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That was an excellent one.

Such a frustrating disappointment

From my favorite movies..

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This is an interesting but flawed attempt at producing a sci-fi western hybrid in the form of WESTWORLD. In this case, the western scenario is actually a virtual reality plot designed to work out the survival of the fittest, thus discovering who the best killer is. In this "game", points are awarded for making a kill, so life is cheap as you would imagine. However, there are certain rules which must be obeyed at all costs. Sadly, WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY is spoiled by a confusing plot which remains irritatingly ambiguous as to what the heck is going on in the real world. We never learn who the subjects really are, or why they have been selected; instead we see glimpses of them in their past lives which don't really help. Similarly, the actions of Jack Palance - initially appearing to be a good guy - are never explained at the end.Although it doesn't have anything in the way of shocks or surprises, this film does have some fun with the clichéd western shoot-outs and gun battles, which are kept lively and fun. Director Peter Sasdy injects certain scenes with style and power, and its just a shame that the film can't follow this through as a whole. Although it was a UK financed-production, this was shot in Canada (just like THE HAUNTING OF JULIA and THE UNCANNY from the same period). The Canadian locations are pretty but unconvincing for a western town.The acting is pretty good, with even the poorest performers still being above average. Palance is great as the friendly Friedlander, and seems to be having a ball as in most of his films. Keir Dullea is a charismatic and tough hero, while familiar faces such as that of Barry Morse pad out the cast. I'll make it clear that I've never really liked THE BROOD's Samantha Eggar, and here she plays a duel role of an occupant of the town and a scientist guiding the events. Bad news for me, I thought, but thankfully she's not too irritating this time around.Although WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY lacks the exploitational ingredient of violence to make it enjoyable, I found the whole idea of the game to be an interesting one, and the film kept me watching throughout without ever becoming boring. It just would have been nice if some of the actions and story behind the plot had been explained in greater detail. In all, though, not a bad attempt and worth a watch for fans.

A group of strangers wake up to find themselves in an unknown place with little recollection of how they got there and of their previous lives. They come across Sheriff Friedlander (Jack Palance), who takes them to a town called "Blood City". It's like they're back in the Wild West, but with a strange law system and social order involving a slave society and where murder is encouraged. But something is not quite right, as unknowingly for these people they are part of an experiment / reality game from outside forces who can manipulate the situations. Originality can only go so far, if your execution isn't up to par. That's the story for the Sci-fi outing "Welcome to Blood City". Its ambitious quality in its ideas shows, but it's poorly staged. Low budget eats away and so does its limitations. While the technical side won't set the world alight with Peter Sasdy's steadfast direction, but I can't just fault that as the material is somewhat hodgepodge too. What starts off is intriguing, only goes onto become inconsistent and muddled as the more we learn about the predicament the characters find themselves in, the less involving it gets. The problem here is that it gives away the reveal too early, and when we find out about the experiment it seems to be incoherent in its narrative developments. The question why, is asked a lot. Rules just seem to be thrown about, the reasoning is that's the way of life and motivations become hazy of what's really going on behind the scenes with a real lack of elaboration on the bigger picture that becomes silly. The writers probably became lost with all the possibilities being churned out.The complex concept behind the film does offer some sinister and nightmarish strokes, but it lacks the visual flair to complement it. Looking quite makeshift. Still it does have a brutal and ruthless edge to some scenes, but the excitement/suspense levels never rises, sometimes the pacing being bogged down and the climax finishes off on a anticlimactic and baffling note (if humorous with a final chase involving Palance doing his best woody the woodpecker impersonation). In the same way the flimsy ending does leave you dumbfounded. Keir Dullea is likable enough in the lead and Jack Palance is always a treat with that devilish smile. It's a cunning performance. The interplay between Palance and Dullea's characters is for most part amusing. Samantha Eggar gives a good turn playing two roles; one in the game and that of a scientist behind scenes who gets a little too involved in her programming work. So in the end it's disappointing in what it could have been, as there's an interesting, if strange set-up and the beginning builds that up, but alas it doesn't come together. Still there's something admirable about it.

Despite it's lackluster production values and the fact that the copy I watched was a crappy pan & scan copy, I really enjoyed it.THIS IS NOT A REMAKE OF WESTWORLD as some have suggested. Westworld dealt with a theme park robot that went loopy and tried to kill people. WTBC is about a scientific experiment that places innocent victims in a virtual reality to test their skills. If anything WTBC is closer to The Prisoner episode, "Living In Harmony" as Bishop-11 mentioned, than anything else.Palance is a lot of fun, as usual, and HE'S having fun without over-doing it as he sometimes did in the 70s (plus he's not drunk). The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. For the most part I'm satisfied with the plot details that were given but I would have liked a little bit more. For example, in the beginning the "experiment subjects" have cards in their pockets labeling them murderers and how many people they killed. Now, unless those cards are only there to give the subjects a tiny bit of info as to who they are and maybe why they are there, I'd like to know more about their purpose. However, I really like that the film makers don't hold your hand and spoon feed you the information, allowing you to think for yourself. I guess I can't have my cake and eat it, too.Roy Budd turns in a good score, too, except I can do without the musical saw that showed up from time to time. It's threatening where it needs to be and there are times where the film could have used more music instead of some scenes sitting there flat without any at all.I've been going through a 70's Sci-Fi kick recently, searching out films I hadn't seen before. This one was a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it has pacing issues but it's got a great concept and it's a film that really relies on the story, not the effects. And that's a nice change of pace compared to what we've been given for the past 20 years.

The opening of the story is a little disorienting, you have a city traffic scene and for a while, I was getting upset that the movie I was watching wasn't the one featured on the DVD sleeve. But then the opening credits offered the title I was expecting, so it was with an 'OK', this could be interesting, that the rest of the picture unfolded. Though nominally a Western, what you have here is an early sci-fi experiment in the concept of virtual reality with an 1880's back drop. The premise of 'Blood City' itself, the Project as it were, was to choose a leader for an elite corps of killers in the real world. By weeding out the losers, project designers attempted to identify someone who could lead a military unit to victory based on their ability to make rational decisions in stressful situations, as well as survive the ordeal. What surprises me is that the concept was tackled in film way back in 1977, thirty years ago, yet the timing only a couple short years after the end of the Vietnam War suggests that the search for ways of insuring victory in future conflicts was well under way.So much for theorizing. Except for the poor production values of the picture itself, I found the whole premise fairly fascinating. As the story progressed, the cut aways to the lab began to make more and more sense, particularly when Samantha Eggar's character began interjecting her own values into the game to affect the outcome. It would have been interesting to learn what became of the people who were 'killed' in Blood City, the story didn't take it that far. As for Lewis's (Keir Dullea) decision to return after being terminated, the film allows for a quandary. Apparently, subjects chosen at random for the experiment didn't have recourse for a return to their former life, even if they could remember it. Of course, we don't get to see what happens when the machines are turned off.One thing I was left wondering about was why the identity cards with the murder scores on the new arrivals was introduced in the first place. That idea didn't seem to have any bearing on the story that followed, even if it helped set up the plot. Was it the point to establish the remaining kills needed to achieve 'immortality'? If so, that idea was negated by the fact that new arrivals could attain immediate citizenship with their first kill. Anyone? I guess the reason I enjoyed the film as much as I did was because of it's way of asking more questions than it answers. Whenever I try to wrap my brain around the concept of virtual reality, a la "The Matrix" for example, it starts to make my head hurt. I don't even want to think about living there like Lewis.Hey, check this out - watch the scene where the camera cuts away from the dead Maxine for the last time - if you look real close, you'll see she opens her eye!