GamerTab That was an excellent one.

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Micitype Pretty Good

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

riddy_hiz "Wild Palms" is a title I've had hyped to me over the years and I finally checked it out. I had been told it "took place in the same world as Twin Peaks," which I figured could only be a good thing. It took less than twenty-five minutes of the first episode, however, to expose this comparison as a bogus euphemism. I know I'm not the first person to point this out but holy crap! Did they think people wouldn't notice? As if the general idea of the film, (blending elements of noir, melodrama, and science fiction through a post-modern filter of pop culture references and a large cast of quirky characters), wasn't similar enough to Twin Peaks, there are bits of dialog and situations that are directly lifted from the series! The role of dreams, the coffee-centric conversation, the references to Buddhism, the title sequence, the score…. I hoped to find some sort of redemption in the less Twin Peaks influenced areas of the story. The attempted corporate takeover of the country via virtual reality television seemed it might prove thought-provoking, but it ended up playing out more like "They Live" than "eXistenZ." The thinly veiled criticism of Scientology spurred my interest initially, but it lost its bite by the third episode. Most excruciating, is the acting. I'm quite capable of enjoying a stilted or awkward performance, so long as it serves a higher purpose (i.e. toying with a genre convention). But Jim Belushi gives a new meaning to the word unnatural. Even screen veterans like Robert Loggia can't rectify the unevenness and clumsiness of the cast. At best they come off as zany sitcom characters. Even as camp, "Wild Palms" is barely watchable. F-

dgarwood The real credit for WILD PALMS should go to Bruce Wagner and his flowing, prosaic dialogue. It's like classic Film Noir crossed with cyber-speak, doused with a fifth of Single Malt Scotch and set on fire. There are so many clever, nimble phrases that are turned on their axis and spun into something entirely different. Examples: "Mystery loves company." "Do you know how much it hurts to be SHOT IN THE CHEST??""You're no General! You're a pimp with the wings of a bat!" "You've got quite a mouth on you! Take care someone doesn't take a needle and sew it up." "Weak dog! You stillborn calf! YOU MAKE ME VOMIT!"Granted the whole package is a little hard to take in all at once - it's one of those things that becomes more interesting the more you watch it. And for everyone who argues it ends with a whimper, not a bang, well, you may be right, but I posit that The Senator, Harry's real lineage, The Go Chip, and the Mimezine are all besides the point. Enjoy it for one of the campiest, cleverest, most intelligent scripts ever written for television.(Thank You Bruce Wagner) This is a project that is not only entertaining to watch, but a JOY to listen to. It's FUN.

mike_usagisan How to describe this series? Imagine if Shakespeare was alive during the late sixties and seventies and decided to write a sci-fi epic at the height of the early nineties hype about virtual reality, and you'd only be in the same ballpark.The story? Okay, the story revolves around an unassuming family man, Harry, who only begins to realize the strangeness that is going on around him. A secret police force are kidnapping people. His daughter refuses to speak. His son is developing some violent behavior. His wife is withdrawing into a bottle. And a strange woman from his past is offering him a glimpse at a world he could only imagine before.Combining elements of Japanese and Eastern myths, Phillip K. Dick's quest for reality, Twin Peak's surreality, a grand opera's sweep, and science fiction's imagination, Wild Palms sets up the dominos of a world that could be and then lets them fall.Harry is drawn into the New Age cult of a powerful senator who is about to transform the world by introducing a new form of media - one that is so close to being real that it's often hard to tell the difference. If you had the choice of this world, or a world of your own creation, which would you choose? But what if that world was being controlled by someone with their own agenda? And as the world starts to deal with those questions, a group of libertarian `Friends' attempt to stop the senator any way they can. Two powerful houses will fight until there is only one remaining.This is not a series for everyone. It isn't sci-fi in the genre of Star Trek like most television fans are used to. It's also told in the fashion of an opera, with high melodrama and amazing leaps of logic. And lest you think that it is heavy, it also has some great patches of absurdity. But it is thought provoking, and has something to say about technology, religion, power, politics, drug use, and a range of other topics. And it says it in a way that doesn't speak down or make the audience feel they are being unduly manipulated. It is fine television for a very small audience.

moses-11 Wild Palms isn't just a movie, it's a commitment. A four and a half hour commitment. But it's well worth it. The story, set in 2007, has parts of it that are starting to come true, and others that very well may. The beautiful thing about it is this: Practically everything you see or hear in the movie has a double meaning. Every line, every plot point has been thought out to the point that you're almost watching two movies at once. I remember seeing this on TV, during the original miniseries broadcast, and thinking, 'TV isn't ready for this. The world isn't ready for this.' I was amazed, and you will be too. You won't miss the four-letter profanity that you'd get from a theater film. The only problem is that some of the actors aren't that great. Angie Dickinson seems to over-emote like she's in a soap opera, but that atually adds charm in my opinion. Ben Savage(who was pretty young then) seems to have trouble with strong emotions, and Aaron Metchik (another young actor) has trouble, period. But who can blame him? I can't figure out his character either. One minute he's strong, intelligent, witty, and calm, and the next he collapses into a simpering little boy. But what can you do? You only have 4.5 hours to develop all these characters, huh? My rating: Quite Good.