DVD Pick:-->"Westworld" (1973)

"They’re leaving you nothing and nowhere to go.
Just put you in the corner...like an old banjo.
The strings are breakin’ but you can’t say no.
You’re runnin’ with the devil...it’s touch and go."
Emerson, Lake & Powell



NO SPOILERS:
Sometimes the best way to enjoy a movie is just to suspend your belief for a couple of hours. Take the movie premise on face value and disengage your oft-times boring analytical mind. Dig the story being told and to hell with the plot holes.

Westworld (1973) is a small sci-fi movie that quite simply entertains from beginning to end.

Written and directed by best-selling sci-tech author, Michael Crichton, Westworld is about one of three very expensive fantasy camps...(Medievalworld and Romanworld are the others)...where every wonderful imagined scenario can be explored and relived.

Each location is filled with high tech robots that are life-like in every way...ready to help visitors live out their fantasies. Whether that be having a gunfight in the street or providing some tension relief upstairs at the local brothel.
It's fun and games, baby.

All robots are programmed and repaired by scientists who monitor everything 24/7. Their office looks like an antiquated cross between a computer department and a hospital.

There is absolutely no risk of harm to the guests. Nothing can go wrong.

But , of course, many things do go wrong. And...no spoiler...but we all know what's coming. We're only anxious about when and where a major malfunction will take place. That, my friends, is what makes this movie a blast to watch.
Richard Benjamin & James Brolin at Westworld.
Richard Benjamin and James Brolin are two businessmen intent on leaving their problems behind for a little while. Brolin's character is a 2nd rate Burt Reynolds, However, Benjamin absolutely nails his part as the timid and uptight so-and-so...like nobody's business.

Watching Benjamin's character grow from a "Dougie-Downer" to a "Larry-Like-It" is a trip to watch.
Yul Brynner at Westworld.
Yul Brynner is unforgettable in this film as the menacing killing machine and would later become the inspiration for the Michael Myers character in Halloween. Brynner steals every scene and simply commands your attention.

Chricton's Westworld
idea would 20 years later bloom into a blockbuster film..."Jurassic Park" with virtually the same concept.

Forget about the plot holes...and I'll leave those for you to discuss amongst yourselves. Westworld is very simply a classic sci-fi film.
Good stuff!

Casey

AND ANOTHER THING:
The album..."Emersen, Lake and Powell"...by the prog-rock boys with the same name...is really good. And was too quickly panned and forgotten. Emersen, Lake and Powell...(original drummer, Carl Palmer, was hanging with band Asia so legendary drummer...Cozy Powell was asked to fill) released a gem that simply went unnoticed.

It also marks the first time Keith Emersen and Greg Lake worked together since ELP's break-up in 1978. This CD is filled with an energy not seen since early ELP.

Perhaps one reason this album tanked was that many fans had long since given up on the band.
Let me state quickly, this CD is NEVER boring...whether with a delicious jazzy beat ("Step Aside") or the attention-grabbing...("The Score") opening the disc.

The jamming ("The Miracle") is ELP at their finest and will have you reaching for the repeat button. And Emersen appears to have energised himself...'cause he sounds like he would probably make Mozart smile and nod his head. He's that good.

Those interested in diving into some prog-rock could do much worse than adding this to their musical crayon box.
Good stuff!
Emerson, Lake & Powell:-->"Touch And Go" (Emerson, Lake & Powell) (1986)
(Must Own)

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