Monday, April 17, 2017

Sci Fi Top 100, #35: "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976)

Movie Stats:
Released 1976 (UK)
British, in English
Director - Nicolas Roeg
Stars - David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark

Plot Summary:
A space alien who goes by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton (Bowie), seeking water for his drought-plagued planet, goes to Earth and builds a successful company. Torn co-stars as Nathan Bryce, one of Newton’s employees, and Clark as Mary-Lou, Newton’s love interest.

Warnings:
Full male and female nudity; sexy times; blue language; violence; minor gore.

Bad Stuff:
It’s SO BORING.

The soundtrack is overall quite terrible.

Sex scenes are gratuitous and just plain bizarre.

Bad, bad acting.

Good Stuff:
Um, I guess I like the idea of an alien coming to our planet with a mission and being corrupted by very human influences.

The Verdict:
It’s awful. Barely coherent. I literally can’t believe the glowing reviews it has on IMDB. Just because a movie is weird doesn’t mean it’s good. I consider this movie to be nearly two hours of torture. I hated it.

I give it .25 star.

2 comments:

Patricia said...

A movie with David Bowie in it with a terrible soundtrack? What was going on. I always enjoy your reviews, but this one had me chuckling in its brevity. Perhaps the people who thought so highly of it hadn't actually watched it lately.

balyien said...

There's literally a sex scene where they roll around on the bed, laughing and shooting a gun. It's like, "WTF am I even watching right now?" The whole film is barely comprehensible. And the soundtrack doesn't feature a single Bowie song. Harrumph.