Rating: 
Summary: Campy, Creepy, and Not a Classic.
Review: Out of the three end of the world films Charlton Heston acted in (PLANET OF THE APES, THE OMEGA MAN, SOYLENT GREEN), this is the worst of the three. Heston does a pretty good job of acting, cheesy as the dialogue he is usually given, he comes off as being a real person, not somebody on the screen who just memorized a bunch of lines.Anyway, the movie revolves around Neville (Heston), a former military doctor who is the only person who wasn't either killed or mutated after a worldwide plague released during the Sino-China war. .... There are some really moving things about THE OMEGA MAN. The film's opening and closing scenes are two of the most memorable such shots I can ever recall in one movie. Also, the threat of germ warfare and biological terror is an even greater reality now than it was twenty-five years ago. Nevertheless, there is a lot about THE OMEGA MAN that prevents it from being as good a movie as SOYLENT GREEN. Outside of Heston and the guy who plays Mathias, there really isn't much good acting. The pacing of the film is rather choppy, moving too fast at some points and much too slow at others. The clothes and much of the dialogue is quite dated (I haven't heard the word "tonky" since I was a kid watching WWF with the "Honky-Tonk Man") and tends to distract from the action occuring. The editing isn't too good and neither is the lighting (when Neville is in a dark room, we can always see everything going around him as though there are lights all around). Nevertheless, even though THE OMEGA MAN is a 70's B film, it is worth watching because it is a good 70's B film and because it forms the middle movie of the Heston post-apocalyptic trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: "Pssst. They're in the VERY BIG BUILDING!"
Review: I was sad to hear Heston's announcement about his illness, even if he does think arming an entire school from the teachers down is an entirely sane way of running a society. Am I going soft? Heston isn't, and I can see what attracted him to this movie. Negotiating with terrorists is a no-no as a youthfull member of society finds to his cost. Interestingly, although Heston and the family are at odds, they could both be described as representing reactionary forces.
Take away the soundtrack and the film could be quite creepy. The biological warfare is as pertinent as ever. Still, it's mostly chuckles with chuck. "If I was the only guy in the world and you were the only girl" Heston reminds his co-star of an old song. Hold on Heston, you're NOT the only guy. There's that rather goodlooking biker back at the camp, remember him? He ain't got your love handles, either. Nice try, though. Neville (for it is he) isn't the brightest banana in the bunch, either. After searching for the family for three years he is told by some punk kid that they're holed up in the Municipal Hall, or something. Yes, Neville baby, that very obvious public building in the centre of town that you should have checked out instead of pop corning it at the flicks. Later, the family do some creative interior decorating to Neville's pad. Blimey, so they're not as mad as they look.
It's all bound to end in tears. Mine, I must admit. What the hell's the matter with me, today? It was the way his girl (fiend?) Seemed to fall into shadows beside him as he lay in the fountain. You know, the brevity of love, the twighlight of the mortal, the big why? I....I....*BLUB* What can you say at a time like this (or a time like later) than, in the immortal words of Chuck Heston, "Oh.....my......GOD!"
Rating: 
Summary: great late night fun
Review: I've seen this movie over the past thirty years, usually once a year on the "late late show", from childhood, to the present. I loved this movie so much I would place a tape recorder next to the television for an audio recording of it (before the advent of the vcr/beta)!!
Charlton Heston is perfect in the role of the lone human, existing in empty Los Angelas, just after a Sino-Soviet war. It's very atmospheric, and the ability to clear streets for miles in LA was an impressive act indeed. Some have panned this movie for its dated material and cliche's, however I loved the movie, for the simple reason, that I watched it for what it was meant to be. - a fun entertaining and mildly spooky movie. The movie epitomizes the early 70s in every way, and for this thirty-something-year old; its a nolstagic return to yesteryear.
