Watch Wild Palms For Free

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

WP has a rating of 7 here and that is what it merits. I saw some of the series back in 93, but have just re-watched it all. The quality of the cinematography is excellent and in that area the series holds up well. However, there are some major downsides to WP. One and the most important, some of the acting is incredibly bad, to start with, that of Belushi. The Trivia section says he had no idea what the story was about, so he simply recited his lines. One has the impression, most of the time, that he did just that. Loggia is Loggia, another Type A, overacted performance. Catrall starts off weak, but gets better. Angie is the real disappointment. She looks great and is perfect for the part, her clothes are fine, her scenes some of the most intense, but her acting is often wooden. I find Delany the best and most consistent, though other reviewers don't like her. The music is overblown and the one good piece, the background music to the most intense scene, the ending of Hungry Ghosts, is obviously influenced by P Glass's music. The series shows its influences clearly: 60's counter-culture, Scientology, and perhaps a little less obviously, Meet John Doe. In fact, for me, the latter is the main thrust of the series. However, the way the story is handled leaves something to be desired. It is too neat and clean, not open ended. However, the series obviously had some major influence itself. Those are easily seen in the Matrix series, in Caprica, and most obviously and essentially in Inception. Nolan would probably deny it, but half of Inception is lifted from WP. So, kudos for an idea that has had some mileage. Also, the series has been compared to Twin Peaks, but there is little to compare really. As said, the acting of WP is not esp thrilling whereas I find not a single character is weak in TP. The music for Badalamenti is far superior to that of Sakamoto. Both series look excellent. One area where WP beats TP is that WP is a closed story, a true miniseries. TP got out of control and thus lost some of its power. However, for me, TP is still a series I could re-watch without problem. So, finally, at the end of this long-winded review, WP is good, but not great. It would a great choice for some sort of re-imagined series à la Battlestar Galactica.

"Wild Palms" is a title I've had hyped to me over the years and I finally checked it out. I had been told it "took place in the same world as Twin Peaks," which I figured could only be a good thing. It took less than twenty-five minutes of the first episode, however, to expose this comparison as a bogus euphemism. I know I'm not the first person to point this out but holy crap! Did they think people wouldn't notice? As if the general idea of the film, (blending elements of noir, melodrama, and science fiction through a post-modern filter of pop culture references and a large cast of quirky characters), wasn't similar enough to Twin Peaks, there are bits of dialog and situations that are directly lifted from the series! The role of dreams, the coffee-centric conversation, the references to Buddhism, the title sequence, the score…. I hoped to find some sort of redemption in the less Twin Peaks influenced areas of the story. The attempted corporate takeover of the country via virtual reality television seemed it might prove thought-provoking, but it ended up playing out more like "They Live" than "eXistenZ." The thinly veiled criticism of Scientology spurred my interest initially, but it lost its bite by the third episode. Most excruciating, is the acting. I'm quite capable of enjoying a stilted or awkward performance, so long as it serves a higher purpose (i.e. toying with a genre convention). But Jim Belushi gives a new meaning to the word unnatural. Even screen veterans like Robert Loggia can't rectify the unevenness and clumsiness of the cast. At best they come off as zany sitcom characters. Even as camp, "Wild Palms" is barely watchable. F-

WILD PALMS (1993) **1/2 (MADE FOR TV) Jim Belushi, Kim Cattrall, Angie Dickinson, Robert Loggia, Brad Savage, Nick Mancuso, Dana Delaney, David Warner, Ernie Hudson, Brad Dourif, Robert Morse. Oliver Stone produced this bizarre tv miniseries about the unsteady future with Loggia as the head of a cult-like society brainwashing America with technology, virtual reality and good all-time fascism. Running amok on all cylinders with some eye candy visuals and shades of David Lynchian nightmares. Quirky.

It's a pity it wasn't released 5 years earlier: the mood created by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Phenomenon, Cool Runnings) is so eighties-like, the great Michael Mann (L.A. Takedown, Manhunter, The Insider) must like it, if only visually: it's very clean and cool. Except Mann usually adds some really excessive displayals of power with lots of shooting (Miami Vice) and lots of music. Wild Palms is far more subtle. The great score was created by legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence). The chosen hit songs (Where the streets have no name, Hello I must be going) just add slightly to the mood and you really have to pay attention to the songtexts. And notice the subtle fashion statements, like the sober collars? There are 5 episodes directed by 4 directors, one of which is Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days): Strange Days (1995) is a nice movie about more or less the same subject but without the aesthetics and the good acting. James Belushi is great, Robert Loggia and Angie Dickinson must be the devil themselves. Wild Palms may feel like 'Dynasty - the play - set in the future' about families in multimedia instead of oil. The story IS about media monopolies and law-suits (MS anyone? - Church Windows): there seems to be no credible independent justice system anymore in this future. There are family intrigues, but definitely never really feels like a soap opera. However, one of the flaws of Wild Palms is that you can see that it is made for tv because you can see where the commercials are supposed to be. Wild Palms is quite lengthy, but I just couldn't wait for the next episode to be broadcasted seven days later. I wouldn't recommend trying to watch all episodes at once, because the pace is rather low. Cut it down to 180 minutes and you can show it in a theater (although Warhol's 'Empire' wasn't cut down a minute...). Definitely more interesting than 'JFK' and 'Nixon' together. 9/10