ben-eck James Marshall (our erstwhile hero) slumps into a chair in a black-lit, glow in the dark bedroom. For a second, this could be something in 'Flatliners'. But no. What transpires is far more frightening. Scott Cohen (Max Medina from the Gilmore Girls playing basically the same character but with 808 State instead of Proust, plus a backwards cap) leaps behind a keyboard. A synth sax solo follows. A glissando. "Do you know anything about techno" asks Max. James Marshall stares back, dead eyed. "See, the idea is to get the vibe going". Dead eyes. "Then you maintain the vibe with a transducing bass" (sic). Dead eyes. "We're primal, heading for cosmic". Dead eyes. "And just when you think we're in galactic ecstasy... We go... ACIIIEEEEDDDD!". In walks Christina Applegate. "This is hardcore nutronic mutilation!!" exclaims Max Medina. Yet still, dead eyes. "We're going on a psychotically calibrated, electronically executed, digitally compressed, pus excreting, journey to sonic grooviness!". Finally, those dead eyes light up! James Marshall smiles. He is no longer a drunk deadbeat with no hands. He's a sober hard worker with robot hands and in just a moment he's going to snog Christina Applegate. Things are looking up. That's worth a grin, right? Or perhaps he's just excited about the pus. This film is a utopian vision of all we have lost as a society. They serve mango juice at free parties, for goodness sake. You could afford a spacious NYC apartment just by working in 'marketing' (read: sellotaping fluorescent posters to lampposts and selling t-shirts at parties). If you were behind on your rent you could just sexually abuse your landlady. Wholewheat bread was apparently a novelty. You could wear a white t shirt with a black leather waistcoat and look moderately cool. I wish I was about 15 years older. And the music is actually really good, throughout. Really. There's a moment when they all sit around eating dinner discussing their generation. "We're generation x" says Appleby, "the generation with no name". "Yes" says Max Medina "there's nothing left to invent, no frontiers left to cross. The boomers did all that, we just get to enjoy it". "Actually" says the geeky character (whom they just call 'geek' all the way through) "there is one frontier left. Cyberspace. The space inside a computer. It's the last great unknown". Man. He had his revenge alright.

Trace Oakley When I first saw VIBRATIONS back in 1996, I described it to friends who swore I was making it up. A keyboardist (James Marshall) has his hands cut off by some thugs playing around with a backhoe. He becomes a homeless bum after his girlfriend flinches at the touch of his fake hands. Our hero then catches some zzzs in a warehouse next to a rave, and is booted out by the manager, played by Christina Applegate. She is later accosted by some thugs - not the same ones who cut off James' hands - and he comes to her rescue just as they pull a switchblade which lands squarely in the palm of one of the fake hands. This frightens the thugs, who wander off muttering that "that dude isn't real or something." Charmed by his heroics, but not his smell, Christina takes James home for a bath. She just happens to live in the same building as some techno-wizards, who create "cyberhands" for our poor disabled protagonist. Just like that he becomes the top handless techno music star in the country. The scene where he's reunited with his policeman dad is too precious, excruciating, and unbelievable to describe, as are the final moments of the film, which involve revenge against the first batch of thugs, and a cryptic nod of the head to dad that clearly signals, "those are the guys who cut off my hands." The acting is atrocious, the script is beyond ludicrous, and it's astonishing that anyone could keep a straight face while on screen.That said, in the spirit of PLAN 9, GLEN OR GLENDA, and others of that ilk, VIBRATIONS is a lot of fun.

AMcElvain Scott Cohen plays the exuberant and goofy Simeon with great energy and abandon. His character was totally believable as a creative and funky rave musician. He had all the best lines, and he was the only one who actually looked like he was playing his instrument because his fingers were at least in the correct zone of the keyboard for the music that was playing. But only one brilliant performance (and a lot of funky hats) can't carry the whole film. Christina Applegate was less than her spunky self here. And the guy in the lead role blew an awesome opportunity to show us his range of going from successful to drunken bum in the street and beyond. He was almost not even there, and that's too bad. (See, I can't even remember his name!) But overall, the story was an uplifting one, and carried with it a good anti-drug message. Perhaps a younger person than me should review this: I was done with rave-type parties about 17 years ago...

BlueFormicaHalo All I can say to "Vibrations," a schlocky, justifiably little-seen, 1995 cyber/techno romance, is YUCK. Former "Twin Peaks" star James Marshall (and although I am very pro-Peaks stars, he is one that I can do without) plays an aspiring musician who gets in an accident removing both his hands. He then goes to the street and becomes your average homeless bum. One night he finds a nice abandoned storing garage, which turns into a rave as he awakens. There he meets Christina Applegate, giving the only decent performance throughout this whole movie. She plays Anamika, an owner of the rave, and she soon falls for Marshall in a sappy, corny romance. The biggest problem here is the supporting cast (most notably Appegate's excruciatingly annoying roommates), and there is nothing, nothing at all, that can save "Vibrations" from being anything but bottom-of-the-barrel crap.Yuck. Zero Stars out of Four.