Every once in awhile an actor slums into a part that he or she never would have touched with a ten foot pole in their heyday. Frequently, these roles amount to a lot of fallen grace and pity from those of us who once respected the matinee idols who have stooped to absurd and badly written roles in absurd and badly written films.
And yet, just once in awhile -- or else it would cease to be remarkable -- you wind up with an actor who takes the garbled trash he's been handed and he makes it ALMOST worth watching. I'll have you know I delayed a dinner date for an hour and a half just to watch the end of this film, and I was hungry! That is the power, the talent, the ham of The Medusa Touch, which smacks of The Pink Panther meets The French Connection -- it never knows how seriously it should take itself, it doesn't know if it's a drama or a parody, and the cheap thrills take so long to unfold that they end up costing quite a lot in terms of time and plot credibility. But the final unavoidable sequence, in which Richard Burton does what his career could never do after this and fights to stave off death, makes the film worth the cold chicken and warm beer I found waiting for me -- and if that isn't the mark of a gloriously average movie, what is?
And yet, just once in awhile -- or else it would cease to be remarkable -- you wind up with an actor who takes the garbled trash he's been handed and he makes it ALMOST worth watching. I'll have you know I delayed a dinner date for an hour and a half just to watch the end of this film, and I was hungry! That is the power, the talent, the ham of The Medusa Touch, which smacks of The Pink Panther meets The French Connection -- it never knows how seriously it should take itself, it doesn't know if it's a drama or a parody, and the cheap thrills take so long to unfold that they end up costing quite a lot in terms of time and plot credibility. But the final unavoidable sequence, in which Richard Burton does what his career could never do after this and fights to stave off death, makes the film worth the cold chicken and warm beer I found waiting for me -- and if that isn't the mark of a gloriously average movie, what is?