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      Brain Dead

      R Released Jan 19, 1990 1h 25m Sci-Fi List
      17% 6 Reviews Tomatometer 68% 5,000+ Ratings Audience Score A corporate man (Bill Paxton) tempts a doctor (Bill Pullman) to pick a secret formula from a crazed scientist's (Bud Cort) brain. Read More Read Less

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      Audience Reviews

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      Steve D The talent is there but the script is too stupid to work. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Bruce K What can I say. Two great actors in a bad movie. Started off pretty good. Had me involved. Then went completely into the WTF Zone. Waiting for any sliver of an explanation. Never get one. Thank God. Wouldn't want to know. It's BAD! Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 12/04/22 Full Review Grant B An often-overlooked cult classic that deserves far more recognition than it receives, possibly because it's one of those rare films that embraces ambiguity. In its own terms, quoting Zhuangzi, it refuses to decide whether it's about a man dreaming he's a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming it's a man. Despite the B-movie budget and trappings, BRAIN DEAD belongs in the same paranoid, off-kilter collection as VIDEODROME, NAKED LUNCH, UPSTREAM COLOR, JACOB'S LADDER, THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and the TV shows LEGION and SEVERANCE. If you don't like those, you won't get this; if you do, you'll probably find this really satisfying. Performances by Bill Paxton (odious!), Bill Pullman (perturbed!), and Bud Cort (freaked out!) give a strong throughline even when the story reveals a Russian doll of nested identities and realities. If it matters to you which one is the neurosurgeon hired to perform an experimental procedure to recover corporate secrets from a researcher who suffered a possibly world-saving mental collapse... and which one is the patient who experienced brain surgery that fractured his sense of self... then maybe you'll feel confused and let down by the plot. But events transpire. There is conflict, intrigue, discovery, and resolution. It's really a very smart film (disguised inside a sensationalist genre) that asks some interesting questions about identity and personhood. Looking back from the 2020s, it seems really ahead of its time in the way it asked what the value of humanity really is in the post-industrial corporate world. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/04/22 Full Review farah r It made no sense. I like movies with a messed up timeline like Memento but they only work if it all comes together at the end and ties all the loose ends. Brain Dead is far from comprehensible and quite frankly, it's boring. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Two Bills (Pullman and Paxton) star in a no-budget sci-fi flick produced by Julie Corman (Roger’s wife) that’s actually pretty good. It’s a twisty “what is reality” story that keeps you confused (in a good way). Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/04/20 Full Review Audience Member Masterpiece of the early 90's horror scene. Acting is corny and evident of the time period and is perfect. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (6) Critics Reviews
      Scott Weinberg DVDTalk.com Heck, I could sit through a movie a whole lot worse than this one just to see a pair of my favorite actors banter back and forth. Rated: 3/5 Jan 7, 2006 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 17, 2005 Full Review Nicolas Lacroix EnPrimeur.ca Rated: 3/5 May 31, 2004 Full Review Brian Mckay eFilmCritic.com Only the two Bills [Pullman and Paxton] keep this one from flat-lining Rated: 3/5 Mar 19, 2003 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com Rated: 2/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews I felt cheated by its wearisome ploy of not decifering what was a dream and what was reality. Rated: C Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A corporate man (Bill Paxton) tempts a doctor (Bill Pullman) to pick a secret formula from a crazed scientist's (Bud Cort) brain.
      Director
      Adam Simon
      Production Co
      Concorde Pictures, New Horizons Picture
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Sci-Fi
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Jan 19, 1990, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      May 3, 2018
      Runtime
      1h 25m
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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