Customer Reviews
I am immortal and I can not die 
2007-09-24
Filmed in the 70's this is a latecomer to the sixties formula big brother paranoia films.
An experiment is performed to see if "truth" can be told with the hope that the results can correct all the ills of mankind and pollution to boot. The subjects are carefully chosen based on the objective.
Unknown to our guinea pigs and testing staff, the experiment was usurped by the military for nefarious purposes; anyone objecting is dispatched.
Naturally the computers and guinea's are not suited for the plan. This is a brain teaser as everyone has to confess they lied. More insidious is the fact that the computer can not understand that the subject does not believe he can die and sets out to prove this. This becomes a compressing problem.
How will it end? Or will it end? What would you do in the situation?
What exactly was the point of this movie? 2006-07-22
The Brain Machine is a very vague movie. The writer felt he had something important to say and the way to say it was never let the audience know just what the hell is going on. Four people, including James Best of Dukes of Hazzard fame as a reverend, are taking part in a psychological experiment. They are asked a lot of questions and told that they must tell the truth or the experiment won't work. Then they are locked in a room in which their environment will be controlled and the walls will gradually close in on them. What exactly is the experiment and what is its ultimate purpose? Not a clue.
Unbeknownst to the doctors running the experiment, there is a shadowy government group watching on hidden cameras. They have done something to the computer running everything which, when the subjects are asleep, infiltrates their brains and reads their minds. Then the computer tells the doctors something the subject is lying about and they must get the truth out of them for the experiment to continue. What did the government do and what is its ultimate purpose with this technology? Not a clue.
Besides James Best, this movie also stars a very young Gerald McRaney and a bunch of non-actors. The worst is the man playing the General in charge of the shadowy government group. Stiff as a board and unable to deliver a line with any emotion. The direction is almost silly. There are two locations in the movie. A hospital-like building where the experiment is taking place and the General's mansion complete with a lovely in-ground pool. Apparently the director felt that two locations would be confusing to the viewers, so everytime the scene changes we are enlightened with the exact same shot of either the hospital or the General's home before the actual scene begins. Then there's the wonderful scenes of the General's henchmen, sitting with headphones on staring straight ahead at make-believe monitors saying things like "Mark 5, Camera 3. We have visual. Countdown 5 4 3 2 1. Mark" Now that is scintillating dialog.
This is not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's not good either. if you need it to complete your James Best library, go ahead, but otherwise avoid it.
"Each Day In The E-Box Represents Five Years Time" 2006-05-14
Made in Mississippi in 1977, this is one of the least coherent, least plausible, and most annoying films I have ever seen. "The Brain Machine" has also had at a minimum five other titles ("Gray Matter," "Grey Matter," "Mind Warp," "Time Warp," and "The E-Box") in attempt to peddle this to an unsuspecting public. I don't care what they call it (I would vote for "Idiots Who Can't Act, Direct, or Edit Make a Feature Film," but that's just me) this film is a disaster of epic proportions.
The premise is that a military-industrial complex is conspiring to control the world. In an attempt to read minds some scientists have developed the "E-Box" where they confine four unrelated people who have to tell the absolute truth, and are subjected to various probes and torments which include moving walls, "pollutants" added to their environment, varying noise levels, and an intrusive female scientist with the biggest beehive hairdo I have ever in my life seen. (Think of one of the women from a "Far Side" comic.) Of course the experiment goes wildly awry and leads to tragedy in the end, as government thugs take control from the scientists.
The film opens somewhat promisingly with the defection of a scientist, Dr. Krisner, played by the delightfully named Zephirin Hymel IV. Krisner takes some ultra-secret files about mind control with him and to fill us in on the action starts writing a letter to a senator which he actually reads out loud to us (clever plot device) which literally begins "Dear Senator, What I'm about to tell you is more horrible..." at which point he is shot dead by rogue government agents. The film becomes rapidly disjointed from there and spends most of the remaining hour on three basic types of scenes: outdoor establishing shots of buildings; the interactions between the experiment subjects and their captors; and (my personal favorite) a shot of two scruffy looking guys in headsets in a control room saying the most stupid and contrived sci-fi technobabble I have ever heard in any movie, bar none. The truth is, I was originally going to give this film one star, but decided to give it two because of the hilarity of the control room exchanges, which desperately want to sound like NASA, but sound more like someone working the drive-through in a fast food restaurant. These exchanges are so delicious I have to give you a random sampling:
"Get my phase three impulse breakdowns!"
"Integrate CIC circuit to probe status...reduce modulation by five...mark!"
"The computers are overriding us!"
"The computers have total control!"
Last, but certainly not least, is a long dialogue about "redactive circuits."
I should mention that the props and special effects match the remainder of the film for quality. There are tons of shots of tinted corridors and control rooms while rotating emergency lights flash, and the mind control probes are bits of wonder by any standards. These mind control probes are actually foldable cots the victims can sleep on, but we are informed (in a lecture) that they are amazing and sophisticated devices that can transmit the virtual essence of the experimental subject to a computer.
