Monday, August 05, 2013

Looker (1981)



 We have made many jokes about Looker over here at Anime Hell, but I'm pretty sure very few of our audience have actually seen it. Tonight, I'm going to do that for you.

Written by Michael Crichton, Looker could have been a good movie. I mean, the guy wrote The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, and Sphere. By the same respect, he also gave us Congo, The 13th Warrior, and Sphere. Your important info tidbits are: beautiful girls, computers, nakedness, death. Just looking at the trailer, I want to point out that model hitting the roof of the car. I'm pretty sure it's a nod to Evelyn McHale, but one never knows.

Enough with introductions. Let's get to it.




We start with a TV ad for “Ravish”, a perfume. It's pretty dull and probably didn't move that many units. There's nothing memorable about the ad, other that—unlike other perfume ads—it follows a very basic plot and doesn't get too confusing. We have to remember that Crichton wrote thrillers, not TV ads.

Cut to: the girl from the ad, Lisa, is in Dr. Larry Roberts' office, explaining everything that's wrong with her. He looks over the list, but tries to talk her out of it. After all, she is very beautiful. He goes to talk to his partner, Jim, who asks him how many of these “list” girls he's done up to this point. Three?

“If you don't do her, someone less competent will.”

“OK,” Larry gives in. “I'll do her.”

“You do her,” Jim says, “I'll take her out.” Clearly, this man needs to be reported to the ethics board.

ethics
And then shut down for smoking in California.

BOOM! It's time for topless shots of female bots and I can see why Lisa wanted those aureole fixed. That is not attractive. “Time lapse” photos show the healing process (some of the best make-up in the flick thus far), and we're subjected to the theme song and opening credits. Dear god, this theme song:

The credits drag on while Lisa puts on her make-up. The doorbell rings, she puts on her robe, decides against the robe, and goes to answer the door in only her underwear, because that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do in Beverly Hills. That doorbell keeps ringing and she primps a bit in a mirror. Good things come to those who wait!

“Well, hi, honey,” she says, but there's a moment of negative image and a *ffffftt* sound, so you know something's up. It's not looking good for Lisa. There's no one there, but her little yappy dog is very excited about the no one that's at the door. This is obviously a dog thing, as my neighbor's dog likes to bark at no one as well. Lisa walks away from the door, leaving it wide open, and is startled when it closes. She wanders around her apartment a bit and I have to hand it to the cameraman for staying out of the shot in a place with that many mirrors.

Somehow, her dog got locked in a closet. She lets him out, but turns to see a case on the bed.

rabbit
It's about the right size and shape to be a rabbit, so she might just stay home tonight.

She continues to wander through her very pink apartment, holding her dog, Teddy, who is barking the whole time. Then, standing by the window, there's more weird flashes and noises and she starts to turn, wrapping herself in one of the curtains. Lucky for Teddy, she drops him right before going base over apex over railing to her certain, screaming death.

A mysterious man with a mustache walks past the patio door. He leaves a pen on the couch in her bedroom and places a very high-tech looking gun in the case. Then, a bit dramatically, drops a single button on the bed. It's a set-up!

FRIDAY

This is the first time the movie has cared what day it is, but it must be important, right? OK. We'll just go with that.

Dr. Larry comes into his office, cheerily saying “Good morning” to a bunch of people who do not look like they are have a good morning at all. We're introducing his character all over again as he walks through his very busy office, being told who has been sedated, who's calling, and what he's doing tonight.

Jim shows up, drinking out of Larry' mug asking about that senator who called. This is also when we learn that Larry likes to listen to music when he's working. That's nice, that.

After surgery, Larry is told that the police called and Cindy is in for her final checkup. This is good that we get to meet Cindy, as she's a major character.

blow
And, apparently, she blows.

Cindy complains about all her old photos and bubbles about how Larry did all her friends and gave them “exact measurements”. Her friends sound like they come in a party-pack, exclusive at Target, mail-in now for the Malibu dream car. Actually, she hasn't seen them in ages because she's been in Tahiti. “I keep hoping for a little excitement in my life.” Oh, I can't even call that a First World Problem. I want her to die, but I know keeping her alive is going to be the plot.

