Brain Machine (1977)

Gray Matter
Grey Matter
Mind Warp
The E-Box
Time Warp

Cast:

James "Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane" Best is Rev. Emory Neill
Barbara Burgess is Dr. Carol Portland
Gil Peterson is Dr. Elton Morris
Gerald "Rick from " McRaney is Willie West

What the IMDB says:

Several people volunteer for a scientific experiment about mind-reading and memory, but the experiment goes horribly wrong.

Plot:

Researchers are about to start testing test subjects. The general learns the brain machine and that Krister’s files were stolen. Apparently, this was just a cover for the real project. As the researchers are briefed on the subjects, Krister runs off with the files.

The General wants the files back. He’s told of the possible dangers of the project without any fail-safes.

Krister drops the files while being chased by security. He is being chased down Main Street and is able to get the drop on one his pursuers. Krister is unable to contact the Senator.

The General and Senator are discussing how the brain machine is the only way to save the country.

The goons finally catch up and shoot Dr. Krister.

Hasta La Vista, you are terminated, baby...

The General is determined to go on with the next phase.

The test subjects: Reverend Roscoe P. Coltrane (huh-coo-coo-coooooooooooo), Reeves (with the truly 1970s porntacular mustache), Minnie, and Willie (Gerald McRaney), are briefed on the project. They are to tell the truth all of the time. The testing begins with free word association with the Right Reverend Roscoe P. Coltrane (huh-coo-coo-coooooooooooo).

The good General wants the project to succeed so they can hear the thoughts of enemies.

Minnie freaks out when she thinks that someone tried to get into her room.

Reeves is almost thrown out when he’s caught lying.

At the building, an electrician is electrocuted. One of the researchers finds the body and then later tries hitting on one of the other researchers. After all, a dead maintenance worker is a great aphrodisiac.

The researchers are testing the major part of the project. They’re studying population control (or at least, that’s what they told the subjects). The subjects with a researcher will for several days in a small room to simulate environmental changes.

The brain probing begins. The subjects are having flashbacks. Minnie is questioned who is getting more nervous. A truly painful suthern accent ensues. Reeves is getting more nervous and tries to pick a fight with Willie.

Roth, head of the project, calls the General. Apparently, the computer is taking over.

Probing the Right Reverend Roscoe P. Coltrane (huh-coo-coo-cooooooooooo), he is revealed to lost his faith and been hogging at the trough of a married woman. He freaks out and tries to use the panic switch which locks the doors.

The small room’s walls are pulling in.

The researchers discover that the computer can’t understand human faith!?!?

The General orders the guards to keep the researchers from leaving the computer room or to try and save the subjects.

Right Roscoe P. Coltrane (huh-coo-coo-cooooooooooo) is praying. Reeves is going battier from his shellshock flashbacks and attacks the Right Roscoe P. Coltrane (huh-coo-coo-cooooooooooo). The room is still collapsing.

Willie and the researcher lady are able to escape before the explosion. The General shoots Roth.

Later a news report announces that Dr. Roth killed and electrocuted the scientists and subjects.

The General has the computer moved. He’s happy the project works.

What I say:

One of the problems with many books is the time one invests in them. You may spend weeks reading a single book and get to the end and realize how the author burnt you. Don't take that as an insult against reading. Think of how many horror movies end with a "dream ending or was it?" ending. However, movies don't require you to invest the same amount of effort into them. Even with Brain Machine being less than 90 minutes, it is quite a chore to endure though most made-for-TV movies from the 1970s are typically a challenge to endure.

The late 1970s gave us plenty of of the paranoid conspiracy theory made-for-TV movies. The government faking moon landings or capturing aliens...Basically, all the non-supernatural Kolchack: the Night Stalker storylines were used. By that point, we had the proto-hippie reporters who never trusted the government and were always out for the big story in most of those movies. Here, we have the evil general who doesn't want his project to be interrupted. If this movie had been made in the 1990s, it would have been the giant military conspiracy. In the 2000s, it would be the vast multinational industrial corporation.

What does it say when the biggest recogonizable name actor is James Best? Most people won't realize the name until a single role is mentioned. James Best is known from TV as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazzard, Huhhh-Cooo-Coooo-Coooo and from such movies as Killer Shrews. OK, can't forget Gerald McRaney who some people may remember from Major Dad or true spawn of the 1980s would recall him as Rick from Simon and Simon with his pickup truck that can jump over anything in California.

The big secret was to create some sort of machine that allowed the general to read the minds of leaders of foreign countries. In other words, a mechanical telepath that could read someone's mind across the planet. Killer computer. Never been done before...Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL... Suddenly, the computer will kill people to make them tell the truth? A homicidal lie-detecting mechanical telepath to eavesdrop on world leaders.

If my plot description is a bit hard to follow, the movie itself seems harder to follow. Halfway, through the movie, the computer is suddenly starting to kill people. When the subjects are trapped in the room, it is determined to get the truth from the people.

I don't expect every movie to be amazing or thought provoking. However, this movie I couldn't get behind. For me the worst thing a movie can do is be boring like Massacre. Well, Brain Machine barely skated by hitting the bottom of the barrel. A computer that has disobeyed its programming and has gone awry sounds familiar. Wargames, Terminator, and practically every movie that has any computer with artificial intelligence. All of those movies would be a better use of time rather than the waste of time of the Brain Machine.

Quotable Dialogue
"Kinda cute, kinda dumb, just my type."
"Eternal surveillance is the price of vigilance."
"This things gonna get an X-rating."
Morals of the Story
Security guards wear raincoats at all times.
Boats are great hiding places.
Rubber hoses are electrical conductors.
Hammocks make excellent beds.