Negative Positive
Title: "Hollywood Squares" Goes to the Movies
Review: Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. pooled their resources to create a perversely watchable disaster. Running nearly three mind-boggling hours, producer Irwin Allen's "The Towering Inferno" (1974) represents the cinematic equivalent of "The Hollywood Squares." All that's missing is Paul Lynde. Inexplicably nominated for Best Picture, this skyscraper soap opera makes "The Poseidon Adventure" look like "Battleship Potemkin." A blockbuster cast generates "take-the-money-and-run" embarrassment - except for the inimitable Fred Astaire, who exudes class in the cheesiest of surroundings. (Few things are cheesier than William Holden's red velvet tuxedo.) Stirling Silliphant's ludicrous script includes the most unintentionally hilarious dialogue this side of Ed Wood. The film's strongest asset lies in its much-touted special effects. Seen today, "The Towering Inferno" exists more as a pop-culture artifact than a compelling piece of cinema.
Is the review positive or negative? 