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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Enjoyable hokum, 16 June 2005 Author: Juliette2005 from United States
I give this a high rating simply because of George C. Scott and Marlon Brando, who rise above muddled material and breathe life into an otherwise clunky TV movie. The plot is basically oil/greed ripping off the nation, and if I didn't know better I'd say Brando was channelling Dick Cheney, but the music and the script and the camera work (zooms, anyone?) are so cheesy that it's hard to stay with this movie.However. The performances are fresh and fun and strangely lively, all the actors are magnificent, and true or not- it's a nice little commentary on modern greed in America (and the world).A fun watch if you've nothing better to do than watch great actors go head to head.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: A wonderfully complex movie, 14 February 2006 Author: bgc-4 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This movie is not for the weak of mind. The plot is complex. I remember reading reviews that used words like "murky." Since the movie was a bit more complex than cops chasing robbers around some city at high speed most critics lack the intellectual wherewithal to keep track of what is going on.Beginning with a friend's murder in Los Angeles Lt. Barney Caine, LAPD, (George C. Scott) follows a trail which takes him to Europe and leads to a formula for turning coal into gasoline. It takes Caine a while to uncover this and the plot takes a number of twists and turns. The ending can only reinforce one's cynicism about how the world works.The performances are strong and the movie is well worth the time taken to view it.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Thought Provoking Material, 9 October 2005 Author: jndejure from United States
I saw this movie when it came out in 1980 and enjoyed it immensely with all of the twists and turns keeping me thinking the whole time. Yes, Marlon and George were perfect for their respective roles. Brando playing the aging corporate bad guy who knows the score, and Scott an over the hill cop who gets his teeth into something he just can't seem to let go of. Both, to me, fit their respective characters well. The nature of the plot, although kept vague was necessary for the internal intrigue to build. Still, many did not like this forced need to contemplate the many aspects of this film as it was being seen. Yet, I wonder if those who did not enjoy this movie as I did might not find it more interesting if viewed today with gas heading toward $4 and then maybe $5 a gallon? Does everyone need to have everything shown to them in a movie or am I just one of the few who's head doesn't hurt when I use it for what it was designed to do? Enjoy this movie for what it is, a commentary on human greed and power.
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: The oil business, 6 October 1999 Author: nra from Sharonville, Ohio
With two screen giants such as George C. Scott and Marlon Brando (even in a cameo), this film is worth seeing. One line from the film that has stuck with me is from Scott to Brando, "You're not in the oil business, you're in the oil shortage business." How true.
7 out of 10 people found the following review useful: I actually liked this movie, 19 July 2005 Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
The reviews for this movie have been rather consistently poor--both when it was released and on IMDb. For some reason, I actually liked this film--maybe I have bad taste, but I found it to be a very pleasant surprise! Maybe some of my positive regard for this is because I like George C. Scott so much and because I like paranoid and depressing movies (and this one has all these elements). In fact, I am guessing that the depressing nature of the film is much of the reason why others dislike it (there are a lot of murders in the movie). But I liked it for the odd plot--about the evil oil producers trying to suppress a secret for a cheaper fuel through murders and payoffs. But, if you do decide to watch this film, please try to remember that it's only a film. This is not a piece of non-fiction!UPDATE--8/08. I re-watched this film (something I rarely do) and was surprised how dull I found it a second time. While I still liked the paranoid plot involving a worldwide oil conspiracy, this time I noticed that the film was a bit too talky and the plot a bit too convoluted. Plus, and I know Brando fans will hate me for saying this, but his acting seemed a tad over-done. Still, it's a decent film even if I did knock my original score from 8 to 6.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: A vindication of the adage "The more things change the more they stay the same.", 15 April 2006 Author: revtg001 from United States
This is a story about a man who discovers an evil plot and risks everything to thwart the scheme. He opposes the ultimate "establishment" and is weighed and found wanting when the time comes to take the final step to expose the ruling classes' determination to keep the lower class lower and the super upper class on top. After all his risks and frustrations and dangers the invisible powers that "be" casually regain the upper hand as if nothing has happened and once again it is business as usual. The movie is a powerful subliminal civics lesson for young people. The antithesis is another Marlon Brando movie titled "Burn." I suggest you see that one also.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: The Formula for tedium, 21 January 2007 Author: TrevorAclea from London, England
