MartinHafer
Okay, I'll admit it--you need to suspend disbelief on this one--A LOT of disbelief! But, you have to do this all the time in movies so stretching this just a bit further might enable you to enjoy this film. I know that I went in with very low expectations after reading the IMDb reviews, but it turned out to be a decent little movie about yet another doctor who wanted to play God.The film begins with a doctor (Rock Hudson) hitting a dog. He takes the pooch home and tries to save it, but he's unsuccessful. But here's the weird part--using some special serum he'd been working on, he injects the dog's surviving puppies to try to save it. That's because the puppy is WAY too young to survive. Speeding up its growth at an astronomical rate enabled the puppy to grow many weeks in a matter of hours and it survives.A short time later, the doctor decides to play God with a human. Taking a recently dead pregnant woman, he's able to remove the small fetus and grow it in his lab at an even faster rate. The problem is that for some time he cannot stop its fast growth and the fetus ends up becoming a full-grown woman by the time he's arrested the fast growth. At first, things seem great as the woman is a sort of super-woman--with amazing learning skills and intelligence and the ability to be well-coiffed despite being raised in a lab. Plus, and here's the best part, it turns out to be an amazingly HOT young lady (Barbara Carrera). What's next? Well, I'd say more but don't want to spoil the plot. Suffice to say that the lady's moral reasoning abilities are at times VERY suspect...yet hot! Despite the prologue that makes it sound as if this technology is possible, it certainly is not! But, it did make for an interesting film with a few nice surprises (such as at the very end). A word of note--you WILL see a lot of Miss Carrera in this one, so perhaps it's best not shown to your small children or mother!
JoeB131
With a lot of the current controversy about cloning and embryonic stem cell research, this movie is an interesting flashback to when this concept was first mined for Science Fiction stories.Rock Hudson plays a doctor who hits a dog, and then hits on the concept that the fetuses of the dog could be saved by growing them in a tank using some special drugs. The result is a dog that is highly intelligent but (unbeknownst to him) psychotic. (There is a great scene where the dog, a DOberman called "Number One", kills a yappy dog and then hides the body.Hudson decides to skip the usual years of animal research and peer review, and apply the process to a human embryo. The result is a child that grows out of control into the very hot Barbara Carerra. Even though she has the ability to learn simply from reading a book, she lacks any kind of moral underpinnings. Like Frankenstein's monster,Carerra's Victoria proceeds to reek havoc into the life of her creator, killing anyone who stands in her way.Hudson, who was past his prime as an actor, turns in a good performance here. Roddy McDowell has a cameo as an arrogant chess master who is bested by the novice Victoria.Some of the things in the movie scream "Seventies", like computers as big as a room with tape drives, polyester leisure suits and a character with a huge afro haircut. The film is frequently out of focus, and the lighting is bad (perhaps so we can't see Hudson's age?) The pacing is slow in many parts (A DVD's fast forward feature is good for getting past these.) This movie is okay, despite its flaws. Not great, but okay.
preppy-3
Dr. Paul Holliston (Rock Hudson) is experimenting with fetuses. He manages to remove one from the body of a dying dog and keep it alive AND make it a full grown dog within a few weeks! He gets the body of a dying pregnant woman. He removes her fetus and also keeps it alive and, within a few weeks, has a full grown female named Victoria (Barbara Carrera). Oh yes--she also is a genius. But it seems her and the dog acquire some homicidal tendencies and things slowly fall apart...I'm no scientist but I find the science in this questionable. I realize it's just a movie but it's introduced with a statement from an (allegedly) actual scientist who says the events in this film could happen. Uh huh. Well...it's been 30 years and I've never heard about this actually taking place. Factual issues aside this is OK. It moves slowly and, really, the plot is kind of silly but it's somewhat interesting. Unfortunately it falls apart completely at the end and gets pretty sick (and stupid). !!!PLOT SPOILERS!!! One of the more interesting scenes include when the dog actually kills another dog. Sounds sick but there's no blood and it's hysterically obvious that the dog being killed is a dummy and not real. Actually the dog here is super intelligent and seeing in preform tricks that a normal dog couldn't do was fun. Also note the now antique technology shown at one point. There is a VERY fun scene where Carrera whips obnoxious Roddy McDowell (chewing the scenery) at a chess game! This may or may not be a selling point to some, but there's a bit of fairly explicit nudity (for a PG film) from Carrera. !!!SPOILER END!!!The acting wavers. Hudson (who could be good) is terrible. He looks miserable and doesn't try to hide his disinterest. Diane Ladd is totally wasted as a helper of his. Carrera is very beautiful and surprisingly good as Victoria. She manages to keep the movie going almost single handedly. So--it's an OK sci-fi movie. Just pretty silly and slow at times. I give it a 6.
disdressed12
i really enjoyed this movie.i thought the acting was very good,and the storyline well developed.i'm sure the movie was inspired by past literary works and movies,but i think it also inspired other movies and novels.so,obviously it's not wholly original,but it does have its own original elements to it.it's a cautionary tale for sure and it's just as relevant today, probably more so .the only negative thing i can say about it is that it can be a bit slow,and the first half has an almost clinical feel to it.by this i mean at times it's a bit dry and almost too scientific.overall,though i think it was a well done movie.i give Embryo a 7/10
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