soulexpress Until I saw this film, I had forgotten how pervasive simulated wood and brick paneling were in the 1970s. Boy, there's a lot of it here!THE BRAIN MACHINE features not one, but two, actors you may have heard of: James Best ("The Dukes of Hazzard") and Gerald McRaney ("Simon & Simon"). The plot: a government mind-control experiment on four civilians goes horribly, horribly wrong. This is not, however, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Hell, it's not even a primary.Filmed on a budget that was less a shoestring than an aglet, THE BRAIN MACHINE is ambitious. Alas, it falls short of its lofty goal of being a suspenseful sci-fi thriller with social commentary. Its attempts at building tension come off as interminable, the acting is either too understated or too over the top, and the dialogue is rife with lines like "Stay away from me, you scientific bitch!," and "You'll have to kill me before I die!"On several occasions, we see the same exterior shot of a swimming pool with a mansion in the background belonging to one The General (whose resemblance to Henry Kissinger can't be a coincidence). We're also repeatedly shown the same exterior shot of a building that's presumably home to the Brain Machine experiment. After a half-dozen repetitions of each, I rolled my eyes and groaned.This is not a terrible film, but it could have used a punchier script and more pointed direction.

Rainey Dawn I acquired this film in the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Classics 50-Pack. I have a sense of "it feels like I'm in the 1980s, it's late at night and I'm channel surfing. I saw some action that looked kinda interesting so I decided to watch the movie". - That is what I'm sensing with this film. I don't know if that really happened that way in the 80s or the film itself just gives me those vibes. I know I've seen this one in the past but I didn't recall anything about it - so I watched it watched the DVD.The movie is boring yet interesting. I don't know if I like it or it bored me. I'm not even sure if it's semi-good or just blatantly awful. But there is something strangely interesting about this film.Rosco P. Coltrane! Good to see James Best in a role outside of the Sheriff. He's actually really good in this movie - very good in fact.This film is hard to explain in terms of good or bad. You'd just have to judge the film for yourself.4.5/10

Scott_Mercer I hereby give this film a 5. It's not as bad as the other commenters would have you believe, but it's no masterpiece either.The problem here really is that the filmmakers bit off far more than they could chew. I believe they had ambitions to make a high class sci-fi thriller with a bit of social commentary thrown in. Some great ideas under the surface here. But the people behind this film fell far short of their ambitions, with occasional awkward dialog, (yes) somewhat imprecise editing, and acting that's either too hammy or too underplayed. I am grading on a curve here: this was obviously a low budget production with great ambitions which did a decent job with limited resources.The word "boring" used by other commentors, I feel represents a failed attempt by the filmmakers to build tension. The film as presented is confusing, but it is meant to be a somewhat complicated thriller, deciphered only after a bit of thought and perhaps more than one viewing.I'll give you a brief synopsis of the plot as I have come to understand it. I think I have a handle on it, in spite of its confusing presentation. At a government research facility, some sinister things are happening. On the surface, they are performing benign research experiments. And the scientists that work there are in fact, benign.But some shadowy figures are trying to hijack these experiments for their own means, without the scientists or their subjects knowing about it. These include "The General", possibly a CIA chief or similar, and his enabler, an unnamed Senator. A furtive guard at the facility (supported by various stooges) is their point man.One of the scientists, Dr. Krisner, finds out about this infiltration. He takes off with documents that will prove the illegal infiltration, but he is killed in short order.Therefore, the project is "tainted" and The General and his underlings cannot use this Doctor's work to test their own device: The Brain Machine, a mind control device designed to pacify enemy populations, or, more chillingly, our own citizenry here in the USA.So, they move on to infiltrate "The E-Box" experiment, headed by Dr. Roth. Again, they will use this experiment for their own nefarious purposes without the scientists in charge knowing what is really going on. In this experiment, supposedly used as a simulation of the effects of overpopulation, four test subjects (selected by the fact they have no immediate family and each one has a horrible secret) are placed into a small room which will get smaller and smaller as the experiment goes on, and the subjects are grilled about their shameful secrets of their past, until they breakdown and confess. The importance of telling the truth, "the real truth" is mentioned over and over.While this is going on, the sinister forces of The General, are installing and testing this "Brain Machine" on the subjects, to the confusion of the scientists and pain of the subjects. I should mention that this machine seems to work by remote control, so they are never in contact with the experiment, and are viewing the results by remote cameras. There's lots of yelling, screaming, fighting and accusations from the four subjects, and electrocutions. Each one of the subjects is also a classic stereotype: the questioning clergyman, the intellectual, the working man, and the blue-collar woman.Though the IMDb lists a date of 1977, the film bears a copyright date of 1972. This puts the film clearly in a post-Altamont, pre-Watergate period of utter cynicism about the intentions of our government.** SPOILER !! ** This bears itself out in the film's ending: every single one of the "heroes" are killed, their painful deaths easily swept under the rug by the unseen puppet masters. The "Brain Machine" is proved to work and is last seen on a truck headed for Anytown USA...maybe yours! Only during this short time period in American history (post Easy Rider, also, I might add) could such a "downer ending" be conceived and accepted. Then again, maybe today is the perfect time for a remake, with stories of domestic spying and political retribution in the air. Maybe The Brain Machine is not some stupid little B-movie, but a prophetic document with more to tell us about today than we even realize...

hms66 Unlike other commentaries, I found this film fascinating, even with all its faults and the zombie acting of some of the actors.Being a technologist, I found that the experiments interesting and the hardware realistic. Although the reading of people minds via computer sounds fantastic, experiments are being conducted now to do just this. I will note that this experiments are in a very early stage, with results so far not favorable.The characters in the movie are well cast. The girl, although overacting a bit, looks suitable dumb. The truck driver is a a ringer for real truck drivers. The minister conveys doubt at first, (The principal investigator tells the minister that him (the minister), is not sure whether he believes that God created man or that man created God. But the minute when the chips are down, he falls back on his faith. Only the PhD plays the zombie. The secrets that they harbor are suitably appropriate for their characters. In the face of death they react as real human beings would.The movie is a warning against the dangers of unlimited surveillance by government. As strictly a thriller, the movie does not have enough thrills. As a scientific exercise with philosophical underpinnings it is fascinating.