Review of Futureworld (1976) by Ryan S — 25 Dec 2004

This movie would definately fall under the "B" category. The thing about old B movies is that by no means did most of these directors set out to make a cheesy movie. Particularly with Peter FOnda and Yul Brinner in the cast. Although, Brinner's parts as a robotic, don juan gun slinger are limited at best and usually reserved for fantasies or dream sequences.

Filmed in 1976, the movie takes place in 1985 (a world in which fashion remarkably still looks like 1976) and takes place in a world where people can pay the sum 0f $1200 a day to go play at Futureworld--an adult Disneyland full of themed "lands" where visitors dress in costume and interact with role-playing robots. Want to go to the moon or ski on Mars' red snow? No problem. How about walking the streets of 11th century Europe and fighting other knights? Sure.

After a computer meltdown in "Westernworld" and the robots go nuts and kill 50 guests and assorted staff, Futureworld is in need of a major overhauling.

After this overhaul, journalists Fonda and Blythe are invited to tour the facility, interact with the robots, and hopefully write favorable stories when they return.

This is why I enjoyed this movie. Instead of a stupid robot gone bad story, it's actually a metaphorical tale of how the world is becoming more dependent on computers and the faulty logic associated in assuming that computers are perfect and that they can do any job better than a human. Remember, this is 1976. Long before the revolt of the Terminators, long before Kubrick's Spielberg-mangled "A.I." This movie is so ambitious with it's message, but you have to laugh at the fact that in 1976, knowing the world that existed and the infancy of the computer revolution, the director would have shat his pants had he been fast forwarded into 2004.

Hard to find, but extremely enjoyable, albeit cheese.