Synapse (1995)

Synapse: Mildly Interesting Mess

SYNAPSE is the kind of film that is really a compilation of other films. Director Allan Goldstein presents a dystopian future that is run by a military-industrial-technological conglomerate known as Life Force. In this society, only Life Force seems to run things. Whatever other form of ruling power there is seems nowhere to be found. The minimal plot is a pastiche of BLADE RUNNER, 1984, and just about every science fiction movie that places a clique of mad scientists attempting to control the world. Heading Life Force is a clearly decrepit Barry Morse, who seems light years away from the strong law and order police detective who spent four years trying to capture Richard Kimble back in the 1960s television hit, THE FUGITIVE. Here is he a doddering megalomaniac who drools his lines as he seeks to use his company to place his evil brain into a strong and youthful body. Opposing him is the lovely Karen Duffy, who plays a woman (Celeste) who has a man's brain placed in her head, thereby guaranteeing gender confusion for all.

My primary objection to SYNAPSE is that director Goldstein chose to ignore the fertile ground of a dystopic society that would permit such a monstrous conglomerate as Life Force to exist. Instead, he presents a standard shoot-em-up with predictable numbers of Nazi-looking black uniformed troopers to shoot at the hero or in turn get shot by her. Whenever a movie purports to show a twisted road that society may take in the future, I ask myself: Do I care about the fate of the lead after the last shot has been fired? With Max in THE ROAD WARRIOR I did. With Celeste in SYNAPSE, I did not. December 22, 2002

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