Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Benedito Dias Rodrigues Strangely this movie till now is so low rated by IMDb's users,perhaps the whole plot has some holes of course,but to me since the first time amazed me entirely,the story is such fictional but works very well,intriguing and mystery around the Nazi old formula of synthetic fuel,interesting idea to start,but actually the movie stand in two strong columns Scott and Brando in the final scene both are in clash what's they think about the perfect world for everybody,Marthe Keller is another highlights,and a dozen of famous actors whose ennobling the picture!!Resume:First watch: 1987 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8

Wuchak Released in 1980, "The Formula" is a star-studded crime/thriller about a Los Angeles detective (George C. Scott) who investigates the murder of his friend, a retired cop, which leads to Germany and a Nazi formula for synthetic fuel that big oil naturally wants to suppress at all costs. Marlon Brando plays a shady oil tycoon but only appears for roughly 15 minutes of the almost 2-hour runtime.The film is top-of-the-line as far as cast, location and cinematography go. It starts off like a Dirty Harry flick substituting Scott for Eastwood with his Asian sidekick, but the plot's complicated and there's not enough action for Dirty Harry fans. The rest of the film seems like an episode of Columbo mixed with Scott's "Hardcore" (1979) where he goes undercover in Southern California investigating his daughter's disappearance.The highlights include the WWII and Nazi elements, acting giants Scott and Brando, the lovely Marthe Keller, the rest of the cast, the great locations (California, Germany and Switzerland) and the emphasis on dialogue above thrills, which may be a detriment to some. Regarding the Nazi elements, there's a brief strip club scene in Europe where Nazi imagery is used as a backdrop for the dancers, fittingly showing how yesterday's unspeakable horrors are forgotten by the next generation and utilized for entertainment or recreation.Brando has proved time and again that he has a knack for playing weird, quirky characters ("The Missouri Breaks", "Apocalypse Now", "The Godfather" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau") and he tries to do this here with his portrayal of an oil executive, but with so-so results. I didn't buy it; the character comes off as more of a performance rather than a real person. Still, you've gotta give him credit for trying and Brando is always entertaining, even when he fumbles.The main problem here is the convoluted plot. There are so many names it's hard to keep up (I recommend using the subtitles as it helps you keep track). The conclusion is both thought-provoking and unsatisfactory; a strange mix.So "The Formula" is a mixed bag, but its strengths outweigh it's weaknesses. It's worthwhile if you're a fan of the stars and if you're in the mood for a thought-provoking and globetrotting crime/thriller that's heavy on talk and light on thrills.This movie surprised me; after hearing all the criticisms I was ready for a dull experience, but this wasn't the case at all.GRADE: B-

paul vincent zecchino By all means, see this film if you wish to understand the moronic, disingenuous, commie-rat mindset which infested the 1970s.'The film the oil companies don't want you so see'??? Yeah. Right. What would they care? Which oil companies? Time and President Reagan proved the premise of this film to be false, a self-serving propaganda piece perhaps crafted to make Jimmy Carter, look good and win a second term. This would likely have resulted in us speaking Russian, those fortunate enough to survive, wouldn't it?The oil companies along with the American people in 1980 were enduring The Carter Glory Years, when both moslem radical and soviet thugs held America hostage, with the apparent approval of the commander in chief. One of the ways in which these intergenerational, symbiotically relatedhead lice held us for ransom was by means of 'oil embargoes'. OPEC constantly engineered 'oil shortages' throughout the 70s, starting in the fall of '73.The Carter Glory Years featured inane 'Big Bad Oil' fairy tales, invented by leftists and repeated by the uninformed. One tale was that oil companies were sitting on trillions of gallons of oil, awaiting a mysterious price hike. Another was the fatuous muth about 'the guy up in Maine who invented a seventy - the number steadily rose from seventy to one hundred to two hundred and beyond - mile per gallon carburetor but Big Bad Oil Companies and Evil Detroit stole his patent and destroyed his plans.That's the false premise of this film, which explains why it's patently stupid, boring, and false. If we'd only stop and THINK about that which we hear, eh? Ask yourself, what oil company and/or car maker could get away with it? Answer: none. Ask yourself, what oil company and/or car maker wouldn't love to be the first to market a new car line with a two-hundred mile per gallon carburetor? Every one would love to do so, wouldn't they?This fairy tale's silliness was compounded by the fact that by the 1980s, computer controlled carburetors were being supplanted by fuel injection. That said, a gallon of gas can push a given weight only so far and no more, no matter what some 'guy up in Maine' claims to have invented.With Hollywood, if you want to know the truth, turn the lies in its movies 180 degrees around and you'll have it.Interestingly, within a couple years of The Formula's release, President Reagan got government out of the oil business, and gas became plentiful and cheap. This permanently angered The Left as well as sore loser Mr. Peanuts, but facts are facts.Would you expect any different from Hollywood? Why? Didn't both Lenin and Stalin say, 'give me Hollywood and I'll control the world'? You think they just sat back went to sleep after saying that?Marta Keller is beautiful to behold and George C. Scott is as always, a barely contained hi-voltage dynamo of psychic energy.Boring? It's no different from British horror films in which the monster never shows up for curtain call but instead you listen - for two hours running time - to professorial British gents discussing the beast as they sip Port in the walnut panelled drawing room of a country estate located a discrete distance to the west of London.Paul Vincent ZecchinoMassive Critic at Critial MassManasoviet Key, Florida26 January, 2012

revtg001 This is a story about a man who discovers an evil plot and risks everything to thwart the scheme. He opposes the ultimate "establishment" and is weighed and found wanting when the time comes to take the final step to expose the ruling classes' determination to keep the lower class lower and the super upper class on top. After all his risks and frustrations and dangers the invisible powers that "be" casually regain the upper hand as if nothing has happened and once again it is business as usual. The movie is a powerful subliminal civics lesson for young people. The antithesis is another Marlon Brando movie titled "Burn." I suggest you see that one also.