Alicia
I love this movie so much
WillSushyMedia
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Kinley
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Michael_Elliott
Spontaneous Combustion (1990) * 1/2 (out of 4)Sam (Brad Dourif) is a man who realizes that there's something not quite right with him but he's in for a shock when he realizes that he has the power to set things on fire. It turns out that his parents were involved in a government research project and they passed their contamination down to him.Tobe Hooper was ending an interesting period of his career. After the massive success of POLTERGEIST he found himself not really getting the type of projects that you'd expect. He ended up at Cannon and turned out LIFEFORCE, THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and INVADERS FROM MARS. All three films were critical and commercial flops so the director had to find work elsewhere and this is that project. Sadly, this here is a pretty bland and boring movie that comes off more of a wannabe FIRESTARTER than anything else.There are all sorts of problems with this movie but the biggest for me was its structure. The story is centered on Sam yet for some reason his character really doesn't enter the picture until after the twenty-minute mark. The opening of the movie deals with the parents and to be quite honest this stuff was boring and it went nowhere. It certainly got the film off on the wrong track and I'd argue that it really messed with the flow of the picture. Things got marginally better once Sam's character takes over but even here there are long periods where nothing of interest happens.Dourif manages to turn in a very good performance in the lead and it's really a shame that he didn't have more to work with. His character was certainly an interesting one and so many things could have been done with him but the screenplay instead throws in a mad doctor sub-plot that just really doesn't go anywhere. For what it's worth, even the special effects aren't all that memorable.
James Bourke
The first and last time I saw this Tobe Hooper movie was back in 1990, I was nineteen years old, the strangest thing about it was that at that time I was totally gripped by it, but also at the same time I couldn't forget about it.The sole reason at that time was the participation of Brad Dourif in the main role of Samson/David Bell, the man with a curse on his very soul! Just recently I managed to pick up the Anchor Bay Region 1 double header release which aside from Spontaneous Combustion, also included the seriously excellent Society.Having just watched SC again, the movie despite some real shoddy effects moments, really has held up well after all these years, as previously mentioned, Dourif holds the movie together despite his performance taking flight on many occasions.I have to say though that two other performances really stood out for me, one being the criminally underused Brian Bremer as Samson's father, you know I still remember Brian as Bunt in Stan Winston's excellent Pumpkinhead' from that performance to his turn here, he has always been an actor to remember.The other was Cynthia Bain as Samson's potential love interest, I cant for the life of me remember her character's name, of course both her and Bremer were both in Pumpkinhead, both shared some serious screen time in that movie and it's two bad they didn't here.Hooper might be considered as a master of horror, and despite having watched nearly all his horror offerings, I can honestly say that aside from SC and The Funhouse, nearly everything else has been more miss than hit, oh the scars that I still carry from sitting through The Mangler.But enough about the bad and remember this decent little flourish that Hooper concocted from his own story, with some decent set pieces and a brisk pace, Spontaneous Combustion certainly set my cinematic world on fire some twenty plus years ago and to this day I recall with fondness.Check it out - 9/10
ma-cortes
The picture based allegedly in a reality, concerns about a young man(Brad Dourif) aware his parents(Stacy Edwards and Brian Bremer)had been used in a nuclear experiment. Them, he inherits the power to inflict the title phenomenon on other people . He's recently separated his spouse(Blain)and again appear his ability -called pyrokinesis, though sometimes is incontrollable- to ignite objects and people around him. Then, blazing deaths occur, the result of another evil government experiment.This is a suspenseful and frightening movie , though regularly paced. The movie contains some flaws and sometimes is silly and ludicrous, furthermore wasting the acting talent. Casting is quite well, Brad Dourif is nice, as usual, in one of his habitual roles as hapless. Magnificent plethora secondaries as Melinda Dillon, John Cypher , William Prince and Dale Dye. Special appearance of Hollywood directors as John Landis and Andre De Toth . The film is in the ink of¨ Firestarter¨(directed by Mark L Lester with Drew Barrymore and George C Scott) and ¨Firestarter 2¨(Robert Iscove with Marguerite Moreau and Malcolm McDowell). The motion picture is regularly directed by Tobe Hooper, who previously acquired success with ¨Texas chainsaw massacre, Salem's Lot,Funhouse,Invaders from Mars and Poltergeist¨, however with 'Spontaneous Combustion' got a failure. Rating : Mediocre though some moments is entertaining.
leia_nog@hotmail.com
Now, i hired this movie because Brad Dourif was in it. He is an excellent actor, BRILLIANT in everything...except this movie. And i think that was only because he realized how stupid this movie was, and didn't bother with a good performance. This movie is a unintentional-comedy. Some of the lines just crack me up. And them there are some lines that make no sense, and it seems like Tobe Hooper just throw lines in without thinking about the plot. Oh! BTW the plot is BAD! But it one of those films that is TAHT BAD that its actually PAINFUL to watch. I recommend this only for BIG Brad Dourif fans, or fans of any of the other actors, because the plot is pathetic.
