Why so much hype?

Very best movie i ever watch

A Masterpiece!

Blistering performances.

Horribly disappointing movie. Had a fantastic poster featuring nude Barbara Carrera (supposedly?) which is, by my standards, a collector's item today like few others. The only fun about this movie is that poster. I ordered the DVD and hoped the poster would be the box cover, but no, only a weak, weak, weak rendition of the original image as big as an average-sized postage stamp. The movie is hugely disappointing... Given the theme, From Embryo to Woman in 4 1/2 Weeks, there is a hell of a lot that could have been done with it. Imagine cultivating your own dreamgirl down in the laboratory, only for it to go wrong in a most disastrous way. Movie needs a remake, with particular focus on the anguish of premature aging, especially since the object of desire comes into the world as a fresh flower that is as doomed as just exactly that. It is however my experience that the movies of Ms. Carrera are invariably disappointing because, it seems to me, she's not exactly the star material she appeared to be at the time. Long, long hair a la Jane Seymour got her on my radar back in the mid- Seventies, but alas! long, long hair alone a fine actress doth not make.The poster is fun though, and today I saw the Net version of the one cutting out the off- putting male presence. To this day, when I see girls curled up so innocently, vulnerably, in the fetal position, I think of this poster. Nice legs, and especially the bare feet added that total total vulnerability.Had the movie been a tenth of the fun of the poster... but it doesn't have a hundredth.

By its essential blandness, 'Embryo' has a soap opera style and take, and it evoked me, besides a French romance read when I was a kid, 'Algernon', a similarly clumsy, though far less despicable, story; Hudson looked a bit skeptical, and there's a general feeling that what we see are people reading their lines, which brings us back to the aforementioned blandness, the critical lack of gusto and zest. Yet, the soap opera feel is sometimes soothing, the stupid tale, the unpopulated sets, the creepy colors, the sheer indifference to any verisimilitude and plausibility, the uninvolved and perhaps embarrassed actors, yet many have gone through such (R. Burton, G. Peck, etc.), the 1st moment of suspense comes after 50 minutes, then Barbara Carrera takes over the movie, she's interesting to watch even dressed, the others embody '70s sloth and triteness. Her character is a heartless genius, scared by rapid aging, and turned into a cereal killer.'Algernon' was quite badly written, for a genre novel; and 'Embryo' is very badly written for a dire C movie, and all looks somewhat intentionally bland, the soap opera feel was meant.Hudson plays a creepy, recluse embryologist who has a son, a pregnant daughter-in-law, a jealous sister-in-law, and a research assistant.The movie ends with a car chase, and Rock Hudson's unfunny grimace.

I think this movie was WAY ahead of it's time. Very few people were aware of the scientific manipulations that could be done for development of new life.Also it doesn't hurt that the leading actors are absolutely gorgeous. Barbara Carrera has nude scenes that even a woman can appreciate. What a goddess!If you like sci-fi from olden times that mimics the life we are living now, you'll love this one.That said, I agree with the other reviewer who noted that it was absolutely ridiculous to put in the scene about the natural language query to a computer that came back with a good answer. I worked with mainframes in 1976, and we were still feeding trays of punch cards into readers to run programs. CRT's were still command line interfaces.There are a bunch of hater's for this movie for resistance to scientists assuming the role of gods.I happen to be a Monsanto HATER, ABHORER, LOATHER, DESPISER! Did ya'll know they "own," legally, but NOT morally IMO, a terminator gene, that renders their seeds unable to reproduce? Imagine if that gene got loose and started mutating flora and fauna. That could be the absolute end of life on our planet. Fortunately, our government, stupid and clueless as it is, has so far denied Monsanto the ability to deploy such a dangerous assault against us.Watch "Bitter Harvest" with Ron Howard to see some of the corporate antics this toxic multinational corporation gets up to: contaminating (getting loose on) neighboring farms with their genetically modified seeds and pollen, then suing them for stealing their patented stuff. They get away with it, and have put many hard-working people out of business and off their land.

Nonsensical nonsense but pretty entertaining too. The story is ridiculous with Rock Hudson's character stumbling upon a scientific breakthrough single handed, and having fetuses grow to adulthood with the offspring super-fast learners, highly skilled and super intelligent.The Doberman which is the first successful offspring is a fabulous character (like the diabolical dog in The Omen.) She is beautifully trained and does some great stunts, and is chilling in other scenes. The second success is Victoria (Barbara Carrera) who - surprise - is a stunning beauty. Carrera is good in the role and creates a believable character.Diane Ladd provides great support as Rock's cynical sister-in-law/assistant who is suspicious of Victoria and hates the dog! The most chilling (and high camp) scene has Ladd's character who has been staying with Rock's pregnant daughter-in-law, arrive home to the sprawling estate where she lives with Rock (and now Victoria) to rummage through the attic and retrieve a hideous frog-shaped lamp, only to be followed by the snarling dog the entire time. The dog carefully escorts Ladd from the premises, clearly glad to be rid of that horrible lamp.The opening scenes are rather dull, padded out with Rock endlessly recounting plot exposition into his refrigerator sized reel to reel tape recorder. The film really begins to feel like a TV movie with its tiny cast and few locations. But once Victoria's up and talking (and disrobing) the pace and interest picks up.