Ketrivie
It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
jvance-566-20403
This is a movie where reading the book will enhance the experience.The book contains a considerable amount of background explanation on the nature of the scientific process and the scientists who spend their lives on it. There are some philosophical discussions on the nature of crises and how we respond to them. These help to piece together a movie that on first glance seems to spend a lot of time doing nothing when in reality a lot is going on.Though dated, the movie is a reasonably accurate portrayal of how such a problem would have been handled in the era. The computational weaknesses are glaring but few would have imagined the smart phones we all carry around today. It's quite forgivable.This is not any everyman's sci-fi work, you have to understand the sci to enjoy the fi.
lathe-of-heaven
Believe me, not that I'm anybody special, but I don't give out '9's very often. I just now finished watching the new Blu-ray and it is frigg'n AWESOME!My Dad took me to see this at the theatre when I was about 12 and I remember VERY vividly that I laid awake all that night, absolutely TERRIFIED that some nasty virus was assuredly going to kill us all. I don't remember just how long I was traumatized by this film, but it was a while. Heh, my poor Dad; there was no way that he would have known the impact that this film would have had on his extremely imaginative and impressionable little p\/ssy of a son.Since then I have seen the film a couple of times, but it has been quite some time since the last time I watched this, but let me tell you, even as an adult now some 40 years later, I can attest to the fact that this is one of THE most effective Science Fiction Thrillers of it's type. Now of course, I can much more fully admire the wonderfully serious and precise way it was put together. I think that this film has probably evoked the most respect for Robert Wise from me so far, even though he has directed MANY excellent films. The structure, pacing, direction, bloody EVERYTHING was perfect. I think that this is probably one of THE very best examples of how when done properly, a film can create the maximum amount of tension, suspense, and an oppressive mood, BUT... without having to resort to graphic violence or anything obvious. The way Wise ratcheted up the unease and tension was nothing less than masterful. And even so... I must admit that at least for me, there was maybe ONE or TWO moments in the film that actually called up feelings of genuine Horror, even though nothing was even close to being overdone or explicit in any way. I WILL say though, without going into too much detail so as to be a Spoiler or anything, but there IS a scene with a monkey that is most disquieting. I DON'T think that they would allow such a scene to be filmed like that now (remember, then they did not have computers to simulate things like they do now) I love animals, but I'm not a PETA activist or anything, and let me tell you that that one scene was really intense. And that is pretty much the bottom line of this film. Robert Wise used EVERY method available, in the most artful way, to elicit the most powerful effect on the audience. But again, WITHOUT resorting to low-denominator crassness. TRUE quality and talented film making at it's very best.After seeing so many films, many from around that time period, I feel that this one stands out above most of the other supposed Sci Fi Classics around that time, building a palpable sense of dread and realism. I think it was the sense of realism that made it work so well; and usually I am one of the LAST people to extol 'Realism'. Usually I am scornfully denouncing it in movies, and particularly the people who can't get into a film unless it is totally 'Real' or 'Believable' to them. Usually I spit venom in the direction of their Mothers, Grandmothers, and various other female family members as I smugly look down scornfully on what, I feel in my superiority, is their less than pitiful imaginations.However...In THIS film, Wise very shrewdly ramped up the 'Realism' in order to draw us firmly into the situation as it was happening, and it damn well held you there in it's Death Grip until it was done with you. Needless to say, in this case, I will quite humbly make an exception.As you can likely tell by now, I hold this film in the HIGHEST regard. Although I am usually quite put off by an overly 'Realistic' style when it comes to film making, especially when such 'Realism' eschews any imagination or suspension of disbelief or stretching yourself a little because it has to be OH SO 'Believable', I was fully held in the spell of this near-Documentary approach to a Science Fiction Thriller. And, of course the introduction at the beginning of the movie sets the tone beautifully.I would say that IF you are the kind of person who appreciates the simplicity of just DAMN good film making, and doesn't need a ton of special effects (although the ones incorporated here were quite ahead of their time and VERY effective) or if you don't require a boatload of sadism and gore, then you should very much enjoy this excellent and powerful Classic film.
Cheese Hoven
This dull and dated sci-fi thriller, heavy on ponderous detail but light on action, is certainly not recommendable to those with short attention spans. What little special effects there are are limited to computer models on screens, and, even if they were cutting edge at the time, seem unbelievably primitive now.The basic premise, a space virus that wipes out and US town and the attempts by the country's best scientists to identify and quarantine the virus, is intriguing. But the script over-explains every painstaking scientific investigation to a point where it becomes like watching a boring lecture.Spoiler Alert.And after all this, the scientists are completely irrelevant to the solution! The virus itself mutates to a harmless form without any action from the scientists. An amazingly Un-Hollywood anticlimax.Worth watching if you are interested in 70s sci-fi.
Teh Pwn
I am going to go as far as saying the movie is unique in every way. Where detail loses to generalization - this movie digs deep in the small details. Where the enemy of a "regular" sic-fi movie is a horror flick alien - here it is the horror of helplessness against an organism just some microns in size. Being slow-paced, showing attention to detail and carefully serving audience the more or less csi-like approach to science, minus the action and theatrics, makes this movie some kind of anomaly as if scientists were themselves to chose what *they* would like to see as an action movie, rather than being dictated what some people view science as ... and that could just as well be traced to old Frankenstein movies where "science" is a collection of random gadgets and stereotypical special effects. This is the kind of originality that sets Andromeda Strain apart, with a unique atmosphere and a very original approach to putting the viewer if not in the hot seat, then at the very least in a tense situation. I give it 6 points none the less, because I can see how this kind of movie will never have great appeal with the general audience.