Bottom line: a good movie for late night viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Formerly the scariest movie in the world
Review: The Omega Man is based loosely (and by that, I mean very loosely) on Richard Matheson's classic end-of-the-world novel I am Legend. Taking place in the near future, the Omegan Man imagines a world where the majority of the population has been wiped out by biological warfare. Those that have survived have become albinos who can only come out at night. In a clever touch that has never really been given its due, their leader is a former TV news commentator named Mathias (well-played by Anthony Zerbe who is both sympathetic and threatening). Mathias has declared that the only way to purify the world is to destroy all reminders of their former life and that includes anyone who may not have been infected with the plague. At the beginning of the movie, that would appear to be all of one man -- a former military scientist played by Charlton Heston who spends his days driving through a deserted Los Angeles is search of both a cure and more humans. At night, he hides in his well-lit apartment while Mathias's mob angrily tries to force him out. The Omega Man is at its strongest in the beginning. The scenes of Heston driving across a deserted Los Angeles (scenes that were shot on actual L.A. street) continue to haunt thirty years after they were first filmed and, for all its inherent camp value, there's something undeniably powerful about seeing the half-mad Heston passing the time by sitting in an empty music theater and watching Woodstock. As well, Mathias' siege on Heston's apartment is also well handled. After this, the film loses its way slightly with Heston predictability getting trapped outside after dark and much of the film's action falls flat. However, uneven as it may be, it all builds up to a truly powerful ending that will shock those raised on the sci-fi films of the '80s and '90s and the final visual image of Heston still packs an incredible amount of power. Despite the fact that Charlton Heston's performance here (and Soylent Green) provided the inspiration for many impressionists, he actually gives an excellent performance. While he spends much of the film gritting his teeth NRA-style, he also brings a very believable sense of fear to the night scenes. Heston doesn't make his hero an obvious hero -- instead of being a standard good guy, mankind's last hope is instead presented as having been driven almost mad by his responsibility. When it was initially released, the Omega Man got mixed reviews and unfortunately, it has retained some of that negative stigma. When I was a kid and this movie used to play nearly every Sunday afternoon, I thought it was the scariest film ever made. The images of Mathias and his followers with their black robes and pasty faces used to give me nightmares. Now that I'm older, the movie no longer terrifies me but it still carries an undeniable and admirable power. Instead, it is an uneven film that, like many so-called B films of the 1970s, sticks admirably true to its darker than dark designs. For all the critical sniping that the Omega Man has suffered over the years, it is still a film that could teach today's Hollywood directors a thing or two about making an effective movie.
Rating:
Summary: Steely Heston surviving in plague ravaged Los Angelas
Review: The second attempt at filmimg Richard Matheson's post apocalytic vampire novel "I am Legend", is violent, flawed and unintentionally funny in many places, but it is one of my favourite films to sit down and watch on a rainy afternoon.... Charlton Heston plays army medico Robert Neville, the sole (?) survivor of Sino-Chinese germ warfare that has decimated the earth's population, leaving only millions of rotting corpses, and a hooded band of psychotic mutants intent on finishing off poor Heston in ghost town Los Angelas. Heston is holed up by night in his fortified penthouse surrounded by guns, gadgets and Julius Ceasar (?) as the mutants prowl around the front of his block calling for him to come out. A chilling Anthony Zerbe plays the doomsayer / TV anchorman Jonathon Mathias turned demented evangelist who vows to re-start the earth and destroy old technology and sciences and the poisons that they brought with them. However, Heston doesn't stay alone for too long when he bumps into sexy Rosalind Cash out doing a little clothes shopping....and scruffy Paul Koslo as guardian of a tribe of semi-resilient children hiding from Mathias and his murdering mob. It looks a little dated, but OMEGA has a kind of enduring camp quality about it....and Heston is fun to watch as he battles the mutants and searches out their lair in the city. ( Director Boris Sagal, known for his fiery temper, was tragically killed several years later when he accidentally walked into a spinning helicopter tail rotor ) SPOILERS AHEAD............................. Watch closely in one of the scenes after Heston leaves the movie theatre and is racing to get home before dark. As he flies along in his Mustang, way off in the distance you can clearly see another car drive through an intersection.
And it always bugged me that if Heston is driven crazy by Mathias and his incessant chanting every night, why doesn't Chuck just drill one right through Mathias with his automatic rifle with the infra red night scope ???? None the less, a 70's sci-fi classic that is still great viewing!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliantly bad and pleasurably painful...
