Max Headroom

Max Headroom is an excellent Sci-Fi movie that has a great story, interesting characters and very witty dialogue. The dreary futuristic world it depicts is the hook that caught me and it's a movie all Sci-Fi fans should warmly embrace.

Amanda Pays, worth the price of admission all by herself, as Theora Jones and Matt Frewer as both Edison Carter and the title character Max both really make this film work. The supporting cast with the likes of William Morgan Sheppard and Hilary Tindall as "Reg" and "Dominique", the quirky owners of Bigtime Television, and Nickolas Grace who nails the part of "Grossman", head honcho at Network 23, also give great performances here. Hilton McRae along with his sidekick George Rossi, "Breugal" and "Mahler", add a humorous yet scary touch while doing the dirty work for computer nerd "Bryce" who is well played by Paul Spurrier. All-in-all this is a movie which shouldn't be missed.

Luckily I recorded Max Headroom on VHS during one of the times it was shown on Cinemax but I've watched it so many times since, it's getting fuzzier every time I see it. For the powers that be, PLEASE PUT THIS OUT ON DVD!!!

I grew up as a teen in the 80s being a HUGE computer geek back when the term wasn't popular. There was something special about Max Headroom, & I still to this day (1/24/2005) think it was one of the BEST TV shows made! It was the only show I made time for...otherwise I was outside with friends or doing some programming with my Commodore 64 (once I found out Amiga computers were used in the show I **wanted** one. Sometime later I bought one, I still believe the Amiga IS the BEST computer platform there has ever been. Windows just doesn't match up. Anyway, I digress...

I loved the humor of Max Headroom/Edison Carter. Matt pulled the characters off very well. The show really did inspire the young hacker in me as well as the fantasy idea (of the time) for computer generating a Computer Character like Bryce did. ;) Hehe. The sense of humor was awesome, the character roles were very good & it touched very WELL on the Truth of TV!!! :D

I would love to see all of the episodes, commercials U.S & U.K., talk shows, & the Paranomia music video by The Art Of Noise come out on DVDs. Everything that was Max Headroom should be on DVD by *NOW*!! A lot of other junk TV like Sienfeld, Friends, etc have made it to DVD & they don't have the loyal following that MAX does. Common, we're WAITING to spend our hard earned $$ on MAX HEADROOM DVDs Loaded with EXTRAS, interviews, the Car Commercial, & so MUCH MORE. Get that stuttering dude on DVDs!!!! It's WAAAAAAAAY past time, Folks!!

As we used to say in the 80s... MAX HEADROOM for President!! At least THAT talking Head says something worth hearing!! :D

Bravo to Bravo for when they aired MAX HEADROOM without commercials. I miss MAX on Cinemax, too!

Gloomy future. Deserted streets. Media syndicates. Edison Carter is a hard-hitting reporter. One day he indirectly traces the existence of advertising, which has a dual impact on the subconscious of its consumers. On the one hand, they become addicted to watching it, on the other hand, like a drug, it is quite capable of killing some of those who happen to see it. The undesirable effect itself is not purposeful, but rather a specific by-product of a technical invention, but, as usual, ratings come first. The people standing behind the scenes are trying in vain to intimidate the reporter. Ultimately, a combination of circumstances will lead to the appearance of an alter ego - a computer version of himself with, at first glance, a strange call sign - Max Headroom. It is this digital form that will be destined to bring a little justice to the world. Where such a strange name came from can be understood in one of the scenes.

The action in this television film is presented primarily in the form of a vague, sometimes semi-documentary chronicle, with many screens, equipment, three-dimensional projections and faces in the frame. To some extent, this makes it similar to FMV quests, which became widespread with the onset of the nineties of the last century, both on the IBM PC and the 3DO console that appeared in 1993 in particular. The short running time, just under an hour, puts it on the same shelf as short films. Otherwise, it's difficult to say anything about the movie itself without obvious spoilers, so instead I'll focus on two other components.

First, in 1987-1988, an eponymous series was aired that lasted for two seasons and fourteen episodes, about an hour each. Secondly, the work, which is not particularly well known in our country, largely received cult status due to an incident on real television that occurred on November 22, 1987. An unidentified hacker managed to go on the evening live broadcast of the WGN-TV television channel, which was operating in Chicago, USA in those years. For about a minute and a half, the man hiding under the mask of Max Headroom was fooling around in a very unique way, at the same time essentially ridiculing both the TV channel itself and the media in general. The story that same evening was repeated on the consonant name WTTW. Today both the entry itself and the description in detail can be found in the same Wikipedia.

The original version of this film, which was titled 120 minutes into the Future (I believe) was by far one of the most impressive and subversive things I have seen on TV. The premise involves the idea that Blipverts, or high-speed advertisements, are allowing the TV stations to create more ad time, but are also at risk of causing the most indolent members of society to spontaneously combust.

This is absolutely wonderful!

The whole Max Headroom angle was never really exploited until this became a (too short lived) TV series shortly after. However, this movie is nothing short of being among the most impressive and visionary movies ever made, and by far one of the most interesting (and underrated) cyberpunk tales told.

The low-budget enhances the bleakness of this dystopic future, and the utter pessimism about the future of mankind is palpable at every moment. Watching the TV zombies wander the streets in search of more TV, the dark rooms where the future of man (and media) is decided... the burnt-out buildings, the police-state siege mentality. I have rarely seen anything this ambitious attempted in the past.

This movie warned us about the dangers of mass media, and managed to do it in a way that was not ironic and was highly entertaining. Run out and find this movie if you can (I have seen it on tape, and Sci-Fi channel runs it occasionally). Go... NOW!

For some reason unknown to me I received this video as a prize/gift from a company called 'Argus Press' who in the early '80's were one of many prolific ZX Spectrum games producers. Don't remember entering a competition, but there you go....

Anyhow, the film was brilliant, and not to be confused with the later TV series that, from the other write ups, I now learn of.

If this film is not on DVD then it should be. The dark urbun setting of some nightmare future is perfectly portrayed and the story is much as has been described in previous reviews.

Blipverts! - I'm surprised they aren't on Fox nowadays, in saying that the most indolent members of society may be most at risk there! The one thing that hasn't been mentioned, but that should be emphasized, is the fantastic soundtrack, coming as it did from the pen of Midge Ure who had recently departed the prolific 'Ultravox'. The setting, soundtrack, script and performance from a tremendous bunch of characters made this a film that, to this day, I still pull out of the loft and watch on my annual pilgrimage back home for Christmas.

To me its the urbun dystopia, the (then) futuristic use of desktop computers to track the action and the soundtrack that made this one hell of a movie and one of the most unsung of the 1980's.