Scott LeBrun
In the future, post-holocaust Earth of the year 2274, human beings live in enormous domed cities. They're not allowed to live past age 30; at that age they must submit to a bizarre experience dubbed "Carrousel", which might allow them to be "reborn" if they're lucky. Michael York plays Logan, a "Sandman" whose job it is to hunt down "runners", who are people pushing 30 who are trying to flee the inevitable. Logan is sent on a mission to find a Sanctuary that supposedly harbours Runners, but when everything goes wrong, he and a new acquaintance named Jessica (the ravishing Jenny Agutter) go on the lam.For its first hour or so, "Logan's Run" is a wonderful 70s trip. It pulls you right in with a real candy store of futuristic images. Obviously MGM spared no expense in making this picture. It's quite captivating, and holds your interest for a while. It's got some very alluring outfits for Agutter; in general, the costumes designed by Bill Thomas are impressive. The action scenes are well done, and there is some fairly shocking (but not THAT gory) violence for a PG rated film.Then the oppressive atmosphere gives way to a whole second act that is, comparatively speaking, on the boring side, as Logan and Jessica see what life is REALLY is like outside the dome, encountering a senile old man, played to the hammy hilt by Peter Ustinov. This whole portion is not completely without interest, as Logan and Jessica are awakened to a totally different kind of existence (for example, one in which children actually know their parents). Things pick up again once Logans' former friend Francis (Richard Jordan) re-enters the story.On the whole, this is an appealing saga, one that attempts to appeal to adult intellects as well as dazzling them with special effects and production design. The performances are basically fine; also appearing are Roscoe Lee Browne as a clunky looking robot named "Box" and Farrah Fawcett. That's director Michael Andersons' son Michael Jr. as the character "Doc".Best of all is the wondrous score by ever-reliable Jerry Goldsmith, which uses electronic noises just as much as any orchestra.Followed by a short-lived TV series.Seven out of 10.
spencergrande6
Mostly pretty silly stuff. It really doesn't dig very deep into any facets of the situation other than, you know, dying at 30 kinda sucks and is like totally not fair man. The ending is a big question mark since the entire premise is invalidated: if there's not enough food how in the world are they all going to live forever in the outside world? In fact, much of what happens in this doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.The miniatures are terribly shot, the costumes cheesy, and the acting hammy, but it's still somewhat entertaining kitsch for the most part."Fish, and plankton, and sea greens, and protein from the sea." Hell yeah.
lasttimeisaw
A 70s USA grandiose Sci-Fi picture directed by Oscar-nominated UK director Michael Anderson from AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) fame. Loosely adapted from its titular novel, LOGAN'S RUN depicts an Utopian future in the year of 2274, where the residue of human beings are living in a sealed dome city, everything is under the reign of a super-computer, designed to cater to all aspects of human's needs, only with one proviso, whoever reaches 30-year-old, must volunteer to a ritual called "Carrousel", to start their life anew, those who refuse to abide this rule, which are termed as"runners", will be hunted and terminated by a team of armed police forces called"Sandmen", and our protagonist Logan 5 (York) is one of them, a fairly good one too. In its opening wheeze, audience witnesses this ostensible Carrousel rebirth, a surprisingly commendable feat involving a magnificent flying-wire stunt, still can feasibly grab our attention 40 years after its birth, where those 30-year-old birthday men/women are gathered together in their monotonous garbs, then start to defy gravity and float upwards under the propulsion of an energy field, hailed by frenetic onlookers, until being individually shot down by laser beams, which consummates their so-called ritual renewal, but an unsettling frisson penetrates our mind, what is really happening? Other than the occasional disruptions caused by Runners, this mega-computer organized dome city is a hedonistic paradise, it is retro-futuristically antiseptic and every youngster is uniformly dressed with a specific color scheme according to ages, there is no concept of family, one can choose his or her ideal sex partner through a unique transportation booth, and there is a neon-lit love shop in the arcade, solely to gratify one's sexual desire. Face-lifting and body-modification technology is also super-advanced. Soon Logan is assigned by the computer to operate an under-handed mission, his age being adjusted from 26 to reaching 30, Logan must infiltrate the group of Runners, so as to locate a secret place named Sanctuary, where people can live without age limitation, and destroy it. So in a befuddling flurry, Logan begins his run, along with a young rebel Jessica 6 (Agutter), whilst tailed by his task-unwitting Sandman best-friend Francis 7 (Jordan). In a valiant fashion, Logan and Jessica wreak havoc in a posh beautification center, get in touch with Runners and encounter a proto-robot Box (Lee Browne, one year prior the emergence of STAR WARS), who timely corroborates that the renewal is a hoax, those being dispatched by laser beams are frozen in his storage room with a frightening subtext hinting cannibalism. Eventually, after escaping the city and ascending onto the surface through an elevator, they (and viewers too) realize the city is entirely built underground, whereas the terra firma is totally derelict and abandoned, until they chance upon the last man alive in a ruined Washington DC, the old man (Ustinov), who will give scattershot information of a past world which is more aligned with today's notion, followed by a final showdown between Logan and Francis. But what about the Sanctuary? Where is it? Maybe there has never been one, it is simply a myth to elicit hope and strength to disillusioned Runners. In an overtly rash third act, Logan and Jessica take the old man with them, as a living proof that life doesn't need to being ended at 30, to unveil the inconvenient truth of their Utopian world and exact the final liberation, which comes off as suspiciously handy in a palpably sagging finale. Shot in wide-angle splendor, the film simultaneously embodies the cutting-edge Special Effect technology and betrays the outdated modus operandi of its days, however the concept of its escapist future-world, bolstered by an intrusively retro-futuristic score from Jerry Goldsmith, presciently precedes the more insidious, and virtual-reality blurring milieu of THE MATRIX trilogy, a congenial cast also helps to keep the movie entertaining, York is motivated enough to represent Logan less a cipher than he is designed, and Agutter is predictably pigeonholed an under- developed but eye-pleasing foil, plus a muttering impromptu Ustinov is just too much a jewel in the fray. A reboot of this picture has been in the pipeline for years but to no avail, then if one can spike the archetype story with some more topical elements such as clones and advanced A.I., taking a leaf from the book of the with-it TV series WESTWORLD, perhaps television is a more liberal and benign alternative presently, albeit the studio had already made a TV-spin off in 1977 after the movie's success, which only lasted for one season.