Review: So bad it's good? No, it's just plain bad. The Omega Man, along with another Heston film round the same time, Soylent Green, is one of the worst made films I have ever seen in my life. This film can only be regarded as true camp/cheese, as the film was taken fairly seriously when it was made, and has strong moral implications; but the results betray the seriousness and implications implied. Even more disturbing than the low quality of the movie itself is the movie's original musical soundtrack score done by Ron Grainer. I'm a big fan of Grainer's work for Steptoe & Son, Dr. Who, The Prisoner, etc., but his score for The Omega man is simply atrocious; it's as though he was scoring for a completely different film altogether, as well as different scenes. Basically, the premise of this film is about a lonely man, played by Charlton Heston, who was formerly a doctor/scientist in the world before a fatal "accident" (of which Heston had a vaccine against) supposedly destroyed all of mankind and turned whoever was left slowly into mutants, trying to occupy his time and maintain his sanity in a world devoid of other human beings like himself. Between fighting the mutants and fighting loneliness, Heston discovers that there are others alive like he, and seeks them out. (I won't reveal the rest, out of respect for those of you who haven't seen it.) As a campy, low budget, Sci-Fi B film, The Omega Man is entertaining enough because of its star, Charleton Heston, and because of the interesting story that it tells; but don't expect much more than terrible effects, terrible acting, terrible directing, and terrible music. Of course, some people really seem to revel in low quality films like this, so it doesn't surprise me that this is one of those midnight movie cult favourites that is praised by awkward sci-fi geeks who more than likely peed their trousers in primary school. 3,4, and 5 stars for a film of this calibre? Really, folks. Some of these reviewers need to delve into the world of films a good deal more if they defend a film as tasteless as this and rate it higher than 2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: God-Awful
Review: I must say I'm quite surprised at how well this movie is received. It makes me a little apprehensive to tear it to shreds. As you've already read this was based (VAGUELY) on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Maybe I just expected more after reading such a powerful novel. While I think Heston is just about as fine an actor as the Good Lord ever made, this movie is so cheesy its insulting. It seems to try to blend the vampires from the book the people in black at the end of the book. But it's too contrived and just doesn't work (for me anyway). The characters were poorly developed and there were too many characters that didn't aid the plot at all. And another thing: doesn't the fact that other non-mutant people exist keep him from being the "Omega Man" (not that makes much difference)? This film just doesn't capture the dark mood of the original novel which had vampires--not mutants (they came in the last two chapters). It's one of those films like Head (Monkees) that you watch when you don't feel like thinking or having a plot to get into. If it weren't for Charlton Heston (who has never delivered a bad performance to my knowledge) we probably wouldn't even be talking about this movie. It would have died along with the rest of the B-movies you see on Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you see any validity in this critique then take my advice just get the novel by Matheson, even though LAST MAN ON EARTH is much closer to the book in plot it's even more hokey than this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: The Omega Man
Review: This movie is a must for sci-fi fans. Not only does it have
a cool last man on earth theme... it also has vampire/zombie
villains! This movie is second only to The Planet Of The Apes as Charlton Hestons best science fiction movie.
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate end-of-the-world story
Review: Though only very loosely based on Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel "I Am Legend", THE OMEGA MAN is probably the best film of its type--the end-of-the-world scenario. The premise is that a border war between the Communist states of Russia and China exploded into all-out germ (as opposed to thermonuclear) warfare. Most of the Earth's population has been wiped out; the few that remain are albino, white-faced mutants. And then there's Dr. Robert Neville, who, thanks to a blood serum he developed, finds himself to be the last human on Earth (or so he initially thinks). Charlton Heston is Neville in this admittedly dated but still rather well-made science fiction thriller. Although his current political views are sickening to me, I've always admired Heston's acting--he's even better when he's not in a big costume epic. It is amazing to see him walking through the deserted streets of Los Angeles after the war had basically made the place a ghost town. Anthony Zerbe plays the leader of a group of mutant survivors who want Heston destroyed because he represents the twin "evils" of science and technology. Heston's good performance, which allows him more elbow room than in any of his epics (he even has a conversation with a stone-head statue of Caesar in his fortress), is what pilots THE OMEGA MAN. For those who really want to know what it might be like to be a survivor of the Ultimate war, this is the ticket.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant premise that still works in a very 1970's movie
Review: I absolutely love this movie. I think it's due in large part to my having seen it as a kid (on TV) and becoming powerfully struck by the very believable premise, and also due to the presence of Charlton Heston, who is always excellent. The premise: Chinese-Russian border skirmishes have finally escalated into all out germ warfare in which the entire human population is destroyed, and Charlton Heston, a research scientist, survives with his experimental antidote, living in a completely deserted city. But is everyone really destroyed? And if not, what condition are they really in? I saw an interview with Heston in which he said that this film was the first major motion picture to portray a white man and a black woman in a romantic relationship, which made it very controversial when it was released. The music is dated (70's) and a little campy, but the issues are less dated, and the germ warfare threat is actually more real today than it was then. The movie's uniqueness allows it to explore some new territory that makes it fascinating nevertheless. If you're a sci-fi buff, Heston fan, or into eschatology, sociology, or just like very cool, bizarre, and unique films, you should see it. One warning: I purchased the PG rated video, and the one occurence of the "F" word was blanked out as if this were a made-for-TV production. Also, this "PG" rated version had some brief nudity that surprised me - it's more like a PG13 at least, a rating which didn't exist when this film was originally created.
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