When a stranger (Harvey Keitel) disrupts the idyllic existence of scientists Adam (Kirk Douglas) and Alex (Farrah Fawcett), they find themselves under siege - not just from the outsider, but the towering machine he has programmed to destroy them.
Even after watching it, I still cannot believe this film was directed by Stanley Donen.
I had seen it listed as a bad movie but it lacked the notoriety to pique my interest.
Some enterprising soul uploaded the film onto a popular video-sharing site, which was the perfect table-setting.
I was expecting some kind of disconnect between the material and the director’s instincts - a clash of style and substance that would make for something interesting to write about.
Initially it feels like it might be something watchable.
We are introduced to a silent masked man (later revealed to be Keitel’s Benson) after he is rejected for a mission.
Before we have much sense of this futuristic context, he coolly ejects the winning candidate into outer space, leading to a jaw-dropping shot of his body being bisected into slices by an external structure of the space station.
Benson grabs the dead man’s gear and hauls ass to his ship.
As far as introductions go, it is strong.
Sadly, the rest of the movie has no such drive.
Donen replaced ex-production designer John Barry as director and you feel the lack of investment.
The story is a bizarre Adam and Eve parable with a creepy conflict between Benson (Harvey Keitel) and Adam (Kirk Douglas) over the one woman in the colony (Farah Fawcett).
The killer robot Hector is kind of unsettling, but the movie fails this antagonist.
There is just not enough - not even for a remake.
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