Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Sam Panico Sometimes, I just sit and search through YouTube looking for a movie to watch while I work. Often, that search finds horrible films that I wouldn't be able to enjoy if I were truly paying attention to them. And sometimes, like with this movie, I end up taking a break from writing and find something I really enjoy.Directed by Peter Sasdy (The Lonely Lady, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Hands of the Ripper), this film was a UK/Canadian tax shelter affair. But don't hold that against it! Five strangers all wake up at the same time and have no memories of who they are, other than that they are all killers. They must travel to a Wild West town called Blood City.Once there, they will spend a year in servitude before they can become free. Then, they'll be able to own a business and work toward becoming immortal - free from constant worry of challenges to the death. They get there by winning twenty challenges. And there's only one law in Blood City - Frendlander, played by Jack Palance. It's no accident that the bad guy from Shane is playing this part. Palance might only be known to younger folks from his Oscar turn in City Slickers, but in the 1970's he was taking whatever parts he could get. And then he'd sink his teeth into them! He's fabulous in this movie!Keir Dullea (Black Christmas, 2001, The Haunting of Julia) stars as Lewis, who finds himself coming up against Frendlander over and over again. The real secret of the film? None of them are in this town at all - it's a virtual reality simulation to determine the best warriors in a future war. So basically, it's a combination of WestWorld and The Matrix.Samanta Eggar (The Brood) shows up as a scientist who falls in love with Lewis and inserts herself into the virtual reality experiment. Barry Morse is also in here, who you may remember as Lt. Philip Gerard from TV's The Fugitive. And Chris Wiggins is in this as well. He was Jack Marshak on Friday the 13th: The Series.If you're looking for this movie, you can find a horrible transfer of it on the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Invasion 50 Pack. That said, the set is pretty worthwhile, as you also get stuff like The Crater Lake Monster, Death Machines, Sergio Martino's Hands of Steel, Horror High, the Florinda Bolkan film Le Orme, The Raiders of Atlantis, R.O.T.O.R., Robo Vampire, one of the worst/best films ever Rocket Attack U.S.A. and more.This is totally of the doomed 1970's genre and the end - where Lewis chooses the fantasy of Blood City instead of the lies of modern life - still ring true today. I completely expected a ripoff of WestWorld and FutureWorld, yet was rewarded with something really good. It's slow moving, but if you understand that and can see a movie for what it could be versus what it is, I think you'll enjoy it.

lost-in-limbo A group of strangers wake up to find themselves in an unknown place with little recollection of how they got there and of their previous lives. They come across Sheriff Friedlander (Jack Palance), who takes them to a town called "Blood City". It's like they're back in the Wild West, but with a strange law system and social order involving a slave society and where murder is encouraged. But something is not quite right, as unknowingly for these people they are part of an experiment / reality game from outside forces who can manipulate the situations. Originality can only go so far, if your execution isn't up to par. That's the story for the Sci-fi outing "Welcome to Blood City". Its ambitious quality in its ideas shows, but it's poorly staged. Low budget eats away and so does its limitations. While the technical side won't set the world alight with Peter Sasdy's steadfast direction, but I can't just fault that as the material is somewhat hodgepodge too. What starts off is intriguing, only goes onto become inconsistent and muddled as the more we learn about the predicament the characters find themselves in, the less involving it gets. The problem here is that it gives away the reveal too early, and when we find out about the experiment it seems to be incoherent in its narrative developments. The question why, is asked a lot. Rules just seem to be thrown about, the reasoning is that's the way of life and motivations become hazy of what's really going on behind the scenes with a real lack of elaboration on the bigger picture that becomes silly. The writers probably became lost with all the possibilities being churned out.The complex concept behind the film does offer some sinister and nightmarish strokes, but it lacks the visual flair to complement it. Looking quite makeshift. Still it does have a brutal and ruthless edge to some scenes, but the excitement/suspense levels never rises, sometimes the pacing being bogged down and the climax finishes off on a anticlimactic and baffling note (if humorous with a final chase involving Palance doing his best woody the woodpecker impersonation). In the same way the flimsy ending does leave you dumbfounded. Keir Dullea is likable enough in the lead and Jack Palance is always a treat with that devilish smile. It's a cunning performance. The interplay between Palance and Dullea's characters is for most part amusing. Samantha Eggar gives a good turn playing two roles; one in the game and that of a scientist behind scenes who gets a little too involved in her programming work. So in the end it's disappointing in what it could have been, as there's an interesting, if strange set-up and the beginning builds that up, but alas it doesn't come together. Still there's something admirable about it.

Score_The_Film Despite it's lackluster production values and the fact that the copy I watched was a crappy pan & scan copy, I really enjoyed it.THIS IS NOT A REMAKE OF WESTWORLD as some have suggested. Westworld dealt with a theme park robot that went loopy and tried to kill people. WTBC is about a scientific experiment that places innocent victims in a virtual reality to test their skills. If anything WTBC is closer to The Prisoner episode, "Living In Harmony" as Bishop-11 mentioned, than anything else.Palance is a lot of fun, as usual, and HE'S having fun without over-doing it as he sometimes did in the 70s (plus he's not drunk). The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. For the most part I'm satisfied with the plot details that were given but I would have liked a little bit more. For example, in the beginning the "experiment subjects" have cards in their pockets labeling them murderers and how many people they killed. Now, unless those cards are only there to give the subjects a tiny bit of info as to who they are and maybe why they are there, I'd like to know more about their purpose. However, I really like that the film makers don't hold your hand and spoon feed you the information, allowing you to think for yourself. I guess I can't have my cake and eat it, too.Roy Budd turns in a good score, too, except I can do without the musical saw that showed up from time to time. It's threatening where it needs to be and there are times where the film could have used more music instead of some scenes sitting there flat without any at all.I've been going through a 70's Sci-Fi kick recently, searching out films I hadn't seen before. This one was a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it has pacing issues but it's got a great concept and it's a film that really relies on the story, not the effects. And that's a nice change of pace compared to what we've been given for the past 20 years.

Bishop-11 A muddled attempt at an interesting premise - people are trained to perfect killers in a Wild West environment - which plays its trump card too early by revealing that Keir Dullea & friends are in a VR situation at the start, when it would have been more of a surprise to reveal it nearer the end, and we could have done with more of an explanation as to WHY the scientists are doing what they're doing and why the people involved have been selected. That said, the film just about keeps the viewer interested throughout, with the best performances coming from Dullea & Palance. It's all very similar, by the way, to "The Prisoner" episode "Living in Harmony", which also had its hero thrown into a VR wild-west scenario.