| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Never got the credit it deserved
by Chris (movies profile)
Dec 20, 2005
In my opinion, "The Philadelphia Experiment" never got the credit and attention it deserved. I was very young when this movie originally came out, but I remember it clearly and it is one of the major reasons why I am still intrigued by time travel, and even electronics, to this day. If you do see this movie, you have to remember the time period when it was originally made and you will have to excuse some of the special effects. Although I actually thought that for the time, the special effects were pretty impressive. Also, at a time (in the early and mid-1980s) when there were a lot of low-budget, cheesy science-fiction movies floating around, this one actually did have a decent story and even an orchestarted soundtrack. The main theme (which a lot of people probably don't even remember) that plays when the crew is first entering the harbor to board the U.S.S. Eldridge I thought really emphasized the mysterious, foreboding nature of the experiment. The acting I thought was well done, again considering the many cheesy movies that were being made in the 1980s. There was just something different about this movie and it never got the attention it should have.
An interesting side note to this is that this movie is based on a legend about an experiment the Navy supposedly did conduct on a ship to hide it from enemy radar during WWII. We may never know if this actually happened, but the movie does make you wonder. Of course, the time travel part of the story is complete fiction, but the idea of shielding a ship from radar with an electronic device (with very strange side effects) is not impossible to imagine.
Not a perfect movie, and the special effects will look dated by modern stadards. But still a good movie to watch, and definitely if you do have an interest in science fiction. In fact, I would have to say that, for a science fiction at least, it really is a forgotten classic that is worth another chance. |
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