Rating: 
Summary: Howdy Pardner... BLAM! BLAM! ... Click... Bzzzzzzz ...
Review: WESTWORLD was far ahead of it's time. Michael Crichton directed this movie years before his Jurassic Park book / movies existed. The whole idea of an amusement park where the attractions go berserk was done in WW in the dark ages of 1973! The main villain, a relentless, unstoppable android, was in WW a decade before Cameron's Terminator tore up the box office. Yul Brynner's smirk and silver eyes are unforgettable! His menacing walk is haunting and scary. Dressed all in black, this robo-gunslinger is the personification of one of our deepest fears, that one day the machines we depend on / use, will get smart and no longer find us necessary! Richard Benjamin and James Brolin are the two saps who stumble into the middle of WESTWORLD's meltdown. They think they're in for a nice exotic vacation. In reality, they are scheduled for an ice-cold dose of raw desperation! Will either of them survive? Watch and see! Highly recommended...
Rating: 
Summary: Oh my!!
Review: I remember being packed up in the car and going with my parents (I was about 3 and they couldn't get a sitter) to see this movie at a drive in!
Drive in's are, sadly, pretty much a thing of the past but I'm glad to see this movie's still around! This is the first movie I remember seeing, and if it's been stuck in my head for all this time then there's got to be something good about it!!
Rating:
Summary: Jurassic Park prequel
Review: Sunday, August 15, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Jurassic Park prequel
Crichton mined the idea of a fun park gone awry in this 73 offering, long before dinosaur DNA replication would prove viable. Richard Benjamin strikes the right chord as a wimp come survivalist guest at the Westworld resort, one of three that offer patrons the opportunity to interact with lifelike robot denizens. As things are wont to do, it all goes haywire and Richard is stalked by gunslinger Yul Brynner to the death. Pacing really heats up in the last 15 mins. as Benjamin seeks to evade Yul by running from one abandoned `world' to the next, ultimately ending up in the labyrinths below the parks. While a bit slow in the beginnings James Brolin and Benjamin capture the feeling of being mischievous boys in an old west playpen.
Rating:
Summary: A real gem is hidden here. Precursor to Terminator
Review: At Westworld you can live out your fantasies: you can be a western gunslinger, a lusty medieval lord, or a decadent Roman aristocrat. You will be surrounded by lifelike androids ready to indulge you in your *every* whim, and that means every whim. Every android damaged by you will be resurrected during the night. You might be a whimp in real life, but here you are a king! Paradise!
Westworld is the utlimate escape fantasy for wealthy adults. This film has a quite long introduction, showing how the humans abuse the androids. The tables turn suddenly. The androids are too well made, and have developed consciuosness, and rebel against their tormentors.
We associate with the androids; they are more real in their suffering than the humans in their selfindulgence. The last remaining human's escape takes him throughout the amusement park. He is shocked when he sees all the horrors inflicted upon the androids by uncaring humans.
Yul Brunner plays the avenging gunslinger. His role is similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's in Terminator, but Brunner lends his character a gravitas totally lacking in Schwarzenegger.
Rating:
Summary: "Have We Got a Vacation for You...."
Review: Welcome to Delos, an adult amusement park where, for a mere $1000 per day, guests can experience the excitement of life in America's Old West, Medieval Europe, or Ancient Rome. Lifelike costumed androids populate the park and interact with guests, and said machines are programmed to fulfill all human desires, be those yearnings romantic, heroic, violent, or whatever. But the robots have also been programmed with a fail-safe that prevents them from harming the guests in any way. Think of Delos as a high-tech Disneyland for wealthy grown-ups. Businessmen Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin) are looking for a few days of excitement and relaxation, and the Old West section of Delos, designated WestWorld, seems like just the ticket. But it turns out there's an unexplained glitch in the main computer that controls the park's network of androids, and unfortunately for Martin and Blane, the error just happens to manifest itself while the two are visiting the park. The robots are suddenly able to exercise free will--which includes the ability to override the directive that prevents them from harming guests--and it's not long before Martin and Blane find themselves pursued by a ruthless android gunslinger (Yul Brynner). This minor opus from Michael Crichton marks his first directorial effort and is also the first theatrical flick based on an original Crichton screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of his novels. While the special FX in 1973's WESTWORLD are decidedly cheesy and low-tech by contemporary standards, this sci-fi thriller still stands up today due to the tight, well-paced script and the solid performances from principals Benjamin, Brolin, and especially Brynner (here playing a robotic version of his character from 1960's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN). WESTWORLD is a bit too earnest to have yet become a CULT classic--a status it is likely to achieve as technology continues to grow leaps and bounds beyond that which the film depicts--but it continues to be held in high regard by the majority of SF fans. Though Crichton was connected (as a writer) with a few films and TV shows prior to WESTWORLD, it is really this film that brought him widespread notice and launched his high-profile Hollywood career. WESTWORLD did well enough at the box office, in fact, that it even spawned a sequel--a lesser film entitled FUTUREWORLD (1976). Warner's edition of WESTWORLD on DVD is a no-frills disc that offers the film in both anamorphic widescreen and pan-and-scan, with the only bonus being the original theatrical trailer. The digital transfer is pretty good, but there was obviously no effort to clean up the dust and other filmic artifacts that are visible from time to time. Digital artifacts, if any, are minor, though there is some occasional color drift. (To be fair, color drift could be on the source rather than a result of the digitization.) All in all, it's an acceptable DVD of a film that most longtime SF fans will want to have in their collections. (Rating breakdown: Film gets 5 stars; DVD gets 3. Average rating is therefore 4 stars.)
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