Though I was a kid when "Looker" came out. You gotta absorb yourself into the world of science fiction(sci-fi). Albert Finney("Annie", "Shoot The Moon"), Susan Dey("The Partridge Family", "LA Law"), James Coburn, Dorian Harewood, and others make of a very fine cast of characters in the movie. Despite the nudity, this movie was well handedly made. Finney played a plastic surgeon whose patients die of under mysterious circumstances. The first victim looked hot in her black bra and panty, who needed that robe? Then a man named Reston(Coburn) who runs a shady corporation who uses TV as his weapon of choice. And that gun of theirs, it's unbelievable. Why need bullets to kill, when you can use a special light to cause disorientation. That will make regular drugs, obsolete. This movie looked liked a drama at first, but when I watched some more, it was much more interesting. This is one 80's sci-fi film I really enjoyed. It was well made , and as the British say, "It's a real Right-LOOKER!" 5 STARS.

I stumbled upon the 1981 movie "Looker" here in 2021. And yeah, I had never even heard about the movie prior to getting to sit down and watch it.

And not being familiar with this movie, I didn't really have much of any expectations to writer and director Michael Crichton with this 1981 movie. And taking the movie's age into consideration, I wasn't really boasting much of any hopes either.

But I will say that "Looker" was an adequately entertaining movie. The concept was interesting, although it felt like the storyline was lacking something. As the movie came to an end, I must admit that I wasn't left with a feeling of this being a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

The movie actually holds up even in 2021, as there was something quirky and charming to the special effects with the computers.

They had an adequate cast for the movie, and I was surprised to see Susan Dey and James Coburn in this movie.

Ultimately, then "Looker" was a watchable enough movie, though hardly an outstanding movie. I am rating it a mediocre five out of ten stars.

This must be the only movie ever produced in which the hero is a Beverley Hills plastic surgeon. Albert Finney has had a few of his recent patients return for more alterations taken from a list, down to the millimeter. Then two or three of them die in disfiguring accidents.

Another of his patients, Susan Dey, who requires absolutely nothing in the way of renovation, sort of latches on to him as he tries to find out if there is some link to the recent deaths. The police are eyeing him as a suspect but his interests focus on some computer digitalizing outfit that, as it turns out, has discovered a way to replace human models in commercials with what we now call computer-generated images, or CGIs. It was a novel idea at the time.

Well -- "So what?", asks the sophisticated viewer. Is that all there is to it? No. The CGI corporation is run by the evil James Coburn. Not only does he now create commercials out of nothing but he has learned how to insert a hypnotic ray into the pupils of his CGIs. Bad enough when you're selling mouthwash. A disaster when you're producing political ads for a candidate who promises to rid us of inflated government and bureaucratic bloat and return to us the freedoms bestowed on the nation by the Founders. Oh, he's against pollution and big corporations too, so no need to read any messages into it, beyond those carried by any commercial production, including, "Spend money on this movie and make us famous and rich." There are multiple plot holes. I'll just mention two in passing and then give up. (1) It's never explained why those two or three suicides took place. (2) The cops switch from suspecting Finney to being convinced of Coburn's guilt for no particular reason.

The technology is kind of interesting, dated though it is, but a little confusing too. Evidently, in the course of developing the hypnotic eyeballs, Coburn and company stumbled onto the possibility of installing the ray into a handgun, through the kind of serendipity that Robert K. Merton wrote about.

Albert Finney makes for a clumsy action hero. He doesn't move very quickly or gracefully. There is a car chase of course, only the weapons are not machine guns or shotguns but those flash rays. And the final sneaking around, with Finney and a couple of villains creeping into commercials being shown to a select (and amused) audience of Big Wigs, is a little sluggish. The pace isn't helped by an ostinato in the musical score that goes on and on until -- until -- I woke up in a daze a week later and found myself in Cozumel. I was glad it happened -- GLAD! What with the pina colada and that bronzed babe.