She leaves so the cops can come in and talk to Larry about something. I'm guessing it involves a pen and a button.

So, it turns out that Lisa and Susan are dead. The detective isn't going to play games here. Susan drove her car into a piling and Lisa jumped off her balcony. “Do you think they were depressed?”

Larry explains there's sometimes post-op depression, from people who thought plastic surgery was going to make them witty. Seriously? Who thinks that?

The detective asks if he can see their charts. Now, Larry never asked for any ID, and patient confidentiality apparently means nothing to him. He's more than happy to hand those personal medical records over. This is a pre-HIPPA film, I can tell you that. The secretary says she can't find those files. This is mildly interesting because she couldn't find Cindy's charts either. There must be a pattern, right?

The detective thinks so. He asks Larry if he dates his patients. Never went to visit one? Never been in their apartments? He picks up a pen off the floor and Larry says it's been missing about a week. Close-up on Larry' missing button. I told you it was a set-up.

Larry asks about the missing files. No one can get a hold of Lisa and Susan and Larry does not mention they are dead. Cindy just left but here's Tina!

tall
Sadly, not Tina Fey, as that would have been interesting.

Tina wants to talk in private and asks to be put back how she was, as she's “too perfect” right now. “They're killing all the girls who are perfect.” Well, Tina, it's been nice knowing you, but you're going to die very soon if this movie is as predictable as I think it is.

The line buzzes and Tina says it's that senator we've heard about twice now before. Well, third time's a charm: he's important now. “This is about more than commercials,” Tina sobs. “You don't know what's really going on.” Why don't you fill us in some? No, of course not. Then, we wouldn't have a movie.

Tina asks about the man with the mustache. Larry asks if she means the cops. Tina says the cops are all part of it and runs from the room, leaving behind her purse and portfolio, so she's not going to get far. I mean, you can't pay a taxi on good looks alone.

Larry takes this opportunity to go through Tina's purse and find a print-out from “Digital Matrix Inc.” It looks a lot like the weird lists the other girls have given him, so there must be a connection. I'm guessing Tina had it to say how she needed to be put back.

Tina runs home and hastily gets out of what she was wearing because....I dunno?

outfit
Hey! I recognize that outfit from the trailer!

Larry asks his secretary to tell the cops he's going to Tina's apartment, presumably to give her her purse and...wait. How did Tina get into her apartment? She left her purse behind, so she left her keys too, right?

Anyway, Larry drives up to Tina's place and almost parks his car. There's flashing lights from her balcony. While he's looking her up on the directory (he knew the building but not the unit number?), Tina plunges to her death on some other car. Larry runs over to take her pulse, because he's a doctor.

The man with the mustache looks down on them.

Larry springs to action, running past the people who have come out to gawk and are holding the door open. He runs down the hallway and into the apartment, which is the worst possible place to be after someone's just been thrown from it. Just don't be there, OK?

And for god's sake, don't be looking down from the balcony when the police arrive. That never looks good.

Now, granted, Larry could have just said, “Hey, talk to those people who held the door open for me. They knew I was outside when it happened.” but he doesn't do that. Nor does he hand over Tina's purse, which he really should, but people have to make stupid decisions or we'd have no movie. Maybe he's taking Tina's word for it that the cops are in on the whole deal. By handing over the information, he'd be aiding the enemy! Better not tell the cops anything, then.

LARRY DECIDES HE HAS TO SAVE CINDY.

We're at a photo-shoot now, and the models involved are not what I would call classically beautiful.

Larry goes to visit Cindy at work and invites her to the fund-raiser he was going to. Man, is it still Friday? This has been a very busy day. Cindy's not too hep on going until it's mentioned the party's at John Reston's. He does half the commercials in L.A., so she's very excited to go.

