Very disappointed :(

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is a genuine, hilarious little shocker! William Shatner plays a swindling conman, a total ladies man and a deranged psychopath all rolled up into the character of Matthew Stone. See him run around in the most outrageously flashy outfits. See him loose control and spontaneously kill people. See him act like an idiot. See him pick up hitchhiking little girls and run over dogs. He's so on top of his game here, that he lost it. Over the edge, and he's clearly having a great time at it. And best of all, "Impulse" features a handful of terrific, long drawn-out murder sequences. Occasionally weird camera angles, strange flashback sequences, goofy voice-overs and a funkadelic soundtrack to boot. All's pretty nuts about this flick. Can't figure out if this is a genius work of '70s shock & schlock cinema or just bad-to-the-bone filmmaking myself. Either way, worth checking out for obscure trash connoiseurs.

If there can be such a thing as overhyping the badness (read unintentional hilarity) quotient of a film, then the reviews I've come across of this one on the Internet are guilty of doing just that; it's not that I didn't find William Shatner's inflating hairline, outrageous clothes sense and, especially, his uncontrolled facial expressions comical…but I wasn't exactly laughing out loud either – let alone rolling about on the floor stamping my fist in hysterics! I'm not saying I was really expecting that kind of a response but, at any rate, I was let down by the film even in this department so that little remains for me but to bemoan the loss of 90 minutes from my life and try to forget this viewing ever happened! Sure, Shatner is hardly the ne plus ultra in psychopathically menacing and irresistibly handsome characters: seeing him threaten an obese woman for no reason at a park (while dressed in an unflatteringly sleeveless shirt), break out in tears after committing his first murder (as an adult), decked out in a completely white get-up with an over-sized fedora hat to match, slip his little finger into his mouth every time he recalls his childhood trauma (shown in black-and-white during the prologue) and boyishly jump up and down (as if his bladder's about to burst) in anticipation of being shown the safe is, admittedly, a source of amusement…but that hardly excuses the dullness of the rest of the picture.The chase in a car wash between Shatner and ex-partner Harold "Oddjob" Sakata (here playing Karate Pete!) was a nice try but even that sequence is clumsily executed and needlessly protracted. The worst part of it is that the three female leads – Ruth Roman, Jennifer Bishop and Kim Nicholas – claim a good share of the film's running time when they are merely boring caricatures; unfortunately, the director even contrives to waste the opportunity of the only two promising female encounters Shatner has in the movie – the sultry belly-dancer at the start and the flirtatious hotel receptionist!

Well, most people would probably go into this film with low expectations; but I was actually hoping for something decent from Impulse, not because of anything suggesting it would be good; but simply because I often enjoy stories of murderers and savvy children; with the likes of The Stepfather, Julie Darling and Michael Winner's masterpiece Scream for Help being good examples of films like this one that I have enjoyed. Impulse certainly had the potential to sit alongside the aforementioned films on a list of enjoyable flicks of this nature; but unfortunately, something just doesn't work and most things about this film are a disappointment. The plot focuses on Matt Stone, a conman who makes a living through seducing lonely women and having them lose all their savings by way of 'investing' in his inheritance scheme. Stone is a broken man, owing to an incident involving his mother and a boyfriend of hers, which we see at the start of the film. Problems start for Stone when the irritating daughter of his latest victim begins to become suspicious of what he's doing with her mother...Impulse stars William Shatner, who, of course, is most famous for his role in the popular series Star Trek. I was never a fan of Star Trek, but I do like Shatner's work on cult films such as Kingdom of the Spiders and, more importantly, The Intruder; which mean he should be well cut out for a role like this. He actually does rather well in the lead role; giving it just the right amount of sleaze to work. The rest of the cast isn't bad either (with one or two exceptions...e.g. Oddjob), but the film falls short on numerous other areas, which masks the decent performance. The film is actually rather boring, which is quite a shock considering the plot and the fact that Shatner gets seen in a range of ridiculous outfits. It's really pretty standard fare; The Stepfather had a lot to set itself apart from just the central plot, whereas this film doesn't have much at all. It all boils down to the sort of conclusion you would expect too, like the rest of the film; there aren't many surprises. This isn't a complete disaster; it has its moments, but I cant really recommend that anyone goes out of their way to find it.

I have to give this movie a "1" just because it is such a horrible movie in reality, but those who enjoy "so bad it's good" films will find a relatively obscure gem in this one.I'm seeing that a lot of the people who commented on it here on IMDb are from the Bay Area CA and thinking that a lot of them probably saw it with me, since I've seen it all 3 times that it's been shown at the Parkway's "Annual William Shatner Tribute Night". I saw it last night for that 3rd time and I have to say this film just gets funnier the more you see it, like all great bad films.Shatner does his "bluebeard" style character to the hilt, complete with nervous tic (chews on his pinkie like "Dr. Evil"). He is certainly the highlight of the film with his huge collars and his hideous striped bathing costume. There are many memorable scenes here where he "flips out" like when he is hanging out with his girlfriend and her daughter at the beach and a guy with balloons gets in his way, and he starts yelling and popping the balloons. All the scenes where he gets violent are really funny because of the facial and body mannerisms he goes through. He's actually pretty good as a psycho in the more sedate scenes, when the only hint of evil there is a kind of sly smile, but when he goes "off the edge" he really goes over the top.The rest of the cast is decent, Kim Nicholas (also known from her role in "Black Sunday") is the standout with a very spirited child performance that makes you think she would have been good in a revival of "The Bad Seed". The always enjoyable Harold Sakata (famous as "the guy who throws his hat" in the James Bond film "Goldfinger") has a role and makes a lot with it.... he's the only one other than the little girl who knows that Shatner is psychotic, and he and Shatner have one of the film's most memorable scenes in their battle in a car wash.All in all, if you are a fan of B movies, MST-3K, Ed Wood, just campy acting and camp films in general, this is a film you definitely should see. This is one of the films you will wade through dozens or hundreds of truly bad films just to see.... a great bad movie.