Jeff Goldblum Movie Club

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“The Town Where No One Gets Off” (1986)

Ray Bradbury Theater S2E4

Bekkah:

Was this what passed for scary in 1986? I was one year old in 1986, so I think I was scared of a lot of things, so maybe this would have been scary, too? Ten minutes into this 30 minute TV episode, Jeff was still wandering around a sleepy town doing nothing. I mean, maybe this was thrilling as a short story, but even Jeff’s sensuous tooth-licks did not do this for me. This was a slow-ass burn that never really actually burned. It took me literally until halfway through to understand that the title was about no one getting off a train, despite that probably being very obvious in the first scene (but I drank a bottle of wine before we started, so my thought process might not be great) (and look, I knew it wasn’t about sex, but that would have been way more interesting).

Danya:

We did a tele cheese tasting before this spooky 1980s TV show. Did the gouda pair well with this relic? I would say, that the sweetness of the cheese did help the slow plod of the show. The show was suspenseful in a slow-burn way. Lots of stone faced White people being rude, which maybe doesn’t age well. Not as well as the cheese. I kept waiting for some sort of supernatural element, but no, it was just the banality of human darkness. A couple of extra points for baby Jeff. Murdery sad-bois too sad to murder each other.

Chris (guest review):

I don’t have much to say about this, except that whatever the opposite of Checkov’s gun is, this is it.

4/10 Goldboooos


The Town Where No One Gets Off on IMDB

Provoked by the snobbish attitude of a city slicker towards the people from the countryside, a man gets off his train at a random village to confirm his positive attitude about the country folk. He's in for a surprise - but so are they.

Director: Don McBrearty

Writers: Ray Bradbury (screenplay), Ray Bradbury (story)

Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Ed McNamara, Cec Linder