From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Nov 20 09:48:57 1991
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From: dvw@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (diane.v.wilkerson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR PARENTS WERE WEIRD
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01171
Keywords: author=Wilkerson
Message-ID: <1991Nov19.184600.6175@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
Date: 19 Nov 91 18:46:00 GMT
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		     AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR PARENTS WERE WEIRD
				   [Spoilers]
		       A film review by Diane V. Wilkerson
			Copyright 1991 Diane V. Wilkerson

     I can't believe this is being released!  Save yourselves!
"Warning!  Warning, Will Robinson!"  Run away!  Watch a MacGyver rerun
on USA instead!  Fans of bad movies, get your popcorn!

     Well, I saw this gem (and I use the word with much sarcasm) about
six weeks ago at a sneak preview seminar.  Let's see if I can explain it
before breaking down in hysterics.  Stop now if you want to preserve the
suspense...


     Take Marcia Strassman (Mrs. Kotter from TV's "Welcome Back,
Kotter"), and make her the widow of a computer engineering genius, who
allegedly has committed suicide.  Add two boys, one teen-age, one
pre-teen as her sons.  Make them scientific geniuses, who take their
winnings from a contest, give half to mom, and take the other half to
buy parts for the robot they are building.  The robot, NEWMAN (you
figure it out), is supposed to be the next wave in reasoning machines.
Looks like a Wet-Dry vac with a colander for a head.  Throw in an
equally talented teen-aged bully and his father who run the local
electronics parts salvage yard, industrial espionage from the company
the boys father worked for, an Ouija board on Halloween, and the voice
of Alan Thicke, and you have one of the worst movies I have ever seen in
my life.  The plot is that Mom is about to lose the house, and the boys 
think that if they can get NEWMAN working, they could sell the rights
for mega-money.  Except they can't get it working, until the fateful
night the older boy goes to a Halloween party, and while using an Ouija
board, has a strange experience.  Outside, an odd light falls into the
family's garage, entering the robot's body.  The enlivened robot solves
all of the family's problems and answers all of the family's questions
about the father's death by the end of the movie.

     By the time the movie was over, almost everyone in the audience was
howling with laughter, and this was during the touching conclusion!  I
suppose if you have some 8-11 year-olds they *might* like it.  But the
"special effects" and everything about this movie was cheaply done (we
figured $1 million tops).  There were a few people who said they enjoyed
the movie.  The rest of us were too doubled over with laughter to issue
anything coherent.  It is rated PG for some violence near the end.

     Our guest for that evening was Bob Campbell, a movie reviewer for
the STAR-LEDGER (a NJ newspaper).  He also couldn't believe how bad this
movie was, and doubted that it would ever be released.  So we were all
wrong.  There is too much money in America.

You were warned.

-- 
Diane Wilkerson
AT&T Bell Labs
..!att!cbnewsh!dvw