The Darwin Conspiracy

No academy awards for this one, but it was entertaining and kept my interest throughout - which is what a movie is supposed to do. The acting was also pretty good. I was especially impressed with Robert Floyd, who played the mentally challenged brother of Jason Brooks.

THE DARWIN CONSPIRACY is a very silly TV movie indeed, one that adopts the principle of human evolution and super DNA for its own ridiculous ends. There are shades of both RAIN MAN and THE LAWNMOWER MAN in the tale of a mentally challenged baseball fan who finds himself injected with some super DNA serum (discovered in an ancient body in the ice) and becomes this genius who escapes and is pursued by government forces.

It's as ridiculous as it sounds, and the limitations of the TV movie budget are nowhere more apparent than here. The calibre of the acting is completely below par, with nobody putting in anything approaching a decent performance. Many of the scenes are completely ridiculous, like when they bring in an ill-advised telekinetic aspect to the narrative (the 'hubcap attack' is incredibly bad). My favourite bad moment, though, is when a super-intelligent chimp steals a car and goes on a rampage - hilarious stuff.

This nonsense was written by none other than Glen A. Larson, creator of TV fare like THE FALL GUY and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, but it's fair to say it's probably his worst effort. Dutch director Winrich Kolbe had decades of experience behind the camera so you wonder why he didn't produce a better product.

pretty simple: this made-for-tv movie is a real dog. i wouldnt get very excited about it, but the flick is worth watching if you can look at it from a tongue-in-cheek POV. first off, i think you gotta expect that anything coming from glen larson is going to be cheesy. i mean, come on; this is the guy who brought us Manimal, Automan, Knight Rider, Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica. (hey, i love this stuff; just dont take it too seriously!) i might suggest doing something around the house while you have this movie on, as i'm not sure this rather slow and rambling film in itself is really enough to hold your attention.

the real treat in this movie is the appearance of kevin tighe of Emergency! fame. he plays the bad guy, and i had to chuckle nearly every time he was on camera. love the mustache, kevin!

i do think there are some intriguing conceptual elements in this film, however, and i'm not talking about the reconstitution of DNA, which we've already had a thorough explanation of in Jurassic Park. rather, the idea that there may possibly have been human civilizations previous to our own that could perhaps have been more technologically advanced than we are. that is interesting. AND, what of the notion that we modern humans only utilize 10% of our brain capacity? can we really use more than that, and did early humans use more than that? i think these are interesting ideas, that when reflected upon, say a lot about our current human condition and the civilization in which we live.

Dr. Jason Ward (Jason Brooks) is a highly qualified geneticist. His brother Andy Ward (Robert Floyd) had problems during his birth and is mentally retarded. Dr. Jason is hired by an agency to develop some kind of experience with DNA. What he does not know is that this DNA belongs to the body of a very developed prehistoric man, and his findings are being used by another government laboratory to develop a kind of super-intelligent species. His brother Andy is used as part of this experiment. This movie seems to be a bad pilot of a possible television series. However, the screenplay and the performance of the casting are so foolish that probably the producers gave up with such an investment. However, although deserving a place among the worst 250 films in IMDB, there are movies worst than that. By comparison with other craps, my vote is four.

No other words describes this movie other than it absolutely stinks. The plot seemed interesting with a perfectly frozen man with incredibly advanced DNA, but for some stupid reason, this vital plot point was dropped and a relationship between this scientist and his retarded brother was brought to the forefront. The dialogue was hackneyed and trite. Another reason to know why this movie stinks is that the San Diego Padres were incorporated as an essential part of the "plot". If I could give this movie a negative score; I would!