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Musings

C.F.D.D Pod

Gaming in the Jon Byron Times

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Soylent Green

Rating

Production Value: C

Writing and Story: B

Acting and Casting: B

overall: B

This movie has a big twist, and I will try not to spoil it. Some people may watch for the first time since the fictitious year of the movie has passed. Did we do better or worse than Soylent Green IRL? I don't know, but have you tried that Lloyd’s BBQ stuff? That is some really tasty stuff right there.

There is nothing quite like this sort of "sloppy" 70s sci-fi style. It works well for the dystopian angle because you can imagine that the future devolved into the 1970s. Chuck Heston is always sort of a ham, but you can enjoy the meme value of his "intensity" as you can with other Heston sci-fi leads. Edward G. Robinson is great in this and delivers some genuinely touching moments. At the time, it was more original and less predictable, but it isn't about that. It is about experiencing this weird 70s movie.

The 70s was a particularly unoptimistic time in the US, and the cinema of the decade reflects that in a very on the nose way.

I will admit, I stretched the bounds of my ranking system, and did some "curve grading" to make this a B, but this is totally worth seeing just to see it. You may get some laughs out of the ways it is outdated, but thanks to Edward G. Robinson really selling it, you may genuinely feel something too.

I also get that Charlton Heston became known in his later years for not voting correctly, to put it in a nutshell, but finding an old copy of this laying around somewhere and putting it on for a few laughs isn't going to "support" anything or make you less of a person.