cult film freak: MICHAEL CRICHTON CREATES A REAL 'LOOKER' WITH TERRI WELLES

Title: LOOKER Year Released: 1981

Michael Crichton was a great writer and a good director with some great scripts. His style was to make just about anything not only believable but entirely mundane in whatever near-future it takes place... This includes one of his more obscure movies, LOOKER, centering on how TV Commercials are worse than simply inconvenient...

LookerScore: ***1/2

The plot takes about half the film to unveil and the other to wind-down, or when it comes to the main antagonist, wind-up: Enter Albert Finney as a cosmetic surgeon who did subtle procedures on three already-gorgeous young models, including the initial doomed Terri Welles in what's more Thriller than Action with a touch of the Noir "Wrong Man" template, causing Finney to discover, perhaps too quickly, what's going on and, most important, who killed his former patients...

The LOOKER process, learned by Finney while on a tour of the facility run by charming mogul James Coburn, is initially quite original and intriguing, having to do with electrolytes connected to commercials, leading the viewer to be able to concentrate solely on the product. But most important, LOOKER is the name of a futuristic gun that, when flashed in the target's eyes, renders him blind for a minute. Him, not her. He, not them...

Teri Welles gets the ball rolling in LOOKER

Beside Coburn and his glamorous yet glorified assistant, Leigh Taylor-Young (perfection from the 1960's), it's Tim Rossovich, with a brawny build and a dark 80's mustache, who's the only palpable threat that our hero deals with...

While trying to keep his down-to-Earth, sole-surviving, flirtatious patient, played by former Partridge Susan Dey... definitely cute but far from as "perfect" while trying too hard to be a "down-to-Earth" beauty... from being the final victim. A shame since what's behind LOOKER is much more than a duck-and-cover shoot-em-up, and yet, up front it's really just that: though not too shabby for a neatly time-filling ride. Maybe that's intentional: like those commercials, we're supposed to simply relax, and submit. Enjoy.