Review – Looker

With all his Jurassic Park and ER millions, I’m a little surprised Michael Crichton hasn’t made more of an effort to buy up all copies of this embarrassment from earlier in his career. The premise is actually kind of impressive, especially considering that the whole idea of using computer simulations to create ads more computer-perfect than real actors could do was strictly a thing of the future in the early 80s. However, the execution is so inept that any chance that the plot might have succeeded is swiftly undone by script, acting and effects. Not even the best story could possibly survive Albert Finney chasing bad guys around with a device that’s supposed to cause memory loss and temporary paralysis but instead looks more like its proper use would be adjusting timing on car engines. And maybe Susan Dey’s nay-nays were a draw somewhere between The Partridge Family and L.A. Law, now the nude scene comes across as a little flat. On the other hand, the scene where Dey gets digitized does mark the approximate point between the interesting plot revelations and the movie’s descent into the realm of mediocre thriller. Mildly amusing