At Reston's place, I'm surprised he doesn't have valet parking, so he can't be all that. Larry parks someone in, then he and Cindy walk half a block to the front door. Inside, there's a waiter with exactly two glasses on a tray. Jennifer meets them at the door and states that Reston is very “anxious” to speak with Larry.

dating
Are they dating?

Reston talks to Larry about a proposal for a burn unit. This is a nice touch, actually, as plastic surgeons are frequently involved with burn victims, making them look like their old selves. All the skin that gets cut away is generally saved for grafts and, just a weird aside, the skin from circumcisions is usually used for eyelids, as it's so very thin. The only drawback is the patients come out a little cock-eyed.

Reston asks Larry how much he's hoping to get from the government to get the burn unit up and running. It's seven million, but it would need to be called the Reston burn unit at that point. Larry says he could have the naming rights for four. Dude, bargain a little and ask for nine.

Over dinner, Larry ask Reston what he does and you just asked a guy for seven million dollars and you don't know what he does? Cindy knows. He makes half the commercials in L.A.

Reston mentions that Larry' name was on the news, mentioned in a police report about some suicides. Larry assures them he had nothing to do with it and the police don't think so, either (little does he know!). However, it is interesting that all the girls who died went to a place called Digital Matrix Inc.

plot
Did you just mention a plot point?

Turns out, Jennifer runs Digital Matrix. She sure has moved up from her days as a piece of furniture. “Oh, it's true we measured some girls for a new visual technology, but we never went forward on it. Are you sure these are the same girls?”

After dinner, while Cindy introduces Larry to her buddy Candy, Reston and Jennifer have a terse little conversation in the hall. “He has no idea!” Reston assures her. “But he still suspects,” she answeres. Could our bad-guys get any more transparent?

Larry takes Cindy home and carries her across the threshold to drop her on a bed. And then he leaves. I guess he's trying to keep an eye on her.

SATURDAY

That was a hell of a Friday. I would have preferred to sleep in, but Larry had said he gets up at 6:30. If Saturday is anything like Friday was, it's best to start early.

Cindy says it's crazy weird that Larry had her spend the night, but he didn't hit on her. “Hit on” is not the term I would have used, but I'll agree it's pretty weird. He also offers to drive her to work. “I like to watch you work.”

At a shoot for some tan thing, and there's a van for Digital Matrix lurking in the background. The shoot is being awful because Cindy can't jump right or fall right or “not enough body twist, according to the computer.” Who knew that a computer was behind all this? Everyone on set is trying to match the numbers.

Don't forget, this is a Michael Crichton film, so there's got to be technology that's being used to do evil. Sometimes I wonder if he really liked science, then I remember Timeline and know he didn't.

alpha
Not enough alpha sub sigma or iota super mu.

There's that theme song again! Larry goes to check out the van. Inside, they're watching and charting the jump and fall. The guys in the van decide it's hopeless and they'll have to do the animation at DMI. Cindy's upset that they're wrapping up, but she's also been told to go to DMI to get measured. Larry offers to come along. Well, he drives her.

The cops are there, watching Larry, I'll bet. This really does look bad for him.

Jennifer shows up and offers Larry a tour. This is odd behavior from a woman who was talking about his “suspicions” the night before, but maybe she got a good night's sleep.

Jennifer shows Larry some really basic testing, namely pupil tracking. “You're looking at the model, not the product.” Yes, Jennifer. That's why the model is there. Anyway, she explains how the girls who had the surgery tested very high after their tweaks, until they moved. They could not maintain the scores, so it just didn't work. “We had to take a different approach.”

That approach is walking down a dark hallway with Cindy, explaining that the scanning process won't hurt and she'll be paid $200K a year once “the model” is built and in use.

Cindy is left alone with a giant machine, which instructs her to take off her clothes and stand in the lighted circle. She does so, and it starts to lower.

While Cindy's getting scanned by the computer, we hear the same music Larry played during surgery. A POINT is being made here and none too subtly. This goes on for too long as the computer builds a digital model of Cindy.

move
Aw! She moved. Now we have to start all over again.

