henri sauvage

I was going to begin this title with "Surreal", but if you're going to talk about a film that's clearly inspired by Phillip K. Dick's fiction that's kind of redundant. The basic plot bears quite a few points of similarity to one of the author's lesser-known novels, "Ubik"; there's even a major character named "Palmer Eldritch" -- as in Dick's novel "The Three Stigmata of". Which also featured an alien hallucinogen.

So the film isn't shy about acknowledging its antecedents. Along with lots of other influences from all over the place. Whether you'll like it or not probably depends on whether you enjoy that type of story. But seriously: "Worst movie ever"? No way. I really wish reviewers would stop using this as shorthand for "This was confusing/I didn't understand it."

Which is a perfectly valid opinion. I can't claim to have completely understood it, either, after one viewing. But I enjoyed it enough to think this is worth a couple more looks. Yeah, it's got its rough edges, but it also has real heart and creativity.

In all the films and TV shows I've rated here, I've only given a 1-star rating once before, for Robot Holocaust. In that steaming pile's defense, it was made on a nonexistent budget, with actors of -- shall we say -- obviously limited experience, and based on a story apparently inspired by drinking triple-distilled bong water.

I don't see how the BBC can claim any of these mitigating factors for this atrocity. Since others have gone into hilarious detail about the many, many shortcomings of this series and the all-encompassing hackery in its evisceration of a classic story, there's nothing to add on that score. If the ghost of H. G. nightly brought shrieking, sweat-soaked nightmares to each and every person responsible for this dreck for the next thirty years, it would be only a fraction of what they richly deserve.

I could definitely have done without quite so much of Jakob Dylan and friends. It's nice to know the music from that time can still find fans in younger generations, but please, please, PLEASE do not attempt to cover songs by the Mamas and the Papas if you don't have a vocal talent like Cass Elliot to lay the foundation for your sound.

And one thing I will never understand is why they made liberal use of clips from the 1968 film "Model Shop", including a bit where Gary Lockwood drops in on some musician friends -- who are in fact the group Spirit, and their music is featured in that movie. Yet not once are they mentioned in the documentary itself, even though they were arguably just as much a part of the "West Coast Sound" as any of the groups featured here.