Looker (1981)

Please don't spend money on this.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

At first glance, Looker started out rather well, as fashion and commercial models are murdered in what appeared to be an interesting thriller, and Albert Finney's character(Dr. Larry Roberts)was their plastic surgeon who was framed for their murders. I don't know too much about Finney, but I thought he was pedestrian, and Susan Dey(Cindy)gave a better performance and showed much more emotion. I wish James Coburn(John Reston)would've had more scenes as he was very good, and I wish that Tim Rossovich's character and his silly special effects gun, would've had less screen time. Dorian Harewood(Masters)and Terry Kiser are the other familiar faces to round out the cast. I'll give the film credit for a different motive for the killings, even though I still can't understand why, but you don't see many guns turning people into invalid robots that often. As I give the film credit, I must criticize it for making an interesting thriller become something of a science fiction film which doesn't work, and it becomes rather silly with people shooting each other with these silly guns. The bottom line has the bad guys and 1 bad girl shot and killed with real bullets, as Masters the cop and Roberts save the day. I was happier that the film ended, even though I can't get that time back.

Not awful. Michael Crichton's techo-thriller has a lot of great ideas floating around, but few are really fleshed out enough to make for a really good movie. Albert Finney plays a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who stumbles upon a plot to kill off models (many of whom were his patients). The trail leads to a conglomerate run by oily James Coburn and his sexy goon Leigh Taylor Young. What he uncovers is a pretty clever plot to replace the models with computer generated replicas, thus allowing them to work forever without aging or getting paid. Unfortunately, the leaden pacing of the movie does it in. Finney seems surprisingly engaged, but Crichton has directed nothing. In fact, his direction here (as it was with COMA) is so without personality it has a deadening affect on everything. Coburn is fine in an all too brief role and Susan Dey is terrific as one of Finney's luckier patients.

Those of us who grew up on HBO programming in the early 1980's will easily remember the "light gun" from Looker, as the film was one of the most played flicks in HBO's catalogue. The movie was suspenseful, entertainingly acted, and possessed some cheap effects that were, nevertheless, fun to behold. The PG-rating for films with adult characters has really disappeared in the era of making money off of PG-13 films, and that's led to a reduction in films of this character."Looker" is not without weaknesses such as lapses in logic, but it possesses the traits of a typical Michael Crichton story that make for a thoughtful excursion into another person's world. Albert Finney was memorable for his confused and determined (if strikingly unathletic) doctor trying to unravel the mystery before him. Time shift scenes and the score make for positives, as well.

I actually saw this movie when it first came out when I was just eleven years old. Little did I know I was only one of a few people who would actually admit to viewing it. I have been looking for a chance to review it for many years.At the time, I thought this movie was pure science fiction, but it turns out that CGI and animation are actually replacing live actors beginning with Max Headroom a few year later. To me, this movie was ahead of its time. A bit of '1984' meets 'James Bond'.Not that it was such a great acting movie, it stars Albert Finney, but I give it a little extra because of the interesting story and eerie foretelling. The directing and overall technical aspects gives this movie most of its accolades.Given the dated material and the talent, this one has dissolved into an '80s B-movie. Would like to see it again for nostalgia's sake, though.