Leofwine_draca THE BRAIN is a solid entry in the 'rubbery monster' B-movie cycle of the 1980s: many of these films were highly entertaining, and this is no exception. It may not reach the heights of genre classics like RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, or NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, but for what it is, THE BRAIN delivers. It reminded me of a slightly higher budgeted version of films like THE DEADLY SPAWN and THE ABOMINATION.The biggest drawback is the plot. What we see of it is fine, but half of the film is spent on repetitive chase sequences with our hero narrowly averting being captured by the cops time and again. The first few times, this stuff is fresh and exciting, but then it becomes boring and you wish they'd get on with telling the story. This is what stops THE BRAIN from being an outright camp classic.Still, there are plenty of pluses here too. The opening sequence, in which a teenage girl is assailed by slimy tentacles and bleeding teddy bears in her narrowing bedroom, is exceptionally done. I liked how the brain kept growing in size as the film progressed, until it reaches tremendous proportions at the climax. I also found the special effects to be superb, especially the brain itself: this is what special effects were all about, and it's obvious that plenty of time and care went into its creation. Fine by me! The casting is less impressive, as we're saddled with a particularly unsympathetic lead. Not to worry – further down the cast is the great David Gale, once again playing a rotter (in line with his appearances in the RE-ANIMATOR flicks!). Plus there's the gorgeous Christine Kossak, providing some completely gratuitous nudity, and the hulking George Buza, who runs amok with an axe for the most part; you can't really complain about that.Despite the multitude of rubbery effects, the film is surprisingly free of gore. There's a beheading in here and some gruesome scenes of the brain chomping on victims, but that's about it. There's also an impressive car flip and a fun explosive ending. This will go down as a classic in nobody's mind, but for some fun '80s cheesiness, you've come to the right place.

Bloodwank There's a strange cinematic netherworld where idiocy meets fun and the two duke it out for our hearts and minds, and The Brain sits there rather comfortably. Eschewing chances of suspense or paranoid frights by way of an ill advised early reveal of the central creature and soon after a reveal of its nefarious plans, The Brain seeks to run on crazed gumption alone and the pleasantly surprising thing is, it actually works. The story has young and smart delinquent Jim Majelewski signed up for treatment at the mysterious Psychological Research Institute, where he comes across an evil giant brain with an eye on world domination. The rest of the film sees him dodging the brainwashed populace while seeking to save everyone from the alien ministrations of the brain, its a chase film and it happily zips along, sleekly crafted cheese to please. Director Ed Hunt is something of a B movie veteran and so knows not to take this sort of thing too seriously, while going full tilt at scenes that require the schlocky goods, thus while the film is never gory there are a few scenes that really shine, particularly a freaky opening gambit and a spot of wild cafeteria behaviour. He also avoids emphasizing the lesser effects apart from times when they'll be clearly entertaining, so goofs are at a relative minimum and at times the effects work really does. Performances are game throughout though few are especially good, Tom Bresnahan starts slow but builds a good head of steam as Jim, Cindy Preston is effortlessly pleasing as his girlfriend and George Buza makes for a solidly menacing villainous hired goon, while the heavy lifting acting wise is carried in style by David Gale. Riffing on his Re-Animator villainy he opts for a quieter course but still amusingly deranged, its a fun turn and he lights the screen whenever he appears. The titular brain is an important star as well, a wonderfully ludicrous creation that gets to move around, make the odd expression and even eat some people, as completely crackers monster go its a good 'un. Sadly the film gets dull at times despite the driving pace and thudding score, it also needed more acting zap and gore to make it really work, but its easy watching and well freighted with chuckles. Heck, there's even a bit of nudity (from a rather lovely lady) so I can't criticise the film too much, its cheesy trash, it know its cheesy trash and it does its best to deliver as such. I happen to love cheesy trash and this one broadly worked for me, so 7/10, but it won't be to all tastes.

BA_Harrison Let's face it, this film isn't great; hell, it's not even good. But it does feature a huge pulsating purple brain with googly eyes and fangs that eats people, and if that sounds like your bag of trash then you'll no doubt derive some pleasure from this patently daft drivel. I know I did.The film sees power-mad TV psychologist Dr. Anthony Blakely (David Gale) plotting to control the world with the help of a giant disembodied brain that can transmit hypnotic suggestions over the airwaves. When obnoxious high-school trouble-maker Jim Majelewski is sent to Blakely for treatment, he subconsciously manages to resist the brain's mind control powers, but suffers from a series of hallucinations which almost cause his death. Realising that all is not right at Blakely's institute, the plucky lad decides to investigate...In addition to the titular creature with a liking for human flesh, this dumb B-movie horror offers viewers the following dubious delights: a girl being attacked by rubber claws and tentacles in her bedroom; Jim performing the old 'sodium block down the loo' prank (a scene necessary to help explain the brain's final demise); an industrial basement plastered with warning signs about the facility's use of sodium (hmmmm!); a topless nurse; several people having their heads chomped by the brain; and a couple of decapitations (with David Gale once again losing his head!).Oh, and one giant exploding brain, of course.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the topless nurse (an element that I feel can improve almost any film).

kentstev My friends and I rented this for "Bad Movie Night" with high hopes, but The Brain was something of a letdown. The Brain itself is gloriously goofy-looking, but it mostly just sits on its little platform. Who thought that it would be cool that the Brain only gets to munch on three people throughout 94 drawn-out minutes? This movie has a number of things going for it at first, including an Estevez-knockoff lead playing a rebellious genius (we're told that his enormous intellect is misdirected into his elaborate pranks and school stunts, which include putting krazy glue on someone's chair). It also has some great lines, a hilariously out-of-shape and out-of-breath henchman who just barely manages to be everywhere, and, yeah, some chick gets naked. However, the director desperately needs some schooling in the art of pacing. During the last half things just start to drag on and on, with at least 3 or 4 pointless, boring chase scenes making up the middle third of the plot. The scenes inside the PRI complex are especially bad. At least 15 minutes of this movie are people running up and down the same stairwell. I could've fixed the screenplay to this thing in half an hour- more cheese, more gore, more nudity, more Brain action. If you're going to make a bad horror movie, at least give me something cool to look at while my superego shuts down. Maybe the director was trying to really bring the audience into his movie- I started feeling like one of the zombified townsfolk by the end of this crapfest.