Impulse

These people must have impulse control issues! It must be something in the water. What could it be? What are they doing? As they say: "You need to control yourself!" But it is something beyond their control. A guy bends his fingers back and breaks them-a woman screams and uncontrollably runs her car into another car-that is bizzare behavior! The movie is weird, but it is truly great! Me and my sister plan to watch it today while she is fixing my hair-11/3/13. Thank y ou for this movie and thanks for bringing shopping home to us.

This was not a made for TV movie. I saw this at the theatre when it was released in 1984. What it is lacking in acting, it makes up for in substance. It presents a story of what could happen if we were to lose control of our Freudian "ID" or our impluse center. Everyone has experienced the rage response sometime in their lives. Having studied behavioral science for years this behavior has been duplicated in the laboratory. This is an excellent film for psychology students or anyone interested in human behavior. Since the government really does have a terrible problem with hazardous waste disposal, the implications of this film are very real.

The idea of a small town coming unglued when people start acting on every impulse, good, bad, twisted, strange, etc is a very intriguing one. For the most part, the movie does a good job showing how this is at first just a bit strange and amusing before descending into outright nightmare.Meg Tilly who is an actress I really love and who I regret didn't make a lot of films when she was in her prime as an actress (she's returned to acting some but in supporting roles it seems) does a good job playing the central character of the story who watches in bewilderment, mounting horror, and abject terror as the nice little town she grew up in lurches into the Twilight Zone.The thing that I truly hated about the movie and would have led me to give it 3.5 stars if that was possible was the ending...<spoilers>The premise that there was a leak of toxic chemicals that got into the town's milk was reasonable. I know that is a chemical weapon called "BZ" that works against the mental processes of people exposed to it (although it makes them have hallucinations not act out on impulses).What was beyond crazy was that the "evil government" or "evil corporation" solution to the "oopsie" they had was to spray the town in broad daylight with cyanide and murder over 900 innocent men, women, and children. That is so preposterous that I would bet that anyone who says to himself or herself, "Yeah, that could happen" is probably also a 9-11 Truther.I wish they had simply made the ending where the government realized there had been a spill and moved to clean it up and just said "Congressional investigations are continuing." I can only think that this movie was made when the memory of Vietnam and Watergate was still fresh in the minds of people and people thought the government and/or corporations would con, template doing something like that, pull it off, and get away with it.

This movie was seen in the early eighties.I really enjoy it. There are things that I've seen in this movie that are weird! But I enjoyed it! You are so timely in sending this movie,and I thank you so much! You should see the end of this movie.It is tragic.

Very hot an sexy movie. Deals with incest though and under aged sex with minors. That is what impulse means you do it because you want to. Great story line. Excellent acting.

Given the title and DVD cover art (it shows stars Tim Matheson and Meg Tilly sort of looking up each others noses) for the film Impulse (1984), one might assume this to be a romantic thriller of sorts but it's really a sinister little piece of celluloid that asks the audience to imagine a place where people suddenly started acted on their impulses, doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted...directed by Graham Baker (Omen III: The Final Conflict, Alien Nation), the film stars Tim `Otter' Matheson (Animal House, Fletch), who also did the voice for Jonny Quest in the 1964 television cartoon series among other things, along with Meg Tilly (Psycho II, The Big Chill). Also appearing is Hume Cronyn (Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat), John Karlen (Trilogy of Terror), Claude Earl Jones (Used Cars, Evilspeak, Bride of Re-Animator), Lorinne Vozoff (Chaos Theory), and Bill Paxton, prior to his breakout role in John Hughes 1985 film Weird Science as the smarmy antagonistic brother Chet Donnelly.The story begins in what looks like a small, Californian town with shots of various animals acting peculiar, followed by a rather minor earthquake...you see, animals possess sensitivities much greater than that of humans, therefore imminent natural phenomenon can cause strange behavior in said animals...we then cut to establishing scenes in some major metropolitan city featuring both Matheson and Tilly, one showing Matheson's character, named Stuart, operating on a patient in a surgery room, the other showing Tilly's character, named Jenny, practicing ballet. Turns out the two are a couple, and after a disturbing phone call from Jenny's mother (Vozoff), one that ends with mom doing something completely unpredictable, the couple takes a trip to Jenny's small hometown, the same place that recently had the earthquake, where Stuart gets to meet the family, including Jenny's father Bob (Karlen), and her brother Eddie (Paxton), along with the local doctor named Carr, played by Cronyn. There's a bit of mystery behind the recent injury suffered by Jenny's mother, but this is soon overshadowed by strange behavior among some of the residents of the small town in that their actions seem to be those of impulse, with no regards for the consequences, including old men urinating in the streets, petty theft, actions based on uncontrolled rage, and public displays of lustful affection. Soon these relatively minor events become more and more common (and serious), and Stuart suspects a possible infection, but his efforts to discern the source of the madness are hampered by the ever increasing violent activity of the citizens, turning it into a veritable thunderdome, and also the very real possibility that he, himself, may be infected...This was an interesting film, but overall it felt like something that wasn't quite cooked long enough, like a half finished episode of the X-Files, sans Mulder and Scully. The increasing severity of the impulsive behavior among the townspeople was an fun aspect, because you have all these seemingly normal people doing things completely unexpected, and there was always the question of how far it would end up going (it went further than I thought). As others have mention, something much like this story has been done previously with George Romero's 1973 film The Crazies, although as you might expect, that film features a lot more violence, while Impulse obviously exhibits a larger budget and better production values and was produced for a more mainstream audience. I did like the `loose' feel of the story, but I felt no real connection to any of the characters. While I think both Matheson and Tilly are good actors, there wasn't a whole lot of chemistry between their characters, something I'd attribute more to the script rather than the performers themselves. And why did there seem so little interest in what happened to Jenny's mother shortly after the film begins? I would have thought such a bizarre action from a relatively normal and well-balanced (I'm assuming these last bits) individual would have raised a number of red flags, not to mention the increased unrestrained activity among some of the townspeople (not everyone in the town suffered from the unknown affliction). While there is dialog in the film, its overall effect felt minimal to me, as it seemed the director's intent was to tell much of the story through visuals (the opening sequences will make little sense until you get further into the film). This did work to some degree, but it's like building a brick wall without using any mortar...you can do it, and it may stand, but it will tumble due to lack of solidity. For those interested, there is some nekkidness in the film, but none from Ms. Tilly...what we do get is a full moon shot from Mr. Matheson. I don't mind male nekkidness in a film, but at least offset it with some of the female kind. There's a reason why female nekkidness is more prevalent in films over male nekkidness and that's because women's bodies are generally much better looking than men's bodies...that and the fact most of the films are made by men, but I digress...I think my favorite scene from the film featured the local sheriff, played by Jones, as he's pursuing a vandalism suspect and ends up doing something which I'm sure many law enforcement officials would probably love to do at least once, perhaps not with regards to such a minor offence, but still...the ending was good, a little unexpected, but looking back on it, it seemed a very realistic, if not frightening, reaction to the situation.The picture quality was very good, what of it I could see as the only version available on this DVD is the full screen, pan and scan format (1.33:1), the same one featured in the earlier Anchor Bay release. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio comes through clean and clear. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French, but as far as any real special features, there are none.Cookieman108Oh, by the way, did anyone else think it strange that Stuart and Jenny should take a bus to travel to Jenny's hometown? Especially since Stuart is some kind of medical doctor?

Very good movie!

The DVD arrived in great condition n plays fine.