Brain Dead
Director: Adam Simon
Year Released: 1990
Rating: 1.0
A neuroscientist (Bill Pullman) is greeted by a businessman (Bill Paxton, perpetually grinning and ever-so-slimy) with a simple request: to probe the brain of a mad mathematician (Bud Cort) in the hope of extracting precious MacGuffin-y bits of info from his cerebellum. The story and script are basically credited to former Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont, though this goes on a lot longer than a half-hour TV episode and is the worse for it: after a key car accident scene, it becomes this surreal mess. It is neat to see Paxton and Cort ham it up and Simon seems really focused on showing exposed brains - it's pure cheese that, in its final scenes, tries for poetry (which is best avoided with C-grade movies).
