SPACEHUNTER

Directed by Lamont Johnson
Produced by Ivan Reitman, André Link & John Dunning
Written by Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg, Stewart Harding, Jean LaFleur, David Preston & Edith Rey
Cinematography by Frank Tidy
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Cast: Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Andrea Marcovicci & Michael Ironside

1983/90 mins/Color/4.0 Dolby Digital
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/Canada/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Columbia Tristar DVD

Spacehunter Wolff (Peter Strauss of the TV mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man") receives a distress call about three young women who had to land on a supposedly desert planet. The reward is huge, so without any hesitation Wolff and his sexy android Chalmers (Andrea Marcovicci) decide to take the bet.

But things doesn't go as planned. There's a war raging on the planet between the Scavs and the evil force of Overdog (Michael Ironside who gives the only worthy performance in the film). Soon the evil leader owns the Earth girls and he's about to have fun with them. Much to his displeasure, Wolff is helped by an annoying, dirty and red haired Niki (Molly Ringwald of THE BREAKFAST CLUB and PRETTY IN PINK). They soon form an unlikely duo in search of the women and the reward of 3000 megacredits.

With the international success of movies like THE ROAD WARRIOR and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, everyone was trying to make their own Post-Nuke flick. Well, SPACEHUNTER ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (its original title) turned out campy, corny, cheesy, dumb and just plain bad. As a kid I use to love this one but damn it has aged badly.

With Ivan Reitman producing and six writers, its easy to understand how much of a mess it became. Apart from the chase through the maze, none of the action sequences (something very important in the Post-Nuke genre) are interesting. The Wolff character is a bad attemp art trying to create another cool anti-hero... but they failed. Still the movie has sexy androids, sea monsters, nice sets, mad scientist and hot amazons so its still not completely a mess. Oh, and the movie even feature future GHOSTBUSTER, Ernie Hudson. André Link & John Dunning who also gave us MY BLOODY VALENTINE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME co-produced this one.

SPACEHUNTER flies into your DVD player thanks to Columbia Tristar (yeah I know, lame!). The movie is presented is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio (even though the box says 2.35:1) and it is anamorphic. The other side of the disc contains a full screen version. The image transfer isn't really anything special, its grainy and contains lots of scratches and dirt. The 4.0 Dolby Digital English audio track sounds good but nothing impressive. There's also a 2.0 Dolby Digital French track. Optional English subtitles are also available. The disc features static menus, 28 chapter stops, trailers for STARSHIP TROOPERS, MEN IN BLACK, KRULL, an inlay card and comes in a keep case.

This $14.4 million production managed only to make a mere $16 million at the box office. The movie was originally released in theaters in 3D.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2007. ©