The movie also likes to try to be philosophical, though I doubt the wisdom of some exchanges, for example: "No man ever thinks he's going to die; it's the paradox of mankind."..."Yes, we know that now, we made a mistake." Well that cleared that up.
This movie is relentless and poorly crafted in every way. The script is pure drivel, the direction and editing can be generously described as incompetent, and the acting is dreadful: the worst actor by far (Thomas Phillips) plays "The General;" his performance is one of the worst I have ever seen in any movie of any genre from any time period (and yes, I have seen every Ed Wood movie.) Truly, his is a breathtaking performance.
I can't imagine who funded this film or why; moreover, I can't even hazard a guess as to why the final product was released. Have these people no shame?
Get Ready to Integrate 
2006-03-07
Here is one of those movies where the box is the most exciting thing about the movie. Once you begin watching the movie, you suddenly realize that this movie is tremendously exciting, much like watching grass grow. Actually, watching grass grow may be more exciting.
The movie begins with some promise. We see a fellow in a white coat flitting about a laboratory while scenes are cut in discussing the fellow and that he has just stolen the super secret files that no one should ever have access to because they are super secret and it is just too bad that he has to be "transferred," which is a euphemism for shot a whole bunch of times in a hotel room while writing a letter to a congressman who already knew about the secret project anyway. Understanding all this really makes little difference, because this movie is confusing much of the time anyway, and the ending seems almost pointless.
We soon learn that the "project" is going to move forward with four volunteers. We pick up bits and pieces that the "project" has something to do with reading minds. Obviously this project has to be government sponsored because in 1977, when this movie was filmed, government was the root of all evil. Knowing what we know today, obviously evil was milder in those days.
Our four volunteers include ditzy Minnie Lee Parks (Anne Latham, in her second and last role), war veteran Judd Reeves (Marcus J. Grapes, who was near the end of his brief television and film career), Reverend Emory Neill (James Best, a veteran of at least 170 film and television appearances, who many will remember best as Rosco P. Coltrane on the television series "The Dukes of Hazzard"), and highly intelligent Willie West (Gerald McRaney, who was one of the Simons in the television series "Simon & Simon," among dozens of other appearances).
Dr. Carol Portland (Barbara Burgess, who had one role after this movie in 1984's "Laughterhouse") spends a good amount of time trying to keep her hair piled high without snapping her neck, and periodically appearing intelligent. To her credit, she keeps herself above the silly dialogue (more about that in a moment). Dr. Portland appears to be intimate with Dr. Roland Roth (Doug Collins, in his only film appearance, ever; this movie must have told him that acting was a poor way to make a living), who appears to be sort of in charge much of the time, and who shares highly dramatic scenes with Gil Peterson as Dr. Elton Morris. I know Gil Peterson is famous because he was the well known "fourth German soldier" in a 1965 episode of "Combat." If that isn't fame, I do not know what is.
There are a number of nondescript government types who lend credence to the whole government conspiracy plot, but other than seeing moving mouths and one high government person's office that looks a lot like a junk closet at Hewlett Packard, these characters are there for comic relief. Just kidding. Actually these characters are there to be sinister and cold-blooded, but only if you can stop rolling your eyes long enough to focus.
What all this comes down to is that the non-descript government types take over the experiment, and soon our volunteers are doing all sorts of dramatic things (yawn). By the time the movie reaches its inevitable conclusion, I was wondering what all the hoopla was about. After all, one of the characters in the movie sure looked to me like a George Bush look-alike.
There is no way that I am able to explain to you how bad this movie is. It is boring. The technical jargon, which uses the word "integrate" more times than a semester of calculus, was obviously bogus. In fact, the dialogue was a concatenation of actual words that made virtually no sense. It did sound impressive. I was impressed by the use of actual oscilloscopes, computer tape drives and other high tech paraphernalia from the 70s that were likely state of the art at that time. However, getting past the equipment, this movie has nothing to offer. The plot takes a long time to get launched. Once you figure out what the plot is about, you get to the "so what" point, and after that the movie goes down hill from there. I spent much of the movie waiting for something, anything, to happen. It never did.
If you have so much money that you have spend it on something, get this movie. Otherwise, I recommend any other movie you can find.
"I believe this country is riddled with enemies, inside and outside. Your machine may be the only defense." 2005-12-02
As I write this review, the Amazon website lists this particular film being released in the 1950s, and while there was a film called The Brain Machine released in 1956, it is not this film. This `film' (if you can call it such), of the same name, was actually released in 1977, at least according to The Internet Movie Database, and was co-written (one of three writers, to my disbelief) and directed by Joy N. Houck Jr. (Night of Bloody Horror, Creature from Black Lake), whose father was Joy N. Houck, Sr., producer of Lash LaRue movies in the 1940s and early 1950s. The film features appearances by Barbara Burgess (Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special), Gil Peterson (The Cool Ones), Marcus J. Grapes (Women and Bloody Terror), Doug Collins, Ann Latham (Thieves Like Us), Stocker Fontelieu (Mandingo), Thomas Hal Phillips (O.C. and Stiggs), Gerald McRaney ("Simon & Simon", "Major Dad"), and James Best, forever known to late 1970s/early 1980s television viewers as the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from the show "The Dukes of Hazzard".
