Popular reviews

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  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★ 1

  I can't bow my head to any man and call him master. I believe in myself. I take responsibility for myself.
  -Dr. Stephen Strange

  The trailer for Doctor Strange dropped yesterday and made me realize that I'm not much of a Marvel Fanboy if I've never watched the 1978 Dr. Strange! So here we are!

  Stephen Strange is played by Peter Hooten sporting what can best be described as a porn stache. With the 70s psychedelic music and Strange's eventual "costume", if this had suddenly turned into a Flesh Gordon type porn parody it would have felt only logical.

  To be honest writer/director Philip DeGuere attempts some pretty ambitious stuff on a 1970s TV budget with a film that is…

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  Review by sirvived ★★★ 3

  For a TV pilot, this was actually quite entertaining. The plot is a little slow and Stephen Strange character doesn't become a sorcerer until the very end, which is perfectly fine considering it was intended to set up a TV show. It has that low budget charm to it that keep me glued and it's very 70s with all the sorcery and the psychedelic trippiness. Though the majority of the film is a hospital drama, all the actors do a relatively good job at pulling it off and I was never bored. The colors are amazing and the entity scenes are pretty cool too. Also, I keep thinking about The Dunwich Horror while watching this. I think both would make…

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  Review by Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti" ★★★½ 3

  Some might suggest that in another universe there was a 70's version of Dr. Strange where everyone vaguely looks like porn stars. Nope, that universe is the one we are living in, as I uncovered the bizzarro time capsule that is 1978's "Dr. Strange". There's no need to spell out "Doctor" like the newer movies, this one gets straight to the point within its funky mannerisms mixed with psychedelic nature. Honestly that's all of the fun in this one, as its not heavily reliant on a new age of digital effects as presented today. it's actually a fun feast in the application of being practical. It includes a very mustached Peter Hooten from "The Inglorious Basterds" (1978) and "Orca" (1977)…

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  Review by Eric Szyszka ★★★

  I kinda really like this 1978 TV movie version of Doctor Strange. Jessica Walter! Laser beam force lightning!

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  Review by #1 Bratz Fan ★★★★

  Psychedelic magic and Jessica Walter as a fierce sorceress who doesn’t want to kill Dr. Strange because she’s too horny for him is all I want from a 70s superhero tv movie.

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  Review by Michael Shawn ★★★

  While this unsold TV pilot isn't great, the rating on letterboxd seems low to me. If you keep your expectations within the realm of possibility for 1970s television, it's a reasonably entertaining movie. It does suffer a little from originstory-itis, though, with an origin devised solely to accommodate the needs of a weekly series, leaving it heavy on drama and light on action. Still, the magicky scenes we get are full of cheesy goodness, replete with astoundingly primitive special effects that are their own entertainment. They appear to have taken the character's name literally when casting, as Peter Hooten is an unusual presence. I'm not sure what it was about him but he had something a little...off...about him. It doesn't…

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  Review by the_tank_engine ★★

  morgan le slay

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  Review by drmorbius79 ★★½ 2

  John Holmes IS Doctor Stephen Strange. This is the TV movie from the 70's which was supposed to set up a series, similar to the Incredible Hulk. It has a lot going for it, but ultimately an overlong running time and some very bad acting and writing let it down. I'd like to imagine what somebody like Dan Curtis could've done with this material.

  I do like the gritty NYC setting of that period and the funky soundtrack. Plus it goes all out with the mystical aspects of the character. There's plenty of talk about astral projection and demons to the point where they received complaints about promoting witchcraft. There's even a full on sorcerer battle with Strange and Morgan…

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  Review by laird

  To be honest, I put this on while I was doing other things (folding laundry, cooking dinner, admiring the ceiling) and mostly watched it with my side eyes, but I was groovin' to the pulsing synth soundtrack, the too-late-to-be-cool-at-the-time-but-in-retrospect-are-actually-pretty-cool psychedelic visuals , and the swinging 70s porn vibe that never pays off because really this is just a tv-pilot budget adaptation of a comic that's never been the most popular or accessible. Be it ever so humble...

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  Review by Blaze the Action Junkie ★★ 1

  An early made-for-TV movie of Marvel's Doctor Strange. There are many parallels with this one and the MCU entry that's nearly 40 years younger, probably all stemming from Steven Strange's comic origin story. Obviously made with much less special effects to the the time it was made, this one certainly relied much more in the story than the CGI. Even as such, the story isn't fantastic, and it seems bogged down at times with needless dialogue making it boring at points. The climax and ending are lacking as well, with Strange basically fumbling into a victory. Not the worst early superhero flick I think, but not the best either.

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  Review by Dan K ★★★

  "Evil isn't real."

  The first of these 70s Marvel shows to actually use a villain from the comics! I mean how crazy is it that Morgan le Fay was the very first Marvel villain ever put to screen!?

  This was a pilot movie for a show that didn't get picked up and I can honestly kinda see why, if you have no idea who these characters are or what they're doing then I could see this as pretty confusing or boring (and the movie kind of makes "Sorcerer Supreme status" feel a lot like a Jedi.) But watching it as someone who knows a bit about Doctor Strange lore, I think this is the first of these '70s Marvel shows…

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  Review by Zach ★ 1

  Where was Elizabeth Olsen?