Back to Larry and Jennifer. As they walk along a hallway, they walk past the Looker Lab, where Jennifer's card doesn't work. Yeah, she runs the place and her card won't open a door. Suuuuuure. There are flashes of light from under the door and that *fffttt* noise. That's a plot point. Keep moving.

They go into the scanning room, where a technician hastily puts a paper napkin in a brown paper bag (I'm not kidding). Jennifer is really liberal with other people's privacy here, letting Larry see the naked Cindy getting scanned.

Larry decides to steal an access badge. He's also very obvious about it.

Jennifer drones on a bit about how the computer model can be adjusted, eliminating the need for plastic surgery. Larry jokes it could put him out of a job.

Later, in a testing lab, Jennifer tells Reston that Larry came to DMI and a security badge is missing. That didn't take long. Jennifer wants to use “The Looker Device” to search Larry' place for the missing badge. JUST TURN THE BADGE OFF. Ugh! It's not hard. They all have serial numbers. You've already established they have varying levels of access. Just go into the database and turn the flippin' card off. I swear.

Anyway. Jennifer says they already took his files, button, and pen without anyone knowing, so that's the proof we need that it will be OK to go to his house. It also blows my kinda theory that Larry' partner, Jim, was somehow behind it. That could have been funny.

At Larry' house by the sea, Cindy is complaining that he has not let her out of his sight for the last two days. NO, THAT'S NOT TRUE. It's only been since last night, so 24 hours tops. While she's fussing, the news announces the death of Tina. “The second such suicide in two days” and she gets to learn about Lisa's death as well. She asks what happened to Susan and he tells her about the car accident. Cindy flips out, as is understandable.

sunset
It's a good thing they got up at 6:30. It's only 2.

She asks for his car keys so she can go to her parents' and get some clothes. I'm thinking the only reason she's still alive is because she still lives at home. You won't get killed getting thrown out of the window of a single-level ranch.

The scene with Cindy's parents is actually kinda creepy and better at making the point this film is trying to make. She comes in and they're watching TV. When her mom notices her, she says, “Your father's going to be go glad to see you.” Now, the father is sitting five feet to mother's right. During this, the mother glances up once, but never turns to face her daughter. Cindy tries to tell her dad there's a problem, but he asks if it's her car and then asks why she never listens to him. It is short, to the point, and effectively done. Good going, movie. You had a moment.

Ominous music on the beach, and Mr. Mustache is approaching Larry' place with a suitcase. No one has been given the orders to kill, so I don't know why the soundtrack is being all weird about it.

Larry does find a good place to hide the security badge, then walks past a clock that says 2:45. As he watches some guys play volleyball, we get our favorite sound effect and a moment of negative image. The beach is empty. It's 3:57. Another flash and it's 5:01! Larry turns on the TV and a laxative ad comes on. As he's washing his face (eyes covered, mind you), there's another flash and the TV's now playing an ad for United. The water is running over the sink, but I don't recall his putting in the stopper. He goes to open the fridge and the TV in the background has changed again. The contents of the fridge are covered in frost.

It's 6:00.

The security badge is still in its super-secret hiding place and Cindy's voice calls out. She's come to return his car keys, I guess. I hope she put some gas in it, considering how long she was gone.

The two of them go back to DMI to check out that mysterious Looker Lab. Larry gets past the security guard by wearing a lab coat. I have learned you can get into pretty much everywhere just by wearing a lab coat and carrying a clip-board. It's part of why I wear a lab coat.

They go up to the lab and use the security badge that for some reason still works.

morton
Some Morton somewhere is missing his badge.

Sadly, the owner of the badge was not on the Looker Project, so his card will not open the door to the Looker Lab. Finally, someone in security did something right.

Downstairs, Mr. Mustache comes down to watch baseball with the security guard (Nolan Ryan was still playing for the Astros when this was made). Mustache notices that J. Morton is trying to get into all kinds of things tonight. Considering he'd been sent to find that card, I bet he can't believe his good luck.

