THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD

Michael Sarrazin as Peter Proud

THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD (1975). Director: J. Lee Thompson. Screenplay by Max Erlich, from his novel.

College professor Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin) keeps having weird dreams of being murdered with a paddle by a woman in a boat, so he seeks help from everyone from shrinks to a sleep researcher named Sam (Paul Hecht). Of course, the title of the movie clues the viewer in early on that what Peter thinks are dreams are actually memories of his former life as Jeff Curtis (Tony Stephano), a war hero who played around a little too much on his wife, Marcia (Margot Kidder). Determined to find out what happened, Peter searches for the town he/Jeff grew up in, and encounters his former wife and daughter (Jennifer O'Neill of Scanners), with whom he ... well, let's just say it isn't incest if the two aren't biologically related. The acting in the film is perfectly okay [although Kidder is not especially convincing as a woman in her fifties], but the movie is just kind of blah. The best, very moving scene has Jeff's almost hopelessly senile mother seeing Peter in a nursing home and recognizing him as her son. Very downbeat ending and a somewhat strange score by Jerry Goldsmith.The picture came out at a time when the subject of reincarnation had once again become very trendy, as it does every few years or so. Stephano was a handsome male model who appeared in only one other film, Tron, seven years later. Hecht has had a busy career, mostly on television. Thompson also directed Happy Birthday to Me and many other movies.

Verdict: As this is currently being remade, maybe it will come back as a much better movie. **1/2.

SCANNERS

SCANNERS (1981). Director: David Cronenberg.

A drug given to pregnant woman has created a group of "scanners," people who have bizarre telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Some of these are good, some bad, and some have been nearly driven crazy by the voices in their heads. Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is one of the latter, and he's taken under the wing of Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan), and teams up with lady scanner Kim Obrist (Jennifer O'Neill). Meanwhile, the bad scanners, led by Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), as well as others, are running around killing off the good guys. Revok hopes that he and his team of scanners can ultimately rule the planet. At the climax Vale and Revok have a dramatic -- and gruesome -- battle of wills and powers. Okay comic book movie has some decent effects and Dick Smith make up, but twenty-seven years after its release it's been overshadowed by superior movies and more dazzling FX work. But the main problem is that the characters are under-developed and the story doesn't sustain interest. The "big" scene in the movie has Revok blowing up the head of a man in a lecture hall. Lack isn't a very dynamic leading man, but Ironside certainly has a lot of pizazz and charisma.

Verdict: Nothing worth staying home for. **.