Anyone not familiar with the book by John Varley will be quite lost watching this adaption. Anyone who has read it will think it will a bit of a clunker really. Truth is, a film adaption could never do justice to the book's complexity.
To draw any kind of an audience you need a big name in the cast and luckily (publicity-wise) Kris Kristofferson decided the money was good enough. However , there is a pretty literal description of the main character from the book itself: "I'm no Robert Redford, but my face doesn't scare little girls either." So, a Joe Average from the book is replaced by he-man Kristofferson? Out of place as such and Kris goes through the numbers in his role. Cherryl Ladd can't act her way out of a shoebox, but at least she fits into the role as chain-smoking gang- leader. Well, sort of..
There is almost nothing wrong with the first 40 minutes or so, where the book is painstakingly followed. The pacing is slow, but it feels like it's gearing up for a big finale. It's when we see the first glimpses of the future when the whole contraption is starting to fall apart. Cheap production values and CGI take it's tole and there is this persistent feeling that the film ran out of budget. 6 out of 10 stars for getting some parts of the story properly done; the nerve for even giving it a try , but coming up short for the 2nd part
To draw any kind of an audience you need a big name in the cast and luckily (publicity-wise) Kris Kristofferson decided the money was good enough. However , there is a pretty literal description of the main character from the book itself: "I'm no Robert Redford, but my face doesn't scare little girls either." So, a Joe Average from the book is replaced by he-man Kristofferson? Out of place as such and Kris goes through the numbers in his role. Cherryl Ladd can't act her way out of a shoebox, but at least she fits into the role as chain-smoking gang- leader. Well, sort of..
There is almost nothing wrong with the first 40 minutes or so, where the book is painstakingly followed. The pacing is slow, but it feels like it's gearing up for a big finale. It's when we see the first glimpses of the future when the whole contraption is starting to fall apart. Cheap production values and CGI take it's tole and there is this persistent feeling that the film ran out of budget. 6 out of 10 stars for getting some parts of the story properly done; the nerve for even giving it a try , but coming up short for the 2nd part