Fugitive Mind

Yet another quickie from Ray, this one presents a convoluted plot of evil scientists, implanted memories, and a political assassination. To his credit, Ray assembles eclectic casts of genre vets, and this is no exception with Ian Ogilvy star of cult director Michael Reeves' films and former TV Saint, Irwin Allen star David Hedison, TV Buck Rogers Gil Gerard and others. Worth a look for fans of the actors or director, but don't be misled by the title and expect a kind of Donovan's Brain in a jar on the lam.

The plot is a good one and the acting is good,but the movie does not quite live up to it's potential. The story is similar to another film entitled "The Manchurian Candidate". Which is about a man who is brainwashed or psychologically programmed into carrying out an assassination. My recommendation is to rent or watch "The Manchurian Candidate" instead of this one, which seems like a pale imitation. This movie seems like a production that was hastily put together without much thought or planning. The result is that the movie doesn't seem quite convincing and instead rather weak. Watch this only if you have nothing else better to do with your time.

A change of genre for Fred Olen Ray, here tackling a conspiracy thriller with sci-fi touches. Very obviously a low budget rip-off of TOTAL RECALL, this nonetheless has a quite good pacing and some okay fights which allow you to overlook the many flaws. Supporting Dudikoff are NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET's Heather Langenkamp as an ally, plus the usual run of old timers including Ian Ogilvy and David Hedison.

FUGITIVE MIND allows Michael Dudikoff to do a bit more acting that he has in the past. This time around, the focus is on his character and the possibility that his current life is masking a hidden one that has been programmed to resurface in time to commit a political assassination. As a result, Dudikoff gets to deal with his personality as he comes to realize he's not who thinks he is, and winds up on the run from the company he works for and his own wife! Heather Langenkamp is good as the only person who can help him figure things out. Like GALE FORCE (also with Dudikoff), it's a great starting point for a movie that is handled decently enough here to make it at least a good way to spend 90 minutes, but a big-budget production could really do wonders with the story.

Oh man! Do NOT watch this movie! Do NOT rent this movie! Do NOT buy this movie! It's so terrible! It's the worst movie I've ever seen (along with Arrival II).

I was suckered in by the box art and because it was in the science fiction section of the video store, so I rented it. There is no science fiction in it whatsoever! Terrible plot, terrible acting, terrible everything!

Thing is, I recognized one or two actors in this movie that I thought were decent, but in this movie, they seriously suck!

Do NOT make the same mistake I did. Save your money and rent some REAL science fiction, if that's what you're after.