Stalker

Title: Stalker
Year: 1979 (Russia), 1982 (US)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Writers: Arkadi Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky & Andrei Tarkovsky, based on the Strugatskys' novel
Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Alisa Frejndlikh, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko
Music: Eduard Artemyev
Distinctions: formerly on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: there's a mysterious region called The Zone, and the Stalker leads people in illegally
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), June 2008
Subjective Rating: 3/10 (Bad).
Objective Rating: 2/10 (gets points for concept and special effects/design) c. 1.7/4 (Eh).

Slow, uninteresting and beats you over the head with bad philosophy. It turns out the horrors and wonders of "The Zone" are three hours of strong breezes and dark tunnels. The characters are walking symbols. Occasionally, the dialog makes a little sense. The cinematography is very stylized at the expense of clarity. They often have conversations with their backs to the camera so you don't know who's saying what (which I think is the primary contributor to the dialog problem). Promising concept; terrible movie.