BRAINSCAN (1994)

With a glossy ad campaign and a built-in audience of technonerds, Brainscan stood to score big with its loopy tale of a video game that leaves a trail of dead bodies. But bad word of mouth on the film's risky ending kept the target audience at home with their Sega collections, so they missed out on Frank Langella's cool turn as a wonderfully smirky homicide detective and T. Ryder Smith's campy ersatz Freddy Krueger, who comes bundled with the CD-ROM. Fortunately, the comparatively cheap video rental fee should let viewers feel better about the film's irritating finale.

You Might Also Like

• Movie Review Brainscan (1994) | Owen Gleiberman
• Movie News Frank Langella in final talks for ''Good Things''
• Movie Commentary The actors portraying John Connor | Adam B. Vary