From my favorite movies..

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a film for the experienced cinephile. An average audience will probably get bored. David Bowie is an alien who lands on earth in search of water. This was the legendary singer's first starring role and he more than owns the role of a strange human trying to mix with humans. The surreal imagery by noted director Nicholas Roeg is a highlight and although the film wasn't a big hit either critically or commercially back when it was released, it has a huge following today. If you are a fan of science fiction you should check this out.

I like Nicolas Roeg's films although I don't claim to always "get" or enjoy every minute of them. They're always fantastically shot in a crisp, realistic style, he often pushes back the boundaries, particularly with the censors, and they frequently have scenes which stick long in the memory. However, they often seem to have just as many longueurs, with off-beat characters and non-linear narratives. Maybe I'm the problem...Anyway David Bowie here plays a part which seemed to haunt him for years to come, in the aftermath of the film alone, he used images from the movie for two of his album covers, a 12-inch single sleeve while it also seems to inspire tracks on his "Station To Station", "Low" and "Scary Monsters" albums not to mention the famous "Ashes To Ashes" video. Bowie was at an artistic peak musically although off stage he was hopelessly hooked on cocaine, in fact just watch the contemporary BBC Arena documentary on him, "Cracked Actor" and he looks here as if he's just walked on-set from there. So can he act then...?Well if there was one part he was born to play, it was this one, the alien misfit who conquers the world, but to be honest, while he certainly has a presence, you wouldn't say he was extended much. Looks great though.The film stop-starts its way on his space invader odyssey, as he leaves his family life on Mars (or wherever it is) to start inventing items which quickly become society's new fashion must-haves. He picks up, (or rather she does him) an adoring if simplistic hotel chambermaid and garners a back-up team to make him a vast fortune, his target being to amass enough funds to build a spaceship to take him back home. But something happens on his way to heaven as unsurprisingly, he's abducted by government officials, where he's subjected to excruciating tests which wouldn't be out of place in an animal cruelty lab. Resistance however is futile and the mysterious Mr Newton by the end is a washed-up drunk, still resigning himself to his earth bound fate. In one of the film's most telling lines, he forgives his captor-torturer, as he admits his own race would gave treated a visiting earthling in the exact same way.There's solid back-up to Bowie's central role with a variety of convincingly portrayed stock characters. Roeg pushes the permissive button pretty far here with more than a smattering of nudity in the sex scenes, not ignoring the fact that males frequently get naked too when being intimate. I would still say there were too many scenes which for me played like Bowie's own cut-up method for lyrics at around this time, by which I mean I found them puzzling, strange and unconnected. And why no Bowie soundtrack?Still, an interesting if confounding movie, as strangely addictive in its way as television is to Newton.

I first saw this film in the late 70's and haven't been able to decide to this day whether it is the noodlings of a rather Sixth-Form mentality or a genuine work of art. The story - such as it is - concerns 'Thomas Newton' (Bowie), who appears from nowhere (he's actually from a distant planet) and presents himself to a corporate lawyer with several ground-breaking ideas for new products, all of which earn a massive amount of money for Newton's new company. He needs this money to launch a space program in order to get back to his home planet where his family - and indeed the whole population - is dying from lack of water. SPOILERS FOLLOW. After a great start, his company falters and Newton falls victim to the same frailties that afflict the Humans around him - greed, sleaze, waste and sloth. In the end he has given up his grand scheme and lives his life as a sad drunk, surrounding himself with women, drink and the low morals that come along with them. So the question is - is this film high art or make-it-up-as-you-go-along junk? A deep and biting comment on the human condition or just aimless posturing? Plenty of each, I'd say. But one thing is for certain - it's a very mixed bag, some scenes looking like a million dollars, others like the work of a bored amateur. At least it ends poignantly with Artie Shaw's 'Stardust', which brings the whole thing to a perfect end.

The premise shows promise, but time and time again the plot is incoherent, jumping from scene to scene without really introducing who is there, what are they doing, and why. Not only are most of their motivations clouded in strange cinematic shots including hallucinatory flashbacks/time travel and time gaps, the story suffers from what seems to be a lack of direction or loss of critical information. The addition of numerous sex scenes adds little to the plot ("Sex sells, Morty") and would present itself no worse without them. (One of the minor characters has multiple sex scenes to show their lifestyle, which ultimately detracts from the main story.) As a fan of science fiction, I am disappointed, though I can see the allure to non-sober viewers.