I always thought Oliver Stone was the godfather of ''narration for dummies." Having a character or multiple characters narrating what any half-wit movie-goer could intuit or even explicitly see.
Is Oliver the son of Andrew L Stone? Because Cry Terror was rolling along with a tight premise - Army buddy (Steiger) dupes electronics shop owner (Mason) into building an explosive device, which is used to extort money out of Worldwide Airlines. He's got henchpersons Klugman, Brand and Angie Dickinson(!) with him.
It's tense. It's well acted. And I'm hooked.
Then Act 2 begins with Steiger sending in Mason's wife Inger Stevens into airlines HQ to collect the loot. This scene requires Stevens to act frantic. She can't pull it off.
Worse, she leaves the building with a box full of loot and - what do you know - she narrates her own drive back to Steiger. It goes on for so long I was grinding my molars.
But wait, there's more. Mason (and daughter) are being held captive by Klugman and Dickinson. And now Mason starts narrating his own escape plans.
Good gawd. What a mess.
I won't even get into how the FBI has the crime lab identifying teeth marks in the time it takes me to eat a sandwich.
But I it was still worth watching for one thing: Ken Tobey plays the main FBI agent. When he first gets the ransom call, he walks around barking orders to every subordinate who happens to be conveniently standing by. Shtick we see him reprise in Airplane! Starring Leslie Neilson a couple decades later.
Is Oliver the son of Andrew L Stone? Because Cry Terror was rolling along with a tight premise - Army buddy (Steiger) dupes electronics shop owner (Mason) into building an explosive device, which is used to extort money out of Worldwide Airlines. He's got henchpersons Klugman, Brand and Angie Dickinson(!) with him.
It's tense. It's well acted. And I'm hooked.
Then Act 2 begins with Steiger sending in Mason's wife Inger Stevens into airlines HQ to collect the loot. This scene requires Stevens to act frantic. She can't pull it off.
Worse, she leaves the building with a box full of loot and - what do you know - she narrates her own drive back to Steiger. It goes on for so long I was grinding my molars.
But wait, there's more. Mason (and daughter) are being held captive by Klugman and Dickinson. And now Mason starts narrating his own escape plans.
Good gawd. What a mess.
I won't even get into how the FBI has the crime lab identifying teeth marks in the time it takes me to eat a sandwich.
But I it was still worth watching for one thing: Ken Tobey plays the main FBI agent. When he first gets the ransom call, he walks around barking orders to every subordinate who happens to be conveniently standing by. Shtick we see him reprise in Airplane! Starring Leslie Neilson a couple decades later.