Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Brent Burkwell Being a fan of some Marvel, some DC movies I find it refreshing to watch a movie without amazing special effects where the actors must keep the viewers attention and the script had a more important role in the success or failure of a film. This movie, while not my favorite, is a nice change of pace from today's average action/sci fi flick. One thing I noticed that will likely ruffle the feathers of the average liberal democrat, while Colossus(a US super computer) and Guardian(the Soviet counterpart) are getting to "know" each other and also expanding our knowledge of the universe, you will notice that the Guardian(Russian) computer is moving at a much slower pace than the Colossus(US Super computer) is. Since liberals just love the former Soviet Union with all it's Gulag's and iron fisted excess, I figure it might upset them that the writer(s) thought it necessary to point out that the Russians are ALWAYS a few steps BEHIND the USA in just about every endeavor. Thought you might enjoy that info.

gavin6942 Thinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.Tom Weaver noted, "Early on, they had either Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck in mind, but then they changed their mind about that. Stanley Chase insisted on a relative unknown. That's when Eric Braeden came into the picture." When he was cast, Braeden was still using his birth name, Hans Gudegast. Universal Pictures executive Lew Wasserman told him that no one would be allowed to star in an American film if they had a German name. As strange as that sounds, it is apparently true.How many people today (2017) have heard of this film? I suspect very few. Even being familiar with science fiction, it was new to me. Which is a shame, because as far as the "sentient computer" subgenre goes, this is a really strong film and ought to be used to influence future writing. I am not suggesting a remake, but clearly they had thought it through by the 1960s -- a film could be made today with virtually no change.

dfruin I was 10 when this movie came out. I first watched this on broadcast television (a color television). I am pretty sure it was the reason I went into the computer science discipline (still in it now). I was smitten with it the first time I saw it and looked forward to it being broadcast again and again. The premise of this movie was infinitely believable in the 70's, and in my opinion still is (although China would more than likely be the creators of the "other system" today). I now have this on DVD (wide screen version imported from the UK) and watch it as often as I need to.Other folks reviewing this movie point out that it is dated. I take a little offense to that for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that it was made in 1970. The computers and computer components in the film are actual or facsimiles of real computers of the day. I suppose you could call the tanks in a typical WW II film dated too (most would consider that silly). Reason two is that, as I said, I got into the computer world shortly after seeing this film. Seeing this again last weekend I was reminded at how well it was done on the technology side of things. Any one my age (and even the younger folks) with a computer background will enjoy this immensely. And I like many people have this incredible ability to immerse ones self into a film and can transport ones self in to the vision the film creators had. Also, compare the opening sequence of the banks of computers being turned up to a picture of an Amazon or Google data center today and they do not look that dissimilar. The new data centers may not have monster disk drives (those things look like 60 inch drives), but, who knew...So, why do I no longer think this film is frightening? Having lived in a world that is trending towards being an idiocracy as of late, I have come to start believing some of the words that came from Colossus. My personal favorite being: "You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species." (I never understood that as well as I do today.) That of course following the ever so optimistic "Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge." Could that really be worse than our current direction?Colossus seems to be like the God most everyone believes in. But this god enforces the rules in this world in this time. How bad could it be? Excellent film.

JPfanatic93 Much neglected seminal science fiction film that needs more love, or at least more acknowledgment from science fiction aficionados. Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) has designed a super computer called Colossus, which is put in charge of the American nuclear arsenal to prevent human error in case of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets have constructed a similar computer system nicknamed Guardian with the same purpose, and when the two computers merge on their own accord, they manage to conquer the world so they can fulfill their programming to their fullest extent by ruling the human race for its own good. Forbin himself is put under permanent house arrest by his own creation, and a race against time begins to stop the reign of the Forbin Project. Can the American and Soviet governments co-operate to bring Colossus down and liberate humanity? Spoilers! It turns out they cannot, and in full accordance with the grim look on science and the future in the depressing Seventies cinema of science fiction, of which this film was one of the kickstarters, the computer wins the day and enslaves humanity as its benevolent but uncompromising protector. A sequel involving the uprising of mankind against its new artificial overlord was once planned, but soon scrapped. Since few people seem to remember this intelligent and worthwhile (though overly slow paced) film, it might need a remake, though I dread the result present day Hollywood would deliver. Perhaps the movie doesn't actually need one, since it's surprisingly similar in narrative to I, Robot (2004) at times (though without robots) and also served as a possible inspiration for the Terminator franchise. However, if you get the opportunity to watch this flick sometime, you should definitely check it out.