Pitched as 'the movie the oil companies don't want you to see' but instead proving to be the movie nobody wanted to see, The Formula is a classic example of how blockbuster novels so often turn into mundane films. It has a solid cast, a solid script, solid production values – everything, in fact, but a reason to watch it. It's one of those lethargic thrillers where cardboard characters constantly talk to each other about things that happened offscreen and which the film would have been far better showing us as George C. Scott's LA cop uncovers a conspiracy involving a Nazi formula for synthetic fuel that Marlon Brando's eccentric oilman wants kept under lock and key so he can artificially inflate the price of oil. The teaming of Oscar's two most famous refusniks sadly provides no sparks – indeed, there seemed to be more drama offscreen between director John G. Avildsen and writer/producer Steve Shagan over the re-editing of the film, resulting in a compromise cut that probably satisfied no-one (it's a genuine surprise to find them jovially sharing the audio commentary on Warners' new DVD). Not that it seems that anyone else was so passionate about the film: there's no shortage of class talent here (John Gielgud and Beatrice Straight also turn up), but it's clear that the paycheck is of more interest to them than the script and they're just slumming it. Not a terrible movie, just a rather flat, uneventful and predictable one.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: 'Too bad the film didn't have its "formula" together., 28 January 2007 Author: Reginald D. Garrard from Camilla, GA
What happened? The film had all the earmarks for success: two of the generation's greatest actors (Scott and Brando); a subject that is topical, even to this day; an international co-star that had made an impressive appearance years earlier in another political thriller, the film adaptation of Thomas Harris's "Black Sunday; and a director that had been responsible for two critically praised films ("Rocky" and "Save the Tiger").Unfortunately the screenplay, penned by novel author Steve Shagan, just fell as flat as filling one's gas tank with water: no get up and go. There were no thrills in what should have had many; there were no chills, in what should have had more action. Even the two stars seems as though they were just drawing a paycheck, and possibly a free trip to Europe, where most of the film was made.Even Bill Conti, who had written one of movie's most memorable melodies ("The Theme from 'Rocky'"), composed a score that was as exciting as listening to radio static.The film's sole saving grace is the appearance of perennial heavy Richard Lynch as a former Nazi general with information about the sought-after formula.Sadly, the movie just doesn't click with this viewer.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Decent mystery / thriller with exemplary cast as its primary draw., 6 January 2009 Author: Scott LeBrun from Winnipeg, Canada
Detective Barney Caine (George C. Scott) gets involved in an increasingly twist-laden plot that begins when an old friend of his is found murdered. As it progresses, he travels to Germany, speaks to a variety of characters, and hooks up with a grieving young woman (Marthe Keller). The story actually began back at the end of World War II and involves the creation of a synthetic fuel which, naturally, certain interests want to stifle no matter what has to be done.It's the actors that really make it worthwhile. The film itself, I thought, had a reasonably engrossing plot. I enjoyed the twists and turns that it took, even if not that many of them were actually surprising. The foreign locale certainly doesn't hurt. The film begins well, and moves slowly - some might feel too slowly for a film without truly effective revelations - towards a rather low-key showdown between the two adversaries.Scott and co-star Marlon Brando, in a typically amusing performance as an oil magnate, don't appear together very often in the film, but their scenes are very effective. Keller is alluring as Lisa, the young woman who knows more than she's letting on. G.D. Spradlin, Richard Lynch, John Van Dreelen, Calvin Jung, Alan North, David Byrd, and Ferdy Mayne all do fine work in supporting roles; John Gielgud has only one scene but is superb in it. However, Beatrice Straight is wasted in a very minor role. Ike Eisenmann (from the Disney "Witch Mountain" films of the '70's) and Craig T. Nelson also turn up briefly.Giving this film some sense of relevance of course is its premise, as the film explores subjects still very much on people's minds. It's entertaining enough if not particularly memorable, but works as a meditation on corruption and greed and the machinations of people in certain positions of power.7/10
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: This Is No Formula for Entertainment, 2 May 2008 Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
Of course any chance to see a film with George C. Scott and Marlon Brando is not to be missed, but I do so wish that they had done something better than The Formula.The Formula referred to in the title is in fact a formula that the Nazi scientists developed for getting oil fuel out of coal. The only source of it in all of Europe is in Ploesti in Romania. Which was why the Nazis made damn sure to occupy the place and also wanted to get to the Soviet Union oil fields as well.Anyway a former cop who in retirement found working on the other side of the law, a lucrative supplement for his pension is murdered in Los Angeles. George C. Scott is the LAPD detective put in charge of the case. The former cop's widow Beatrice Straight is also murdered along with just about everyone else who talks with Scott during the course of the investigation.Said investigation takes Scott from LA to Germany and back to LA and mysterious gazillionaire Marlon Brando. The story takes in old Nazis, new Nazis, Arab terrorists, and the oil establishment who wants The Formula on its terms.What I don't understand is that if the powerful conglomerate that Brando controlled wanted things shut down, why in heaven's name was Scott put in charge of the investigation? Doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it.Brando and Scott together in their final confrontation scene are fabulous. Would that the rest of The Formula was done so well.
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