That was an excellent one.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I'm rating this a FIVE, but I'd probably rate it a good deal lower (probably more like a TWO) if I weren't such a fan of Jennifer Burns. It's certainly not one of the greatest movies of all time, but it's definitely a lot better than hard-core sci-fi (and especially Asimov) fans give it credit for. For myself personally, I'm very definitely not a fan of sci-fi films and got this one only because of Jennifer, whom I really got a kick out of in the "Josh Kirby: Time Warrior" series. I'm also not at all a fan of sci-fi short stories, only of full-length novels, and I haven't read "Nightfall" or any other Asimov story though I have read all of his novels."Nightfall" is one of the most popular sci-fi short stories of all time (and probably the most popular), so it's to be expected that Asimov fans would be disappointed in this low-budget production which does have many of the faults that its critics point out. On the other hand, if you're like me and you've never read the short story then you'll probably find this movie reasonably enjoyable, especially for Jennifer Burns. Just recognize that you're probably not seeing a faithful adaptation of the short story, any more than Roland Joffe's 1995 production of "The Scarlet Letter" was at all a faithful adaptation of Hawthorne's novel. As a huge admirer of Hawthorne, I abhor what Joffe did to him, so I can understand why Asimov fans might detest this adaptation of their favorite sci-fi story, but I still recognize that Demi Moore turned in a really nice performance in "The Scarlet Letter" and I think Jennifer Burns did likewise in "Nightfall." I assume that fans of Asimov's story should take heed of criticism of this movie by fellow Asimov fans, but I really found Jennifer Burns quite enjoyable in her role as the saucy and headstrong Illyra, so I'm giving it a FIVE for her performance while recognizing that I'd probably rate it a good deal lower if it were some actress I didn't at all care about (or if I were a super-fan of Asimov's story). But dang it, it's unfortunate that Jennifer's career seems to have foundered on these kind of Corman productions and that she hasn't had a shot at some better properties.

I've always thought there were three kinds of "bad" when it comes to movies. First, there's "Highlander 2" bad - someone takes a good concept and throws everything that was interesting out the door. Then, there's "Moulin Rouge" bad - being trying to be cloyingly cute or culturally-topical and ending up with a product that's simply clichéd and lame.And then there's the case with "Nightfall". This movie is bad because it is completely and utterly boring, as opposed to the story that it was adapted from. The film's script is boring, the effects look like someone was yawning while they added them, and the acting makes the audience yawn with the clichés they are forced to utter and perform. David Carradine is the sole saving grace of the film, but he isn't on-screen enough to make much of a difference. The two "stars" who act out the leading roles seem like they just came off a stint on "Power Rangers" (actually, I think one of them did).

I first read Isaac Asimov's sci-fi story, Nightfall, in the 1980s when I was asked to help find financing to make a film version by the person who then owned the movie rights. I read the book and was moved... Asimov's story says much about the nature of scientific knowledge and religious superstition, and it says much about how we are locked into our world and often not able to transcend it. At the end, the scientists of the day discover that the religious nuts were right all along about one basic fact... but their interpretation of this fact was quite wrong. Asimov had a long and prolific career as a writer of sci-fi but Nightfall, written when he was only nineteen was one of his more (most?) famous stories.I couldn't raise the money for its filming and lost track of the project. So I was excited to see the film. What a disappointment. It had been filmed in India (is that we they got the money finally?) and the story greatly expanded. It had been made into a love story - it did not explore the nature of knowledge at all. The lead actress was quite unconvincing, pathetic, actually. I had my whole family watch the movie with me and was quite embarrassed. They kept asking me what I thought but I would say nothing as they would have all walked out... I kept hoping is would improve. But it didn't.

Paraphrasing from the LA Weekly review: Every ten years or so a film comes out by which all bad films shall be judged...this is that film.The film not only has the usual suspects of a bad film (poor story telling, bad acting, bad directing) but as I recall it also suffers from bad sound, lighting, editing, and cinematography. Issac Asimov deserves better for his award winning story. Although we should be able to generate several gigawatts of energy from the amount of revolutions generated from his grave.Finally, if you ever want to know what having a lobotomy is like...watch this film.