Larry and Cindy manage to get into a storage room full of tapes. There's also a maintenance robot, “like a janitor”, running through and emptying waste-baskets. Larry and Cindy decide to ride the robot to the Looker Lab. Personally, I'm surprised the robot does not freak out at the extra weight.

The Looker Lab is a bit of a mess, but someone left out the exposition binder, so Larry goes reading through it. Apparently Looker is actually L.O.O.K.E.R.: Light Ocular-Oriented Kinetic Emotive Responses. Lame obvious observations kill everyone's respect.

While Larry reads, Cindy watches one of the TVs in the room, showing a commercial for Warrior all-purpose cleaner. It is a terrible ad, and Cindy notes as such, but there's just something about that actor's eyes. She can't look away. Maybe it's genetic. She starts to mutter “I want it” while watching a hair-care ad. Strange. Wasn't that the first line of the ad in question?

Larry wants to show Cindy what he's found in the binder. Look! It's that gun! It gives the illusion of invisibility by scattering light around the subject. But smoke is a defense against it because it defuses the light and OH MY GOD. THAT'S WHY THEY BANNED SMOKING IN CALIFORNIA.

“It puts you in a trance,” Larry says. Ah, he's figured out what happened at the beach house. Cindy still thinks it's a glorified flashlight. She looks up and screams. It's mustache guy! With the gun! Show us how it works!

second
Oh, it's a snow-ball thrower. I have one of those in Second Life.

When Larry comes out of his trance, Cindy is gone. Well, that was pretty obvious.

Now, we have a fist fight, but Mr. Mustache keeps using the Looker gun to make himself invisible, so it's not really fair. Just punching Larry would be enough, but he actually sends him flying, kung-fu style.

fuuu
This is a man in a trance, flying through the air. He is not on a chair.

Larry grabs some mirror-shades and temporarily stuns Mr. Mustache. He then beats him silly with a clothes rack pole and steals the gun. Even though there's a moment of chemicals being knocked into a sink and making some smoke (a point the camera lingers on but the movie ignores), Larry stuns the guy and kicks him in the balls.

Cindy is just coming out of her trance, so Larry goes over to her and takes off his mirror shades, the only defense he's had against the weapon. “I've worked it all out,” he says. They open a door to leave, and an alarm goes off because they made an illegal exit. Go fig.

Now, we go to a studio, where Reston is getting ready for his big night. Mr. Mustache shows up to tell him what's happened. “Bring the girl back here,” Reston says, “and get rid of him.” This is a classic bad move, really. They both need to go away for Reston's plans to work out.

Now Larry and Cindy are in...a hospital? I guess it's his office. She's sleeping, although there's a great big light next to her head. A noise! Larry goes to investigate.

Finding nothing (of course), Larry finally decides to do the smartest thing he could and call the cops. Sadly, the phone lines are dead. Even more distressing, the hallway is full of smoke. At least Mr. Mustache knows what he's up against and how to get around it. I respect him for that.

Larry tries to fire the Looker gun at Mustache, but the smoke, remember? Oh, and Mustache has a real gun that fires bullets. While dodging those, Larry finds the smoke machine and turns it off (lame!), then runs off, and smashes open a window.

There's actually two people with guns, and Larry has a scalpel. He uses it to cut the back of one guy's hand.

fishing
Later, there will be a fishing expedition for those tendons.

There's some more shooting, but they have the girl. Really, someone needs to do a super-cut of “we have the girl”.

SUNDAY

OK, movie. Is it really that important that this happens over the weekend? Is there a frame story where the last line is “...and that's why I was late this morning.”? It doesn't raise the suspense levels any, but it might be a good explanation why Reston Industries stocks tanked Monday morning. And they were doing so well, too.

The cops are at Larry' office, and wondering if there's absolute proof that Reston is involved. Yeah, that smoke device. The detective states that they're closing in, but it's all going to depend on what Larry does next and if he stays alive. Remember, Tina said that the cops were in on it, so that might be important later.

