The Fantastic Seven (1979)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

But yes, they seemed to have fun.I guess when I first watched this thing, I thought Chris Connelly was an actual stuntman, and co.Never knew that was Chris Lloyd tho as the dynamite expert.and yes, it was a pilot set up to be a series, which obviously wasn't picked up.We have Morgan Brittany, as either the diver or the swimmer, doesn't matter.And Bob Seagren, seventies model figure who was an actual Olympic figure, (go figure!) I'll always remember him as Billy Crystal's boyfriend on Soap.Just try to envision Ekle Sommer as some popular actress in the seventies.In whose mind? The seventies of Rocky, Network, Turning Point, Saturday Night Fever, James Bond and the disaster flicks, where would she fit in? But I guess the biggest puzzler to me has always been the vanishing of the actor who begins with Connelly, who played the grinning fellow Horatio (no idea why it is so misspelled here).He did absolutely nothing else. Peculiar.The movie spends more time gathering the characters than it does actually performing the adventure.Okay.We also get a Bill Macy appearance, he of Maude who caused the William H. Macy Jr, name to come into being.

An entertaining rescue mission TV- movie.Big name actress (Elke Sommer) is kidnapped from the set during filming. She's being held by ex- pirate Bourdieu (Patrick Macnee)on an off shore shack off the coast of Cuba for ransom. As the FBI declines to act, stuntman Hill Singleton decides to put together a rescue team made of stuntmen and women.What's so enjoyable in this one is the fact that everyone seems to be aware of the ludicrosity of the script. No one's acting at all seriously and it almost seems that many times we get a glimpse of the real people behind the roles.Another notable thing about The Fantastic Seven is the warmth and respect shown towards the profession of stuntman. After seeing this one I wanted to become one immediately just because of the great team spirit they have!Finally, as it is a product of the seventies, enjoyability is heightened by the "Charlie's Angels"- factor. In other words: if you're a fan of the groovy feeling of the Spelling- created series, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one, too. (Although Spelling is in no way connected with the Fantastic Seven.)Released on video in Finland in the early eighties.