"Secret Cinema" SHOULD have been great. After all, it was directed by odd-ball filmmaker Paul Bartel and Bartel and Mary Woronov are major characters in the show. Who are Bartel and Woronov? These are the folks who specialized in weirdo roles and starred in "Eating Raoul"! Yet, despite me being a big fan, I thoroughly hated this particular episode.
"Secret Cinema" is perhaps the perfect example of why "Amazing Stories" never really succeeded as an anthology series while shows like "The Twilight Zone" clearly did. It's the writing!! A very similar idea appeared in the older series and was quite good. Here, however, not only is the original idea copied but everything about the copy sucks!
In the old "Twilight Zone" episode, a guy at work suddenly hears 'cut' and it turns out his life is all on film! The show was spooking and a bit disturbing. Here in "Secret Cinema", however, it's all played for laughs...very, very, VERY bad laughs. Pie in the face laughs (this is done repeatedly)...painful, terribly unfunny laughs. Additionally, WHY this all occurs is vague and the message is a muddled mess.
The bottom line is that I think this one was written by a chimp...and a very dumb one at that. Given the lack of originality and dullness of it, this can be the only explanation for the bad writing.
"Secret Cinema" is perhaps the perfect example of why "Amazing Stories" never really succeeded as an anthology series while shows like "The Twilight Zone" clearly did. It's the writing!! A very similar idea appeared in the older series and was quite good. Here, however, not only is the original idea copied but everything about the copy sucks!
In the old "Twilight Zone" episode, a guy at work suddenly hears 'cut' and it turns out his life is all on film! The show was spooking and a bit disturbing. Here in "Secret Cinema", however, it's all played for laughs...very, very, VERY bad laughs. Pie in the face laughs (this is done repeatedly)...painful, terribly unfunny laughs. Additionally, WHY this all occurs is vague and the message is a muddled mess.
The bottom line is that I think this one was written by a chimp...and a very dumb one at that. Given the lack of originality and dullness of it, this can be the only explanation for the bad writing.