Review of The Keep (1983) by John C — 13 Dec 2010

A visually-arresting mess. The cinematography is beautiful, as is the Tangerine Dream score. And it's amazing how the make-up designers were able to predict exactly how Ian McKellan was going to look as an old man.

And Gabriel Byrne is very effective as one of the main villains. But that's about all the movie has going for it. There was no coherent storyline...there was barely even an incoherent storyline...

There was NO storyline! The special effects were embarrassingly bad, even for the 1980s. And the movie is so lethargic, it makes a stroke victim look like Speedy Gonzalez. You get the impression I didn't like it? The fact that Michael Mann recovered from this and managed to become one of the better directors of the last 20 years is all the more amazing now that I've seen this.