I'll start off by saying that I couldn't even sit through all of this movie. Mercifully, my DVD player froze up and stopped playing at one point and, rather than try to continue, I welcomed the opportunity to be relieved of this travesty and to offer my two cents here.
Starting with the opening credits, I was immediately confused as to what mood or tone they were trying to establish. It was a somewhat confusing montage of still visuals combined with a bizarre love song that was heavy with harpsichord and tambourine. None of this really said "Nikola Tesla" to me. After this, I very quickly became bored and befuddled with a trite storyline dragged along by dry, uninteresting dialogue, which insisted upon wandering aimlessly for what seemed an eternity.
The main thing that left me utterly perplexed, which I simply could not get past, was the question of the time period the story was supposed to take place in. On the one hand, the main character is a middle-aged bald guy with porkchop sideburns and a 70's-porn-star style handlebar mustache, driving around in a 1970's Dodge Dart and wearing a leather jacket with short sleeve shirts that are about three sizes too small. Combine this with nauseating paisley neckties and dippy aviator sunglasses, and you get authentic mid- 70's machismo.
On the other hand, his surrounding world is mostly present-day, with post-2000 cars everywhere and crowds of modernly dressed people walking around, some with cell phones. Yet strangely, despite such prevalent modern amenities, I never did notice a computer anywhere. For instance, there was a scene where a friend of the main character was shown using an old drafting table, rather than a modern computer, to help plan things out for him. Plus, Kojak here doesn't seem to have a cell phone of his own. Nevertheless, he seems always able to find a payphone or a bright yellow rotary phone readily available whenever he needs to make a call.
As I said, my DVD player froze up shortly after all this, and I was both glad and relieved. My advice: forget about this movie and save the two dollars you'd spend to rent it. You may, instead, want to put that money toward one of many excellent biographies about Tesla. Or you might want to just carry it around in your pocket as loose change and have it ready the next time you need to use a payphone.
Starting with the opening credits, I was immediately confused as to what mood or tone they were trying to establish. It was a somewhat confusing montage of still visuals combined with a bizarre love song that was heavy with harpsichord and tambourine. None of this really said "Nikola Tesla" to me. After this, I very quickly became bored and befuddled with a trite storyline dragged along by dry, uninteresting dialogue, which insisted upon wandering aimlessly for what seemed an eternity.
The main thing that left me utterly perplexed, which I simply could not get past, was the question of the time period the story was supposed to take place in. On the one hand, the main character is a middle-aged bald guy with porkchop sideburns and a 70's-porn-star style handlebar mustache, driving around in a 1970's Dodge Dart and wearing a leather jacket with short sleeve shirts that are about three sizes too small. Combine this with nauseating paisley neckties and dippy aviator sunglasses, and you get authentic mid- 70's machismo.
On the other hand, his surrounding world is mostly present-day, with post-2000 cars everywhere and crowds of modernly dressed people walking around, some with cell phones. Yet strangely, despite such prevalent modern amenities, I never did notice a computer anywhere. For instance, there was a scene where a friend of the main character was shown using an old drafting table, rather than a modern computer, to help plan things out for him. Plus, Kojak here doesn't seem to have a cell phone of his own. Nevertheless, he seems always able to find a payphone or a bright yellow rotary phone readily available whenever he needs to make a call.
As I said, my DVD player froze up shortly after all this, and I was both glad and relieved. My advice: forget about this movie and save the two dollars you'd spend to rent it. You may, instead, want to put that money toward one of many excellent biographies about Tesla. Or you might want to just carry it around in your pocket as loose change and have it ready the next time you need to use a payphone.