looker

While Michael Crichton's Westworld is now a buzz worthy HBO show, his other cinematic critique on the perils of a false reality is finally getting a hi-def facelift. In 1981's Looker, Albert Finney is a plastic surgeon set up to take the fall for a string of suspicious suicides involving his supermodel patients. The conspiracy involves a computer-scanning technology (motion capture in today's lingo, still science-fiction in the early '80s) that recreates the actor as a perfect three-dimensional model. But corporate interests see the potential for much more than selling swimsuits and dish soap, forcing them to eliminate any loose ends.

The synopsis above is actually a handy reference guide, since Crichton's script isn't exactly sure how or why the bad guys (led by James Coburn) are executing their evil plan. But Looker remains great fun throughout, mostly thanks to the introduction of a clever "looker gun" that hypnotizes its victim with a flash of light, stealing away minutes at a time. Crichton, who directs here as well with great panache, stages some impressive action scenes involving this freeze frame effect, sending people cluelessly flying through windows and driving into public fountains. Finney and co-star Susan Dey make for a winning pair of amateur detectives, but it's Crichton's way-cool tech that has even modern day films playing catch up.

Warner Archives' Blu-ray is a real rescue operation for a film that's almost disappeared since the early pay cable days. Special features include an introduction and commentary by Crichton (who passed away in 2008), trailer and 8-minute deleted scene for the TV version that attempts to fill some plot holes.

As ridiculous as it may seem, Irwin Allen's The Swarm (1978), was based on real science. '70s kids not only lived under the threat of global thermonuclear war but invasion from killer bees whose progress was being tracked like a slow moving hurricane from Central America. Allen, the king of disaster movies, took things to an illogical extreme, staging an all-star apocalypse as the menacing insects victimized the gulf cost, eventually working their way to Houston for a fiery military showdown.

While much of Allen's work (including TV shows like Lost in Space) is intentionally preposterous, The Swarm is all the more amusing because it takes itself so seriously. Actors like Michael Caine, Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda are forced to earnestly scream lines at one another while extras fall from high-rise buildings and run screaming through main street windows covered in clumps of bees. It's a pre-CGI spectacle that was dated even when it was released. But in the pantheon on bad movies, The Swarm holds a particularly choice spot thanks to its extensive cast of recognizable faces and choice bits of corny dialogue ("I never thought it would be bees. They've always been our friends!") While at the same time, one has to admire Allen's effort to deliver plenty of slow-motion disaster porn and well-coordinated stunts.

The Swarm is almost too big to be appreciated in your living room. But Warner Archives' new Blu-ray presentation is quite a treat, with improved details that prove those extras weren't just swatting at thin air...there's actually swarms of bees on set! But for the real scoop, check out the attached archival documentary - Inside the Swarm - that's attached as a special feature along with the theatrical trailer.