I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Another very well made yet bad movie by the same director who has a great long history on making similar masterpieces!i mean, come on, if parapsychology is such a serious topic (which it isn't really but Hollywood loves to make it look that way because it sells well to the sheeple!) then what are those 'fun' scenes in the movie where the main protagonist of the story escapes his hotel room and raids some elderly people's tiny apartment in such a bizarre yet comic manner? or the police officer is so worried about 'his new car' which he loses eventually plus a few similarly silly scenes!?yes, para-whatever powers was well shown in Carrie but this one ...NO!

It's 1977 Mid East. Ben Childress (John Cassavetes) pretends to be sending Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and his son Robin (Andrew Stevens) to Chicago. Instead he sets up an attack. Peter barely escapes but Robin wrongly assumes that his father was killed by Arab terrorists. Childress is gathering children with psychic abilities to train as US secret agents. In 1978, Chicago teen Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving) sharpens her mental abilities in the Paragon Institute headed by Dr. McKeever (Charles Durning). Peter is tracking Gillian as a possible way to get his son back with the help of his naive girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgress) who works at the institute.The movie follows two tracks. Amy Irving's track reminds me of Carrie for more than one reason. Kirk Douglas' side feels like a spy action thriller. The back and forth between the two sides diminishes some of the tension. Director Brian De Palma keeps the movie going at a good clip but it doesn't necessarily all work.

A government agent (Kirk Douglas) is determined to come to his son's rescue, when a sinister official kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities.I find it interesting that Brian De Palma chose this as the follow-up to "Carrie". I mean, really, another film about young people with psychic powers? But it is actually quite different in spirit and acts as more of a pre-cursor of "The Dead Zone" and "Scanners".We not only get the screen debut of Daryl Hannah, but an excellent score from John Williams that was highly praised by critic Pauline Kael, who called it "as elegant and delicately varied a score as any horror film has ever had".

(Plot) An agent working for the government will stop at nothing to rescue his son, when an evil official kidnaps him to harness his lethal psychic abilities.This is one of DePalma's early duds. It certainly didn't commence things that way, though. You can't go wrong with Kirk Douglas doing his thing. I was enjoying the interaction between him & his son. It had a really exciting shootout, and I thought I was in for a memorable ride. It's all downhill from there. The pacing is absolutely horrible… I made the mistake of watching this one late at night, and found myself almost dozing off from it. I also didn't like the comedy that I saw. Dennis Franz always plays a great buffoon, but he felt so out of place. I like Kirk Douglas, and Amy Irving. I usually like movies about telekinesis, but this one is too boring for its own good. Final Thoughts: This has a mixed reputation and for good reason. I personally can't see the trashy appeal. It's extremely boring, and I just couldn't get through it. I'm not gonna recommend it3/10