Now we have a car-chase, where Mr. Mustache tries to zap Larry with Looker gun while he's driving. This would explain Susan's terrible accident.

signal
One of the few cases where it's OK to not signal before making a turn.

Oh! If only Larry has some mirror-shades. But what's this? Oh yeah! He has a Looker gun as well. Pew pew! Take that, bad guys.

Aw, they recover and put on their mirror-shades. Welp, there goes that plan.

Larry does manage to lose them for a little bit, but they fire again and hit him through the rear-view mirror. Ah! Visibility kills! Well, it causes a car crash. The movie tries to be funny and plays a “rainy day” song on the radio during a shot of water on the windshield, but that's only because Larry is parked in a fountain.

was
It was a nice car.

Cops show up and can't find anyone in the car, but that's because Larry has snuck off to the bushes. A kindly old lady points at where she saw him, so he sneaks around and into the back seat of one of the cruisers. Meanwhile, Mr. Mustache is giving a statement to the responding officer. It strikes me as odd that Larry spends all this time trying to be sneaky, when he could just hit everyone with the Looker gun. I mean, he's still got it. Wouldn't that be something, huh?

I guess he took a nap or something, because later, Larry sits up and says, “Officers”. The two guys up front don't look dreadfully surprised, but the camera reveals it's a Reston Industries Security car. Oops.

Well, maybe that was the plan all along, see, because they take him to where the reception is being held. I would have taken him elsewhere, far away, nice and secluded, but I would not be trying to further the plot.

Larry asks if the two security guards if know about Looker. They say they don't, but do notice a group of girls walking through the parking garage.

Cut to: a stunned guard in the driver's seat and Larry putting on the uniform of the other. This trope was good for a laugh when Indiana Jones found a guard's jacket too small. It does seem a bit far fetched as Larry is played by Albert Finney, who is not a small man. The car radio says, “Take him to central. We don't want any trouble.” Well, guess what? Unit twelve isn't responding. “I think we have a problem with unit twelve.”

Larry makes it through the garage and into the building, walking right past the cops who happen to be at the front door. It's nice to see that the Looker gun will fit in a regular holster, and the other security guard who was at the front door should be fired for not noticing it. Oh, dear. The cops notice Larry. They nod knowingly to each other.

This is quite the shin-dig. Oh! Mr. Mustache made it.

awkward
At every party, there's always those two guys....

Reston is on stage, talking about the power of television and the new ads they've created with the computer up on the 19th floor.

Cut to: the 19th floor, where Jennifer is playing with buttons. And there's Cindy! She's been hand-cuffed to a chair. Cindy asks Jennifer if she can loosen it a bit, as it hurts. While Jenni's doing that, Cindy causally mentions that Larry is going to save her. “Any minute now,” Jennifer says.

Back to Reston's speech about how we submit to TV. We have just hit the Mission Statement of the flick, which is that you are wasting your life sitting in front of a box. He who controls the signal can control anything! This is is why TV ads are so important. This is funny to me now, with ad-blocker and DVRs that can fast-forward through ads, but I suppose it was pretty hard-hitting stuff in 1981.

And the best part is, Reston is giving this speech while he's watching Larry closing in on him. He never goes off-message—just the occasional glance—and he never tips his hand.

And he really doesn't have to, because Mr. Mustache is right behind Larry, with a real gun. They leave together.

Upstairs, Jennifer presses some buttons. I'm disappointed as that's a pretty generic TV studio board, but you'd only know that if you'd worked cable access. We had some amazing second-hand equipment.

Down in the lobby, it's Candy from the dinner party! She asks Larry what the deal with the uniform is and goes to shake hands with Mr. Mustache. She shakes the gun, but Mr. Mustache does not shoot her because he is a professional. He does, however, take chase after Larry.

Larry takes the elevator up to...where is he going? Does he know? The 19th floor I guess, but that's an open stage with various sets. This is not how that would work, as there would be something between the elevator and an open set. Crichton may have had medical experience, but you'd think after a while he'd know more about TV. This is what happens when you don't let the writer on the set.

