The Final Programme (1974)

The Best

I suppose I'm lucky I hadn't read this in book form prior to seeing it on HBO in the 70's. My daughter and I must have watched it 10 times. It is crazy-fun, whacky, so silly and charming, yet dark - Clockwork Orangeish mixed with Dr. Strangelove but not. Michael Moorcock is one of my favorite sci fi authors and this film (though I gather he hates) really captures how funny he is in the most unexpected of ways. If you love the odd, get it. March 29, 2006

A DVD ZONE LSD

Wow ! Look at these colours : green, blue, yellow all over the screen. And look at Mrs. Brunner's hair : deep red. We're in the beginning of the 70's for sure. With a zest of English humour, a little sex (we know now that Jenny Runacre and Sandy Ratcliffe are real red-headed women), with interesting guest stars as Patrick Magee, Sterling Hayden or Harry Andrews and a little gore (after all, director Robert FUEST was responsible for the Dr. Phibes movies), THE FINAL PROGRAMME, also known as "The Last Days of Man on Earth", is a curiosity that deserves at least a rental. March 22, 2006

Light fun

It's better than nothing and it does give hints of the novel. It's mostly fun. I can't help feeling, however, that Moorcock deserved better. The cast too. Jon Finch, who plays Jerry, was an excellent Macbeth in Polanski's Macbeth. Jenny Runacre, who plays Miss Brunner, has ample presence.

The worst departure from the novel may be the Cornelius Brunner that appears at the end. Moorcock had written in the novel "A tall graceful being stepped out." and "It was hermaphrodite and beautiful". Somehow the movie thought an apeman would be better. Maybe there was a sale on Abominable Snowman costumes.

Throughout, Moorcock's sexual ambiguities seem ill-served by this film with, apart from a brief episode involving Miss Brunner, a decidedly heterosexual flavor. The psychic vampirism of the novel seems replaced by Miss Brunner's sexual "appetite".

Similarly, one wouldn't suspect Moorcock's many cool conversations from the limited banter in the movie.

It is fun to see Jerry come to life except it isn't so much Jerry and this film isn't so much alive. Anyone with an adequate imagination will find the novel vastly more fun and alive.

Nevertheless if you are a fan of Jerry Cornelius, in the mood for visuals and not feeling critical, you might find this movie entertaining. See Professor Hira, the needle gun, Catherine's demise, Frank in need of a fix, DUEL in its cave. Some of the coolness of the novel does find its way into this movie.

Maybe someday some director will due justice to the novel. Until then, watching this, which seems like a hurried made-for-TV movie, may entertain you while making you wish, like I do, for the richer treatment that Jerry Cornelius and Moorcock deserve. March 23, 2005

"A very tastey world!"

What can you say about a film that, opening scene onwards, you either love or loathe? It's fantastically dated, and that's what makes it fantastic. From the London Red-Bus Movie music, the bizarro pseudo-science, the biting dialogue, and the (almost) Cast of Thousands, "Final Programme" is one of my favorite films ever. I've almost worn out my copy.

The plot's incidental, but what the hey. Jerry Cornelius (Jon Finch) is a Nobel Laureate living on Bell's scotch, pills, and chocolate digestives in a chaotic world where Trafalgar Square is a vast dump, arms dealers operate in basements across from the National Gallery, and Amsterdam's now "25 square miles of white ash--for once the Americans got it right." Jerry's dad, mad-scientist and founder of the Cornelius line, was working on something weird in Lapland when he died, but that's not Jerry's problem now. He's more worried about his crazy brother Frank (the wonderful Derek O'Connor), who is holding their sister Catherine hostage in the Family Manse and is, if possible, more strung out than Jerry.

But Lapland returns to haunt him in the form of Miss Brunner (Jenny Runacre) and three Magritte-like scientists. They need Jerry to help them get his dad's microfilm, the last piece of The Final Programme---a project staggaring in conception and quite, quite funny. The microfilm is locked in the house with Frank, and as the old family retainer tells Jerry,"There's another problem--it's that house. You know what that old house is like." "I haven't forgotten" says Jerry.

That "old house" is a super-modern fortress, of course, complete with lights of simulate "pseudo-epilepsy", booby traps, poison gas, and a pantheon of James Bondish dangers. Along the way to the microfilm, it becomes apparent there's something very odd about Miss Brunner, and that Frank's not the fool he seems.

I know it's dated and I don't care. I don't care if the continuity is bad. I don't care if the budget could've been bigger. I don't care if the "science" is Junk with a capital "Juh". I'm oblivious to it all, because this is such an entertaining movie. For one thing, Jon Finch is incredible. He's the perfect Jerry, and Prince could only PRAY to wear a Goth/New Romantic suit as well as Finch does. For another, Jenny Runacre's Miss Brunner was feminist before there was a common understanding of what that word meant. And the versatile Derek O'Connor's greasy, desperate Frank is brilliant.

You'll need to have your finger on the "rewind" button--the dialogue comes fast and urbane. You'll keep recognizing British character actors, and let's face it, if you're female,you'll enjoy watching Finch, who's easy on the eyes. And the visual jokes--watch for "LOVE" embroidered on the vampirical Brunner nightie in the "climactic" final scene!

A warning, though: this really does deserve its R rating. Hustle the kiddie-winks to bed first--then enjoy! May 3, 2003

Planet Weird

This film is based on the original Michael Moorcock story of the same name. I have read the Moorcock version and I genuinely have to say that the film seems to be better. It is an existential romp through conscienceness. It takes you to a weird alternate reality of planet earth. In the end it leaves you with more questions than it answers (what can be better than that). You get to sit back and decide. A film that really makes you think. January 14, 2003

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