Brainstorm Movie Review

Natalie Wood's last film is far from her best but the good special effects and interesting camera work (not to mention one of the better James Horner scores), make this a well spent couple of hours. Michael and Karen Brace (Christopher Walken and Wood) invent a device that can record dreams, thoughts, and fantasies, like your home VCR, and allow other people to play them back. With their marriage on the rocks, Michael becomes obsessed with perfecting the head-trip machine. Things are going good until fellow scientist Lilian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher) wears the headset while suffering a fatal heart attack. The government, Michael, everybody, wants to see the tape, so for a bit it's a chase and then…PLAY-BACK. The effects really kick in as we get to see her final thoughts and her trip down the famous tunnel of near-death experiences. Helmsman Douglas Trumbull is special effects wiz and it shows. Available letterboxed on the laserdisc version.

1983 (PG) 106m/C Natalie Wood, Christopher Walken, Cliff Robertson, Louise Fletcher; D: Douglas Trumbull; W: Bruce Joel Rubin; M: James Horner. VHS, Beta, LV MGM