Reston and Mustache go up another elevator to the set floor. They even have guns.

This is great! There's a live feed going downstairs to a bunch of Very Important People and our head bad-guy and goon are running around on a live set with guns. There's no way that could possibly go wrong.

So, queue the senate office set! Overlay the senator model! Start program! Oh, it' the eve of the national election (is that why what day it is was so important?) and the senator—candidate for president—wants to talk to you about why you should vote for him. Just look into those dreamy blue eyes.

fremen
He's got the Fremen vote locked up.

Next ad is for a roach-spray. The model is Cindy and the set is the kitchen where Larry's hiding. He peaks his head up at just the right time, with no knowledge of what's happening.

Can I take a moment here? Why are we using real sets? Wouldn't that be the easiest part to build in the computer? It would actually be easier to have real people on fake sets (like we do now!) than have fake people on real sets. This is one of those idiot decisions that I find so frustrating in “science fiction” films. Could we please, in the future, give a little thought to what we're doing?

Anyway, Larry's head annoys Jennifer. She really is the smartest person in the show, but she's probably going to have a very stupid death.

Yep. She just got shot by Mr. Mustache, who mistook her shadow for Larry's. There you have it.

The next set is a bedroom, and that's where Mustache is. The audience downstairs is having a good laugh, but it's not particularly funny. It's just a guy on a set.

Oh, wow, Jennifer is tougher than anyone thought. She's managed to take the little lift back up to the control room. This is good for Cindy, because the key to the handcuffs is in Jennifer's pocket. Thinking she's dead, Cindy tries to get the key, but Jennifer has enough fight left in her to hold Cindy back. If Jennifer really wanted to screw Cindy over, she'd take the key out of her own pocket and drop it off the side of the lift. Then, I think she dies. Maybe. Hard to tell. She might come back.

The ads are still on auto-pilot, and Mustache shoots at a camera. Reston hears it and perks up a bit, but really, he should just leave. Dude's already shot one person he wasn't supposed to.

The next ad is a car spot, and Larry's hiding in the car. Mustache is sneaking around the car set, so it's weird when he doesn't see Larry in there. Now that his gun is visible, I think the audience downstairs has stopped laughing.

The car is also rigged to open as if the model was interacting with it. Again, we have no digital model of the car? Larry thinks it's safe to sit up, but Mustache shoots at him and ruins the windshield. Larry hits him with the Looker.

While Larry is trying to get Mustache's real gun, Reston shoots Mustache. Great aim; poor target acquisition.

blink
Ha ha. Made you blink.

Reston walks onto the car set, unaware that it's still sending a feed downstairs. The detective sees this and summons an elevator. But who is he going to go help?

Mustache's body happened to fall on a dining room table, so guess what the next ad is? That's right!

Hang on, that table was already on that set when it was the ad for roach spray. Why did it leave? Just to go pick up a body and then come back? That makes no sense.

Cindy finally gets the key our of Jennifer's pocket! And just in time, too, as Reston just called the little lift down. Seeing Jennifer, he kinda does a double-take. He carefully runs around to move the body and, I hate to say this, but you can see that the arthritis that twisted James Coburn's hands at the end has started up. His fingers don't lay correctly and he has a little difficulty with the maneuver.

Reston takes the lift up, gun drawn, I suppose thinking that Larry killed Jennifer and set the body on the lift. Cindy is hiding under the control panel, which he should have seen on the ride up, but he's more interested in the feed from the cameras to find Larry.

There's a little cat-and-mouse on the set. The detective shows up, ready to show us who's side he's on. Reston finally has Larry pinned! He shoots! He misses! He dies!?

seven
Long live the new flesh.

Hooray! The cop is a good cop! Tina was crazy after all!

And....that's the end. Cindy comes down off the little lift, Larry says he can't be her doctor anymore because he wants to date her, and they walk off into the...fade to black. There is NO follow-up with the police and no explanation for killing the girls. Oh, wait. There is.



NO. THAT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. THIS IS STILL A STUPID MOVIE.

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