If You've Never Seen It, SEE IT NOW (warning: spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2001)

Don't get me started on Cronenberg. The director is a genius. The first film of his I saw was VIDEODROME. Cronenberg's real talent, which has always been the mark of excellent creators of science fiction, is the ability to mix contemporary experience with original fiction. In Videodrome, an example of this are the pirate television broadcasts of sexual torture. He mixed the idea of, say, a pirate radio broadcast, with a broadcast product which had I daresay heretofore never been thought of. I will probably never again watch 1986's THE FLY, which I saw in a theater. But that doesn't mean I didn't like it at the time. At the time, and to this day, I think it's the best filmed realization of the theme, and to date 5 movies have been filmed with this theme, where teleportation mixes man and fly. Unfortunately I have mellowed with age and no longer crave violent cinema. Very early in The Fly, I knew I would love it, when Cronenberg provides the reason behind the invention of teleportation. The reason is the inventor, the scientist Brundle, suffers a chronic motion sickness which makes any other form of travel, even riding in a car, excruciatingly painful. I loved the love story. Who couldn't fall in love with Geena Davis? I was horrified as Brundle's slow transformation gradually tore his romance apart. The gross-out scenes are highly realistic (another Cronenberg trademark) and also truly horrifying. The fact that it takes so long for Brundle to realize his lot is tragic and truly horrific. The third character (John Getz, the guy who play's Geena's confidant) has a truly horrible character, way beyond hateful, you just want to kick him in the teeth, and eventually The Fly does just that. I consider this Jeff Goldblum's breakthrough film, this is the movie that made him a star, and you get the quintessential Goldblum here, which sometimes seems only reiterated in all his later films. You get the wit, the sexual repartee, his acting with his hands and fingers and his eyes and all the muscles in his face, god he's like an acrobat with his face, and his slow burns slower than any other actor except perhaps Charles Grodin. So you may decide never again to see The Fly, like I did, but you should see it once, like I did, and you WILL be impressed, like I am.