Cheap Westworld (DVD) (Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin) (Michael Crichton) Price

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Customer Reviews of Westworld

WeStWoRlD where nothing can go wrong..go worng..go wgrno
I saw this film when it was first released,seeing it on the widescreen was quite enjoyable. The story is about a futuristic
amusement park ($1000 a week) called Delos which has 3 areas.
RomanWorld,MedievalWorld and WestWorld.
James Brolin and Richard Benjamin are the main characters in the film,Brolin being the "park vet" having been there already and bringing his pal Benjamin for his first time.
Everything is fine at first. Brolin coaxes his pal to blast the
gunslinger (Yul Brynner) who's at the bar with them and who's giving Benjamin a hard time.
He finally blasts The gunslinger in all the bloody gore
a full scale fight breaks out in the saloon.
At night when it's quiet, the technicians very stealthily come up from the underground control room to collect all of the shotup
robots for repair. (Pretty convincing looking repairing)
The plot is there's a virus attacking the robots central nervous systems causing them to kill the guests in all the parks
Watch for the gunslinger chasing hapless Richard Benjamin
all over Delos trying to kill him
An enjoyable film full of suspense & chills
keep some acid closeby

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Tons of fun, but don't think too hard!
If there is one thing elementary chaos theory tells us, it's that ALL robots will eventually rise up and overthrow their human masters! Well, this movie came out BEFORE chaos theory was even postulated, and they called it dead on the money! Richard Benjamin plays a wussy, recently divorced lawyer whose macho buddy James Brolin takes him to Delos, a futuristic adult amusement park where fantasies come true. Westworld, Medieval World, and Roman World are a mechanized Sodom and Gomorrah (sp?), where by day the lucky humans kill robot guys, and by night make it with saucy robot girls. Unfortunately, Sodom turns into Beiruit when, all at once, the robots rebel and start wasting all the fat, dopy humans for whom they've taken so many dives. This movie is kind of a modern classic, and the performances (especially Brynner as the soulless killing machine and Benjamin as his befuddled prey) are excellent. However, the viewer has to overlook some plot holes through which one could safely drive a truck.... Among my favorites: 1) Why do the robots in Roman World, who are pretty much programmed just to feed you grapes and get naked with you start killing when they malfunction? Why don't they just feed you more grapes and have even more sex with you? 2) When the scientist-guys are suffocating, how come in a room full of people smart enough to design super-human robots, no one can figure out how to bust out those little windows in the door and let air in? They've got chairs and ashtrays that would presumably be hard enough to break glass...? 3) The robot-chicks are supposed to be indistinguishable from humans in bed, yet the guns are programmed not to fire at humans by reading body heat. Does this mean that the robot-chicks have no body heat? How much fun could it be to have sex with a woman whose body temperature is only 50 degrees? Please, please don't answer that! 4) Finally, my biggest concern: As mentioned above, the guns are programmed with heat-sensors so they won't fire at humans. So how the hell do the guns just suddenly start killing humans when the robots rebel? I mean, the programming failure has NOTHING to do with the heat-sensors on the guns! Anyway, see this movie, because it's loads of fun and it is, in a way, a metaphor for the evil encroachment of technology into our everyday lives. Just have a beer or something first so you won't care about the stitches missing from the plot-fabric.

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"Have We Got a Vacation for You...."
Welcome to Delos, an adult amusement park where, for a mere $1000 per day, guests can experience the excitement of life in America's Old West, Medieval Europe, or Ancient Rome. Lifelike costumed androids populate the park and interact with guests, and said machines are programmed to fulfill all human desires, be those yearnings romantic, heroic, violent, or whatever. But the robots have also been programmed with a fail-safe that prevents them from harming the guests in any way. Think of Delos as a high-tech Disneyland for wealthy grown-ups.

Businessmen Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin) are looking for a few days of excitement and relaxation, and the Old West section of Delos, designated WestWorld, seems like just the ticket. But it turns out there's an unexplained glitch in the main computer that controls the park's network of androids, and unfortunately for Martin and Blane, the error just happens to manifest itself while the two are visiting the park. The robots are suddenly able to exercise free will--which includes the ability to override the directive that prevents them from harming guests--and it's not long before Martin and Blane find themselves pursued by a ruthless android gunslinger (Yul Brynner).

This minor opus from Michael Crichton marks his first directorial effort and is also the first theatrical flick based on an original Crichton screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of his novels. While the special FX in 1973's WESTWORLD are decidedly cheesy and low-tech by contemporary standards, this sci-fi thriller still stands up today due to the tight, well-paced script and the solid performances from principals Benjamin, Brolin, and especially Brynner (here playing a robotic version of his character from 1960's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN). WESTWORLD is a bit too earnest to have yet become a CULT classic--a status it is likely to achieve as technology continues to grow leaps and bounds beyond that which the film depicts--but it continues to be held in high regard by the majority of SF fans.

Though Crichton was connected (as a writer) with a few films and TV shows prior to WESTWORLD, it is really this film that brought him widespread notice and launched his high-profile Hollywood career. WESTWORLD did well enough at the box office, in fact, that it even spawned a sequel--a lesser film entitled FUTUREWORLD (1976).

Warner's edition of WESTWORLD on DVD is a no-frills disc that offers the film in both anamorphic widescreen and pan-and-scan, with the only bonus being the original theatrical trailer. The digital transfer is pretty good, but there was obviously no effort to clean up the dust and other filmic artifacts that are visible from time to time. Digital artifacts, if any, are minor, though there is some occasional color drift. (To be fair, color drift could be on the source rather than a result of the digitization.) All in all, it's an acceptable DVD of a film that most longtime SF fans will want to have in their collections.

(Rating breakdown: Film gets 5 stars; DVD gets 3. Average rating is therefore 4 stars.)