Brainstorm

I had heard/read about this movie many times, usually as the one Natalie Wood was filming when she died, but I finally watched it last night. One of a handful of directed by Douglas Trumbull, who is better known for his special effects work; I liked his Silent Running, but both movies show that he can get too distracted by visuals and geeky stuff to be a great director. Still, Brainstorm was better than I expected, and not bad for a 1983 movie. Had some interesting ideas, and some good acting (especially Christopher Walken, trying to play a more straight lead role before he "settled in" to playing vaguely unsettling characters). The evil military theme is tired, but watching them get thwarted by robots is kinda fun. And Trumbull gets extra credit for finishing this film at all; after Wood died the studio wanted to scrap it, but he did some creative editing and finished it, and I didn't really even notice anything obvious wrong. A solid B movie, mildly interesting/quirky, worth a Netflix rent.