R4 DVD
Viavision
Web: http://www.viavision.com.au
Distributed by Madman Entertainment
Man
with the Screaming Brain is cult cinema meets 1950’s science fiction homage and
offers an amusing romp through robots, brain transplants and at times somewhat
clichéd humour. Starring America’s cult favourite Bruce Campbell as well as
Stacy Keach and Ted Raimi, it is well acted, nicely directed (by Campbell
himself) and certainly achieves its aim – to be a modern adaptation of those
old B grade drive-in classics with ridiculous titles and silly pseudo
scientific themes.
Sleazy
and arrogant Tom Selleck look alike American pharmaceutical tycoon William Cole
(played superbly by Campbell himself) arrives in Bulgaria with his obnoxious
wife Jackie (Antoinette Byron) to explore some potential business investments.
Eastern Europe is certainly not as he would expect it as he finds no safety
belts in their taxis and horror of horror, they even smoke and talk on their
mobiles as they drive ! He clashes with everyone he meets espousing the value
of capitalism and the failure of Bulgaria as a socialist state.
As
they head towards a business appointment, gypsies attempt to hijack the taxi,
however, their driver, Yegor, is actually a former KGB agent and makes short
work of their attempt. Cole takes another look at Yegor and realizes he may be
of value in this lawless state and hires him as his personal driver for the
day. Jackie is certainly impressed with the arrangement as she is bored and
finds Yegor’s masculine, if not mindless, enthusiasm rather appealing and
cannot wait to wile the day away in the back of his cab !
Cole hopes to
rebuild his sagging relationship and asks Yegor to find him a special gift for
his wife. Yegor presents Cole with a stunning ring, life does Cole know that
this ring was once Yegor’s engagement ring to his gypsy girlfriend Tatoya
(Tamara Gorski). Of course, all these discordant notes are brought together
when Tatoya hustles down Cole and steals his wallet, cash and ring. When she
realizes that Yegor has sold the ring he was to give to her before dumping her
so brutally she decides it is time for revenge.She despatches Cole with a metal
bar to the head and stabs and then shots Yegor. It seems that is how things are
done in Bulgaria, beware of jilted lovers !
At
the same time we come to understand that Dr.Ivanov (Stacy Keach) and his
strange assistance Pavel (Ted Raimi) have been working on a drug to stop the
rejection of tissue so that organs can be easily transplanted. It seems the way
Ivanov finds bodies for his experiments is to monitor the police radio station
and where he hears about Cole, he sees this as his one chance for fame. He
rebuilds Coles damaged brain using sections of Yegors brain tissue with obvious
results. Cole is now a combination of himself and Yegor and this results in an
onslaught of slapstick. While the success of the humour varies from the
hilarious to the downright embarrassing, there is enough of it to keep the film
entertaining and to spin a fun sci fi tale. Of course, the story continues with
Jackie having a one on one catfight with Tatoya, losing and then being rebuilt
into Pavels hop-hoping toy robot’s body since that was the only body they had
left on hand !
Man
with the Screaming Brain is an uneven but ultimately amusing film which
combines a rather convoluted plot which is an obvious homage to Fifties science
fiction cinema with a cult film sensibility. It is packed with silly and ludicrous
scenes, slapstick, lots of biffo, a catfight or two and some truly bizarre
moments. The whole sub plot of transplanting Jackie’s brain into a hip hopping
robot beggars belief.
There
have been many critical reviews of this film, however, I think at times
reviewers believe every film has to be a work of art and forget to accept
movies for what they are. Man with the Screaming Brain has been clearly made as
a fun piece of cult cinema entertainment and to that end succeeds admirably.