nazis working on a clone of Hitler. With the help of April Adams (Merrie Lynn Ross), Manning manages to escape and blows lots of stuff up with a tank and stop the bad guys. The end. Cut back to the guy in the cave who says something like, "Will man ever learn? I've got to explore this island more." Vaughn has a filmography that extends to over 200+ movies and TV series, but I'm going to boldly claim this was the worst thing he has ever been it. It was a production rife with problems and I'd say the Vaughn material amounts for maybe 65 minutes of the 90 minute running time. The wrap around screams of padding and doesn't make a lick of sense (man had the ability to record every single moment on laserdisc?). Keenan Wynn and Aldo Ray show up for a few scenes.

"Don't just stand there. Sound the alarm!"

[classicsoncall · 2/10 · 20 November 2012]

I don't think I've ever used the word hideous in any of my reviews, but as they say, there's always a first time. If this wasn't a career low for Robert Vaughn I couldn't tell you what was. Any single episode of Vaughn and McCallum battling agents of THRUSH qualify for Masterpiece Theater compared to this travesty. I still can't wrap my head around the guy in the cave watching the events of the picture transpire as he solemnly comments on the warlike history of the world. Honestly, it's impossible to describe how awful this thing is, or even identify the single worst element. Right up there though would be the German Officer reject from 'Hogan's Heroes', the awesome 'Nazi Bitch', and the Fuehrer himself, Adolf Hitler making a command appearance, because after all, it's all about the resurrection of the Fourth Reich and cloning of the New Master Race. Vaughn karate chops his way through much of the film until he's forced to fight HIMSELF in the final moments. Seriously, this is so laughably bad you can't even laugh while watching because you'll be utterly transfixed by the nonsense. I probably shouldn't warn you about all this because if I had to suffer through it, probably you should to. That's the best recommendation I can come up with.

Good idea but terrible realization. A waste of potential...

[neosildrake · 3/10 · 17 September 2007]

I must say, that this movie is a total waste of time, money and actors. It's boring and the raised forefinger the director/producer like to show the viewers (about the war and cloning thing) is annoying. I like the actors (Aldo Ray and Robert Vaughn) but they are really wasted here.

It could have been a good movie, if... and there are many big IFs here: 1. ...if they had concentrated on the spy/cloning theme. 2. ...if they had not tried to come up with the teaching and forefinger tactics. 3. ...if they had not included the poor lonely human *read the sarcasm here* on the island and had not interrupted the "flow" of the movie with occasional and random scenes of the lone islander and how he watches the recorded data. IT SUCKS!

They could have at least cut the first 20 minutes of enormously boring monologue. I first thought I was watching the wrong movie. The only reason this did not get an even lower rating is the fact, that the Nazi-cloning idea itself is quite interesting.

Otherwise: Forget it.

No review, just a comment or two

[mpeter-16877 · 1/10 · 17 June 2016]

Regardless of potential seriousness of the subject, this is ABOMINABLE cinema; just as how I remember 1970s TV as a kid; all that crypto-weirdo (non-)'suspense' drama, lots of running away and chasing, daft music, stupid, stupid, STUPID! Pseudo-philosophy of the all-seeingone watching it all through fake-Big/Hi-Tech. Spare your time and eventual sense of mental calm: AVOID AT ALL COSTS, unless for observation curiosity, just to understand what a virtually total dead-end 1970s 'TV entertainment' really was; ultimate back-end of 1960s' fake-swinging elation when the world they in fact lived in was nothing more than an introduction to what we have now (scribble-written on Friday, 17th June, 2016).

Passable if you skip the first 20 minutes

[midge56 · 4/10 · 12 August 2015]

There is a passable film here but only if you skip watching the beginning "future man in the cave sequence". The boring, monotoned, bearded man watching boring stock footages, while playing with a snake & putting everyone to sleep. This leading footage doesn't even match the film. So do yourself a favor & skip ahead past the cave historical footage review until you see Robert Vaughn Appear. Do the same at the end & you will find a watchable Vaughn film in between.

I also found the commentaries of a couple former actors to be quite interesting to read describing what it was like to appear on this film.

It is a shame that IMDb tries to coerce our credit card info & access to our other site logins for supposed "additional authorization" despite some of us being members for over a decade. They even wanted us to pay them for us providing them with free photos for the IMDb site. There is something seriously wrong & crooked about their setup.

