Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Leofwine_draca This is an interesting but flawed attempt at producing a sci-fi western hybrid in the form of WESTWORLD. In this case, the western scenario is actually a virtual reality plot designed to work out the survival of the fittest, thus discovering who the best killer is. In this "game", points are awarded for making a kill, so life is cheap as you would imagine. However, there are certain rules which must be obeyed at all costs. Sadly, WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY is spoiled by a confusing plot which remains irritatingly ambiguous as to what the heck is going on in the real world. We never learn who the subjects really are, or why they have been selected; instead we see glimpses of them in their past lives which don't really help. Similarly, the actions of Jack Palance - initially appearing to be a good guy - are never explained at the end.Although it doesn't have anything in the way of shocks or surprises, this film does have some fun with the clichéd western shoot-outs and gun battles, which are kept lively and fun. Director Peter Sasdy injects certain scenes with style and power, and its just a shame that the film can't follow this through as a whole. Although it was a UK financed-production, this was shot in Canada (just like THE HAUNTING OF JULIA and THE UNCANNY from the same period). The Canadian locations are pretty but unconvincing for a western town.The acting is pretty good, with even the poorest performers still being above average. Palance is great as the friendly Friedlander, and seems to be having a ball as in most of his films. Keir Dullea is a charismatic and tough hero, while familiar faces such as that of Barry Morse pad out the cast. I'll make it clear that I've never really liked THE BROOD's Samantha Eggar, and here she plays a duel role of an occupant of the town and a scientist guiding the events. Bad news for me, I thought, but thankfully she's not too irritating this time around.Although WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY lacks the exploitational ingredient of violence to make it enjoyable, I found the whole idea of the game to be an interesting one, and the film kept me watching throughout without ever becoming boring. It just would have been nice if some of the actions and story behind the plot had been explained in greater detail. In all, though, not a bad attempt and worth a watch for fans.

Jonathon Dabell An initial look at the storyline of Welcome To Blood City screams :'Westworld rip-off!' As it happens, it's not really much like Westworld at all. Welcome To Blood City has a few good ideas and a decent score by Roy Budd, but is rather hampered by lacklustre handling.A number of strangers, all suffering some form of amnesia, wake up in a barren desert wasteland. They cannot remember how they got there or where they came from, but in their pockets they carry an unusual card which tells them how many people they have killed (even though, as far as they're aware, they have never killed anyone in their lives). The bewildered group start hiking in search of food, water and shelter. Soon they find themselves in Blood City, a violent town which seems to be based on an alternate wild west. The leader/sheriff of the town, Frendlander (Jack Palance) explains to them that, as newcomers, they can either choose to become slaves for one year (if they choose this, they will be protected from being killed) or they can refuse to become slaves and go it alone (this is a much riskier choice, as they will be fair game to be killed by another citizen). It turns out that Blood City has its own complicated laws and rules, with credits awarded for fair-fight killings, and immortality awarded to anyone who can successfully carry out twenty fair killings. One of the newcomers, Lewis (Keir Dullea) is determined to fight the system, and sets about striking back his own way. Meanwhile, it is made clear to us, the audience (though not to the inhabitants of Blood City) that the entire thing is an artificial reality – a game, almost – in which various people are being tested for their mental and physical resolve under dangerous circumstances, so that the best ones can be employed as government agents and assassins back in the modern world.Certainly weird, Welcome To Blood City unfortunately fails to be similarly wonderful. It's a near-miss more than anything else, a good idea which doesn't quite make the transition into a good full-length film. The concept of a virtual reality scenario in which human guinea pigs are put unknowingly through a dangerous game is quite intriguing, and there are interesting moments throughout the film. Dullea is OK as the 'hero' and Palance does his usual shifty-eyed, furtive, twitchy turn as the sinister sheriff. Samantha Eggar is rather wasted in a dual role as one of the citizens of Blood City and a laboratory technician in the 'real' world overseeing the experiment. The promising plot doesn't really develop into anything unfortunately – it's an idea that never really gets beyond the 'idea' stage. The resulting film that stems from it doesn't reach the heights of cleverness, thoughtfulness or excitement that one might have hoped for. Worth a look for its intriguing possibilities, but ultimately Welcome To Blood City is a bit of a disappointment.

BA_Harrison The intriguing subject of virtual reality gets a rather unremarkable treatment in Peter Sasdy's sci-fi/western Welcome to Blood City, which sees a group of strangers unknowingly plugged into a computer simulation of a wild west town, the purpose being to identify natural fighters and leaders.Keir Dullea puts in fine performance as Lewis, a recent arrival who gradually works his way up the social ladder, and Jack Palance is solid as the town's sheriff, but the film suffers from lifeless direction and a badly structured plot, which misses an opportunity for a neat twist at the end by revealing it's virtual reality angle way too early.My copy was the dreadful pan and scan version, which didn't exactly help the viewing experience, but even cutting it some slack for this fact, Welcome to Blood City was decidedly mediocre. Westworld did the sci-fi/western thing so much better.

Score_The_Film Despite it's lackluster production values and the fact that the copy I watched was a crappy pan & scan copy, I really enjoyed it.THIS IS NOT A REMAKE OF WESTWORLD as some have suggested. Westworld dealt with a theme park robot that went loopy and tried to kill people. WTBC is about a scientific experiment that places innocent victims in a virtual reality to test their skills. If anything WTBC is closer to The Prisoner episode, "Living In Harmony" as Bishop-11 mentioned, than anything else.Palance is a lot of fun, as usual, and HE'S having fun without over-doing it as he sometimes did in the 70s (plus he's not drunk). The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. For the most part I'm satisfied with the plot details that were given but I would have liked a little bit more. For example, in the beginning the "experiment subjects" have cards in their pockets labeling them murderers and how many people they killed. Now, unless those cards are only there to give the subjects a tiny bit of info as to who they are and maybe why they are there, I'd like to know more about their purpose. However, I really like that the film makers don't hold your hand and spoon feed you the information, allowing you to think for yourself. I guess I can't have my cake and eat it, too.Roy Budd turns in a good score, too, except I can do without the musical saw that showed up from time to time. It's threatening where it needs to be and there are times where the film could have used more music instead of some scenes sitting there flat without any at all.I've been going through a 70's Sci-Fi kick recently, searching out films I hadn't seen before. This one was a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it has pacing issues but it's got a great concept and it's a film that really relies on the story, not the effects. And that's a nice change of pace compared to what we've been given for the past 20 years.