Blind Date

I will not use the genre "THRILLER" to portray this film as in my humble opinion just because writer/director Nico Mastorakis who is one of the most highly successful Greek film and television producers penned Blind Date, it left me feeling cheated. Why you may ask?

Well... from the opening credits where there are a few dark and blurry scenes the audience witnesses a serial killer using a magic marker to outline on his first two female victims chests where he is about to use a sharp scalpel to cut them open, the less than scary musical score which Nico Mastorakis's uses is present throughout this very dull film.

I will say the science fiction approach to solve who the serial killer was something I have not seen in any other film. The lead actor Joseph Bottoms who plays Jonathon Ratcliff, a successful promotional executive is caught peeping on what he thinks is his first love and her new beau until the new beau named Dave (played by good looking James Daughton) gives chase in the middle of the night and as hilarious as it may seem, our star actor Jonathon Ractcliff runs smack dab into a low hanging tree limb and wakes up totally blind. Here is where the science fiction theme comes into play, a successful surgeon named Dr. Steiger (Keir Dullea) suggests he can help the recently blinded Jonathon Ratcliff using a combination or radiation surgery and a magnetic implant on his brain so that when he uses a prototype Sony Walkman (remember this film was made in 1984 and Sony was on the leading edge of the film and music industries technology boom) on the outer edge of Jonathon's skull he will be able to see 3-D animated outline images of what the rest of the world sees.

And so equipped with his new Sony Walkman seeing eye technology and a creative host of animators the film moves on to allow our star Jonathon Ratcliff to help save his first love once more from possibly falling as the next victim of this mad serial killer whose modus operando is to capture his female victims, then outline using a magic marker on their bare chests where he then intends to make his incision with his sharp scalpel while the directors irritating musical score sorely fails at keeping us the audience in suspense.

I won't spoil the ending for anyone since from the opening scene the film left me wondering if this film would be worth continuing to watch. I give the film a 4 out of 10 rating mainly for the unique use of the cutting edge sight seeing technology that Dr. Steiger used on his patient Jonathon Ratcliff which was the only interesting part of the story.

An average thriller about a stalker who goes blind after hitting his head on a tree while being chased by an angry boyfriend. He gets implanted with a chip that lets him see in vague computer graphic outline. Meanwhile a killer is experimenting on female victims. This film is nothing that special except for geeks, which should see it because it has Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: TNG's Diana Troy) topless in it. Oh and Kristie Alley has a nude love scene in it as well, but I'm not too fond of her.

Omega DVD extras: The films of Nico Mastorakis:part one-From the beginning to "Sky High" (for parts 2 and 3 you have to get 2 more of Nico's films..greedy bastard) ; 2 Music tracks; Filmographies; Bios; Theatrical trailer; Trailers for "In the Cold of the Night", "Sky High", "Bloodstone", and ".dot com for Murder"

My Grade: C-

Director Nico Mastorakis had a moderately posh budget for once and was able to give this little techno thriller a nice glossy look, plus he proved somewhat prophetic when a few of his ideas regarding the central gimmick - a radar-like device that allows a blind person to 'see' via reflected sound - actually appeared in medical devices within a few years. Mastorakis, as usual, shows a good photographic eye for interesting backdrops, found objects, cityscapes etc. often from oddly skewed angles.

Moreover, the movie is an underground legend among video geeks who pursue gratuitous nudity by female TV stars. Marina Sirtis has a brief but memorable topless appearance as a hooker and Kirstie Alley features in her only nude sex scene. Infamous murder victim Lana Clarkson co- stars as the object of a stalker.

Beyond such prurient considerations, however, there is not a whole lot here that we didn't see fairly often in any 80s thriller. There are fights, car chases and foot pursuits (with the admittedly novel twist that one participant is a technologically augmented blind person). This was familiar stuff then and has gained no new freshness with age.

Joseph Bottoms plays American Jonathan Ratcliff, living & working in Athens. His world is turned upside down when he suddenly losses his sight, but thankfully for him an electronic sonar device has just been invented which allows blind users to "see" (via very dated looking computer graphics) & he agrees to become the first person to try it. Meanwhile an unknown, gloved killer is murdering beautiful young women with a scalpel & it's only a matter of time before their paths cross. I'd never heard of this movie before, picked it up cheap on DVD from a charity shop, but once the name Nico Mastorakis appeared as director/producer on the opening credits my interest suddenly perked up (he made the infamous, one time "video nasty" Island of Death). I found this is to be reasonable attempt at making a giallo style psycho thriller. There's some good camera work going on during some of the more suspenseful sequences. Plenty of female topless nudity, including Kirstie Alley doing apparently her only ever topless on camera scene, though that's hardly a recommendation! Pretty tame in the gore department, only two onscreen kills, both bloody but brief. As already mentioned the computer graphics look very dated - even for 1984 - but it only adds to it's charm.

Part psychological thriller, with just a bit of sci-fi, it really never does work. Joseph Bottoms was pretty boring as the lead. Kirstie Alley was pretty good, and this film DOES have her only known topless scene. (There is a long feature on the director on the DVD which contains some additional footage of this scene.) The late Lana Clarkson was good enough here, and Marina Sirtis looked fantastic as the hooker. Keir Dullea was simply wasted on this material. The biggest plot hole had to do with the special effects (which really weren't all that special). The grid outlines that Jonathan Ratcliffe (Bottoms) were able perceive simply weren't nearly good enough for him to get around as well as he did. And I mean walking about, we don't even have to go as far as the driving scene. Also, he really wasn't very convincing as a blind man. Poor screenplay plus poor acting equals poor movie. The only reason to check this one out is if you are interested in Alley. Grade: D-