I would send compliments to the actors who commented on this movie but I'm not about to give IMDb any financial or other site login info for additional authorizations they have no business or justification to ask for. They will never got that info from me. It is their loss if my 10+ years membership isn't good enough to contribute my knowledge or correction of errors.

Beware of any site or business wanting your financial info or your login access to other sites.

As for the movie, just skip over the man in Cave sequence which has no bearing on the movie whatsoever & it will be fairly watchable like one of those Matt Helm flicks.

Garbage

[Bababooe · 1/10 · 30 May 2019]

This is a garbage movie, that had enough of a budget to hire some name actors, pay for sets and some explosions, camera equipment, crew and editing facilities. A true and shameful example of bottom feeder.

Directed by Ed Wood's middle finger.

[fedor8 · 17 February 2010]

The only fan of "The Lucifer Complex" watches the movie, while we get to watch him watch it. That's certainly one way of giving the viewer the middle finger.

If you've always wanted to watch a B-movie through the eyes of an unkempt, bored moron from the future, then you won't be disappointed. But if you thought the narrators from "The Astounding She-Monster" could not be matched in sheer, unbridled, shameless stupidity, think again.

The hairy imbecile sits around in a cave, apparently having nothing better to do with his time than guide us through history by playing us shoddy stock footage. Evidently, padding was the only "cure" LC's "filmmaker" could up with to solve the missing-footage dilemma. "Damn, how do I fill up the time… I think I'll just get someone to comment wisely on the current political thingamabobs. He should have a beard, coz people with beards look wise – and rebellious - I guess." The narrator is the anti-Gandalf, though…

He goes through WWII footage, making comments that would make an 8 year-old kid with straight Fs in History bury his head in shame. "War is bad". That's what you get when a filmmaker with zero education – and a strong will to be accepted as a "valid (left-wing) social commentator" – tries to inject wisdom into a friggin' C-movie. "Maybe if I turned this crap into a message movie, they might overlook the flick's 935 flaws…"

After war, the thing he hates most is technology. "Technology was always a way for the rich to control and weaken the poor", says this narrating D-movie buffoon. Nevermind that penicillin saved countless poor, along with a plethora of other scientific advances. As long as a bearded man is saying things about how bad war is, and how evil the rich are, that suffices.

Next up is the Vietnam War, which the inept narrator describes as "the longest war". His original intention might have been to describe it as "the baddest" of all wars, but he stopped short of saying it; not because the word doesn't exist, but because it was simply too long for him to say it without tying his tongue in knots.

But just as we are about to start taking this intellectual giant seriously, he throws in some Woodstock footage. His food-encrusted mouth forms into a knowing grin, and grinning like the ape that he is he starts ogling the drugged-up hippie gals for a while, afterwards adding what a "noble idea" the hippy movement was based upon. "Noble" being the female hippies' willingness to spread their legs for anyone – especially a smelly, like-minded, bearded moron from the future.

Eventually, finally (well, not really) this E-movie's "director" tires of his unique padding style, and the hairy narrator finally gets to show his precious gem, his baby… Yes, it's the "Lucifer Complex": Robert Vaughn saving the world from second-generation Nazis, while being assisted by some rather daft blondes all of whom prepared for their roles by taking anti-acting classes.

"When you make an F-movie, you might as well go for broke, and feature a cheesy version of Hitler", this G-movie's film-stitcher probably thought. Just a second later he must have had his umpteenth Eureka moment when he decided that Vaughn was too dull on his own (something that should have been obvious from the get-go) but were two Vaughns really the answer? It would have been, if one had been matter and the other anti-matter, but sadly no matter, anti-matter or brain-matter (for that matter) was involved, hence the fight resulted in one Vaughn remaining alive, and that is clearly one Vaughn too many.

Hot babes in Prison and Robert Vaughn Fight the Nazis

[vbasic · 5/10 · 17 March 2009]

Fast forward the first twenty minutes where a lone man sits in front of a computer monitor looking at stock film footage of wars.

Then you will get to the actual story, a bizarre but intriguing story which takes place in the 1980s, where the leaders of various countries are being replaced by modern Nazi clones. Sort of a goofy 'Manchurian Candidate'. Agent Robert Vaughn is assigned to finding the secret base where the clones are made. At the base he finds beautiful woman held in bondage who are forced to give birth to the clones. He and the women liberate themselves in an incredible battle with machine guns, flame throwers and a tank. And in an equally bizarre climax, Vaughn confronts the mastermind who is none other than an 80 year old Hitler.

If your fast forward button is working and you like Mystery Science 3000 types of movies, then let the hilarity begin.