Watch The Boys from Brazil For Free

The Worst Film Ever

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"The shadow of human cloning tugs like a heavy ball and chain" Nominated for 3 Academy Awards

SPOILER: Nazi-themed thriller The Boys From Brazil, based on Ira Levin's bestselling novel, features a great central cast, most notably veterans James Mason, Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck. It also stars a young Steve 'Police Academy' Guttenberg, but fortunately his character gets killed off fairly quickly.Guttenberg plays Barry Kohler, who discovers the whereabouts of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele (Peck), who has been laying low in Paraguay, planning the rise of the Fourth Reich. Shortly before he is murdered for his trouble, Kohler contacts ageing Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Olivier) to convince him to investigate. As he searches for the 'Angel of Death', Lieberman uncovers a bizarre plot to clone Adolf Hitler.The idea of cloning Der Führer might seem rather implausible, even with today's scientific advances, but it sure makes for a fairly enjoyable potboiler, especially with the seasoned performers hamming it up for all they're worth. Olivier is a hoot as the Jewish German mit der terrible accent, Peck is ultra slimy (and no more convincing as a German than Olivier), and the always entertaining Mason makes for a great Nazi officer. Director Franklin J. Schaffner handles matters with a seriousness that only makes the film all the more amusing.While not a 'classic' thriller, it's hard not to recommend The Boys From Brazil: it's simply too silly to not like.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for the brief appearance of lovely Linda Hayden as doomed English hottie Nancy.

Like its sister film MARATHON MAN, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is a sinister and realistic thriller that looks at the question of surviving Nazis hiding out in South America. Did they survive and did some of them continue their sinister human experiments that were started in the concentration camps? While I think MARATHON MAN has the edge in terms of being an enjoyable, all-time classic, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is still a very good, taut thriller that just happens to have an excellent ensemble cast to boot.Two old-time heavyweights are pitted against each other here: a virtually unrecognisable Gregory Peck as sinister Nazi scientist Dr Josef Mengele, and Laurence Olivier as the doddery old Jew hot on his tail. The two men don't meet until their climatic showdown, but what a treat it is when they do! Throughout the film, both actors remind us why they were considered worldwide stars. Peck is utterly repulsive as the ruthless Nazi, but Olivier steals the film as the sympathetic Nazi hunter in a reversal of the role he played in MARATHON MAN.The film is slow paced, but remains engaging throughout, and the suspense never ceases. There's globetrotting action, assassins and a scary storyline including cloning as well as Jeremy Black playing an extremely creepy child. This is an unashamedly old-fashioned film that doesn't rely on fight scenes or car chases to tell the story, and here intelligent scripting and fine cinematography win out over the usual humdrum staples. The supporting cast is remarkable: James Mason as a Nazi, Denholm Elliott as a shifty bureaucrat, Steve Guttenberg surprisingly good in one of his earliest roles as a tragic investigator, along with the likes of Walter Gotell, Michael Gough, Wolfgang Preiss and even a couple of British actresses in brief roles: Prunella Scales and Linda Hayden. The last twenty minutes or so are absolutely riveting as the story comes to a head, and it finishes in an extremely satisfying way too. As chilling a film as any horror, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is a fine example of the thriller genre at its best.

The re-birth of the Third Reich has proved to be an oddly desirable topic for many an inspiring schlock-maker. Titles such as They Saved Hitler's Brain (1968) and Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977) come to mind - movies from a bygone era when cinema-goer's would travel to like their local drive-in or tune into their TV sets late at night and expect to see something cheap, awful, but most likely hilarious. The Boys from Brazil, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970)), is an event movie with a budget and an A-list cast that plots a Jewish Nazi-hunter against a tyrannical doctor hell-bent on creating a new fuhrer.Such a mainstream movie could be labelled as insensitive for creating outlandish fiction out of such a terrible event and for profiteering from it, but The Boys from Brazil, although handsomely filmed and mostly well-performed, is pure pantomime exploitation. This is evident from the moment we meet Ezra Lieberman, an ageing Austrian Nazi hunter played by Laurence Olivier, who delivers his lines in an accent so ludicrous he could be voicing a Disney character. When a conspiracy to assassinate 94 civil servants headed by SS surgeon Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) is brought to Lieberman's attention by young Jewish activist Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) - who quickly vanishes - the old man travels throughout Europe to investigate the potential targets.Mengele's plot seems like random, senseless madness at first, but it doesn't take long to figure out what's going on. The goal, when revealed, is utterly preposterous but may have been scarily plausible if executed with care. But The Boys from Brazil is often camp, with Peck especially hamming it up and gobbling up the scene whenever he appears. He's the best thing in it - a moustached, maniacal lunk with the complexion of a pint of milk - and has greatest line of the film when he shouts "shut up, you stupid bitch!" to the unfortunate wife of an SS officer. It all leads to fisticuffs at the climax between the frail Lieberman and the bulky Mengele, which despite the extraordinary levels of gore and the presence of three angry Doberman, is unintentionally hilarious. Weird, absurd, but undeniably fun, this is pure nazisploitation polished by a talented director.