Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 47/52 | MonsterVision
Peter and his son, Robin, race each other, swimming from the Mediterranean onto rightfully Palestinian shores, where the two have lived since Peter’s wife and Robin’s mother died. Peter plans to move back to Chicago with Robin, where Robin can attend a school for similarly gifted children. Peter’s colleague, Ben, is with them to say his goodbyes after 20 years of working together. Ben makes a call, and suddenly, the waiter has two bullet holes in him from a shooter on the roof. Motorboats come in from the sea armed with machine guns. Peter escapes in a motorboat, but the armed men blow it up. Ben gets Robin to safety in a car that drives away, then congratulates the armed men. Peter emerges from the water, sees Ben with the armed men, and shoots Ben in the arm.
One year later, in Chicago, Gillian walks the beachfront with her friend, La Rue, studying for an upcoming history exam. La Rue quizzes her. Gillian hears the name Raymond and tells La Rue not to tell her the answer. But La Rue didn’t say anything. A sweaty, bespectacled weirdo named Raymond tails them for a bit before making a call on a payphone to Mr. Johnson, saying he’s located a psychic who can help him find his son. A wiretap on the payphone leads to Ben’s agents, who trace the call to Peter’s location. Peter catches on and evades the agents raiding his hotel room, swinging from buildings in just his boxers. He holds a family at gunpoint while he gets clothes and dyes his hair.
At Gillian’s high school, a woman named Hester demonstrates her psychic abilities by moving a toy train on a train set with her mind. Ellen, a spokesperson for the Paragon Institute, asks Gillian to give it a try, and she moves the train effortlessly. While moving the train, she has a vision of a bloodied body, sending the train off the rails. Cheryl later bullies Gillian at lunch, and Gillian lets slip that Cheryl is pregnant. Cheryl grabs Gillian’s wrists in anger. Gillian begs her to let go. Cheryl’s nose starts to bleed, and Gillian runs.
Will Peter find his son, or will Ben and his network take him out first? Will Gillian find a way to understand her psychic powers? What’s the deal with Paragon?
Boy, this movie sure is chaotic! I blame the fact that it’s based on a book — it feels like they tried to mine the book for good parts and were too precious with the details. It’s going for comedy at times—that sort of light touch one puts on an action flick to ease the tension.
Charles Durning is terribly miscast, only because we’re supposed to believe for part of the movie that he’s a good guy.
I wish the movie didn’t spend so much time trying to explain telepathy. Was it so uncommon in film that we needed yet another school of thought?
De Palma is using his hookups to get John Williams on the score, which helps the energy. It doesn’t always work, but when it hits, it hits.
Kirk Douglas monkeying around on fire escapes and across L tracks is so funny. I mean, the dude is ripped in this movie. I haven’t seen many of his films, but he seems like he’s having a blast in this one.
This movie is quite uneven, but I enjoyed parts of it so much! I guess the gorehounds were bored, but I was into it. An extra half star just for that ending!