This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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

Wild Palms begins with a dream sequence involving a rhinoceros. There are shots from the director which aim to be cinema such as the scene of the waiter standing by at the table when Jim Belushi and Ernie Hudson are at the restaurant to the jump shot to a maid standing by the table as his kids are eating.Wild Palms was produced by Olive Stone and episodes were directed by film directors such as Kathryn Bigelow, Phil Joanou.The setting is is a future 2007 where men were collarless shirts with ties, drive 1960s cars and women have fashion owing a lot to Japan and oddly there is no wifi.There are however powerful media moguls experimenting with Virtual Reality and a Scientologist like cult, right wing corporate politicians, secret police and a band of libertarian rebels who see the bigger picture of this corporate America and want to stop the Senator (Robert Loggia.)Jim Belushi who plays a family mind drawn into this new media world as his wife starts to drink heavily, his son is getting to be a powerful child star and his mother in law (Angie Dickinson) has powerful connections to this dark side of society.Wild Palms certainly brings you a world of soap opera-ish wild ride dominated by Angie Dickinson's performance. It was designed as event television but its big problem was that it came after the TV series Twin Peaks and we the viewers had become spoilt. Wild Palms seemed like a retread with its visual tricks, surreal dream sequences even though part of it owed more to Cronenberg's movie Videodrome.Looking at it now it comes across as campy whereas Twin Peaks has aged better.

WP has a rating of 7 here and that is what it merits. I saw some of the series back in 93, but have just re-watched it all. The quality of the cinematography is excellent and in that area the series holds up well. However, there are some major downsides to WP. One and the most important, some of the acting is incredibly bad, to start with, that of Belushi. The Trivia section says he had no idea what the story was about, so he simply recited his lines. One has the impression, most of the time, that he did just that. Loggia is Loggia, another Type A, overacted performance. Catrall starts off weak, but gets better. Angie is the real disappointment. She looks great and is perfect for the part, her clothes are fine, her scenes some of the most intense, but her acting is often wooden. I find Delany the best and most consistent, though other reviewers don't like her. The music is overblown and the one good piece, the background music to the most intense scene, the ending of Hungry Ghosts, is obviously influenced by P Glass's music. The series shows its influences clearly: 60's counter-culture, Scientology, and perhaps a little less obviously, Meet John Doe. In fact, for me, the latter is the main thrust of the series. However, the way the story is handled leaves something to be desired. It is too neat and clean, not open ended. However, the series obviously had some major influence itself. Those are easily seen in the Matrix series, in Caprica, and most obviously and essentially in Inception. Nolan would probably deny it, but half of Inception is lifted from WP. So, kudos for an idea that has had some mileage. Also, the series has been compared to Twin Peaks, but there is little to compare really. As said, the acting of WP is not esp thrilling whereas I find not a single character is weak in TP. The music for Badalamenti is far superior to that of Sakamoto. Both series look excellent. One area where WP beats TP is that WP is a closed story, a true miniseries. TP got out of control and thus lost some of its power. However, for me, TP is still a series I could re-watch without problem. So, finally, at the end of this long-winded review, WP is good, but not great. It would a great choice for some sort of re-imagined series à la Battlestar Galactica.

Ok, apart from the fact that I read an awful lot of books, movies and particularly good movies do carry me away as well.THIS is one heck of a movie.Robert Loggia excells and makes a start at his appearance in 'lost highway'.Why scientology ? The Fathers are conservative, granted, but they really want to manage your soul in 'the Church'.Guess what, windows is the system ;-)The movie is beautifully done, the plot twists and turns, William Gibson [none other but himself] has a cameo, and grudgingly concedes that he indeed was the first to coin the term.The women in this movie are the true protagonists [excuse me ladies, I know it's never different, Ollie puts it where you can't ignore it. In your face]...A very good movie, highly recommended.I hope this summary entices you to see the movie. You will not be indifferent !

From Oliver Stone and Bruce Wagner comes a brilliant, epic science fiction movie. Although very long this movie will keep you watching the whole way through. The plot is well put together and sustained. The story is topical and the actors well chosen. If you are looking for a movie that will keep you thinking for a long time after the tape has finished then this is the one.