The Brain Machine (1972)

The Brain Machine (1972). 1h 25m | PG

“Ouch, what a painfully BORING Sci-Fi movie! And thatu0026#39;s especially saddening because the opening 15 minutes were so action-packed and full of potential! During the intro, we follow a bunch of nervous security officers and hired hit men as they chase a doctor who escaped from a mysterious laboratory with a briefcase full of top-secret files. As heu0026#39;s about to reveal the supposedly horrible u0026amp; inhuman events that take place in the lab, heu0026#39;s executed. Figures… From then on, the u0026#39;actionu0026#39; swifts back and forth between two locations, the aforementioned laboratory and the rural mansion of a corrupt senator (or something), and it quickly becomes clear that the experiments are actually the complete opposite of disturbing. More like dull, pointless and vague. Scientists selected four random persons without living relatives and itu0026#39;s really really really really important that they speak the truth even though a giant machine reads the content of their minds, anyway. They all hide dark secrets from their pasts and people suffer when get revealed; yet I fail to see how these tests could ever result in a humanity-threatening device. Perhaps I missed something, but I doubt it. The interactions between the patients and doctors are even less interesting to follow, as really none of them have personalities. So basically, u0026quot;The Brain Machineu0026quot; just handles about a bunch of lame people living in an awfully decorated room. The film also could have been half an hour shorter if it werenu0026#39;t for a THOUSAND stagnant shots of buildings! The relocations from the lab to the villa and vice versa are indicated EVERY SINGLE TIME by a five-second shot of the places. Either the makers really needed the padding or they just assumed that all Sci-Fi viewers are morons unable to notice a change of location by themselves. Staring at a forsaken pool with a mansion in the background for the tenth time in only five minutes becomes quite annoying, I assure you. James Bestu0026#39;s performance as the reverend with mental issues is rather decent, but one man definitely canu0026#39;t save this thing from being an absolute waste of time. Avoid!”