As far as I can tell, the actual story starts off with a scientist stealing information about a top secret, hush hush, black bag gooberment project, a project that he, himself might have been involved with (the entire film is confusing as hell due to exceptionally poor direction and inept editing)...pretty much the first fifteen minutes of the film are wasted on the agents chasing him down, retrieving the `crucial' files, and then finally `transferring' said scientist (transfer was code for disposing of, as in killing...we all know how them gooberment types never actually say what they mean, using doublespeak and such to obscure their illicit activities). Anyway, it's back to the lab where we meet Dr. Roland Roth (Collins), his assistant (and girlfriend, I think) Dr. Carol Portland (Burgess), and Dr. Elton Morris (Peterson), all scientists working on some sort of benign environmental, group stress study, one which the gooberment plans to secretly subvert to verify operation of some sort of super computer that can actually breach a person's mind and pluck out their deepest, darkest secrets, sort of a means to ferret out enemies of the state, I guess...so here are the four candidates to be subjected to the test; there's Minnie Lee Parks (Latham), a homely idiot hillbilly, Judd Reeves (Grapes), a war veteran, Willie West (McRaney), a wealthy genius type, and finally Reverend Emory Neill (Best), a religious type whose lost his faith. The four are placed in a specially developed room (along with Dr. Portland acting as a monitor of sorts), subjected to various stimuli, and it's about this time the secret testing kicks in, as the super computer begins probing their minds. Things eventually go haywire (as they're apt to do), and the effect of the mind probing causes the foursome to go nutty as they begin attacking one another ultimately resulting in an unintentionally hilarious finale, at least from my standpoint.
First of all, it's probably worth mentioning this film has gone by a number of different titles including Gray Matter, Mind Warp, Time Warp, and The E-Box...regardless of what it's called, it still stinks on ice. I suspect the reasoning for the various titles is because people who've seen the film would probably give it such a bad rap that the various individuals releasing the movie (to video and such) decided the only way to sucker more people into seeing it was to change the name. As far as the film goes, if you're a fan of establishing shots, i.e. shots that preface a scene in order to give reference to where the scene is supposed to take place, then you'll be in 7th heaven here as I truly cannot recall another film polluted with so many of them...just about every five minutes we're hit with another shot of a building or such, just to let us know where we're supposed to be...gads...as far as the performances here, none of them were very good, only varying in degrees of rottenness. In the actors' defense, I suspect they were probably as perplexed and befuddled with their characters as the audience was with the movie. I highly doubt Best nor McRaney (whom I barely recognized...someone get that man a razor and a comb) talk this particular feature up much on their respective resumes. Burgess is kinda nice to look at, if you can get past her incredibly huge bouffant hairdo...and speaking of funky hairstyles, I'd like to nominate Stocker Fontelieu, who plays the Project Chief Saxon, for cinematic character with the worst comb over...seriously, who does he think he's foolin'? Ann Latham presents the most idiotic character in the movie, which was quite an accomplishment, especially given the competition. I've tried to lay out the basic plot of the story, but it was just so friggin' confusing (despite all the wonderful establishing shots), I was barely able to make heads or tails of this mess. That's always nice, when you have spend so much energy trying to discern what's actually going on within a movie that you don't get to enjoy it. The direction is shoddy, the editing woefully inept, and the dialog is about as stilted, pointless, awkward, and rambling as I've heard in a film. Here's a lovely bit, featured when The Senator and The General (this is how they were referred to throughout the movie, no names, only titles) were discussing the feasibility and benefits of going forth with their secret project...
Senator: You know, I'm sticking my neck out a long way, General, because I believe this country is riddled with enemies, inside and outside. Your machine may be the only defense.
General: I certainly hope so, sir.
Senator: You know it's not vigilance anymore, General...its surveillance...eternal surveillance is the price of liberty, that's why I'm willing to go all the way with you. (I couldn't figure out if he was coming on to him here or what)
General: Thank you, Senator.
I think my favorite aspect of the script was the near endless supply of meaningless technical jargon spewed forth, whose only purpose seemed not to instill a sense of credibility in the audience, but only to eat up many minutes of running time, and keep you occupied enough from thinking how your time could have been better by cleaning the lint out of your belly button rather than watching this horrendously putrescent film. All in all this is about as rotten as they come...there's plenty of unintentional humor if you like riffing on bad films, but if you're looking for an interesting, cohesive, sci-fi thriller, keep on looking, as this on has absolutely no redeeming qualities (and believe me, I looked for at least one).
The fullscreen picture quality on this DVD, released by a company called 905 Entertainment, is so-so, and the Dolby Digital stereo audio comes through well enough. There are no extras included, but there are chapter stops, all four of them, which made me wonder what's the point?
Cookieman108
By the way, the artwork on the DVD case looks interesting (sort of like a very poor H.R. Giger influenced rendering), but it really has nothing to do with the actual film.
