Reactor

The tv station I work for recently showed this movie. The shootout at the end has to be one of the most poorly put together scenes I have ever seen in a movie. While watching you may be laughing to much at it to care though. Great movie to watch late at night with friends.

This was David Heaveners' laughable homage to/ copy of the westerns of Clint Eastwood, combining as it does elements of the Dollar films, Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world purely as a cost-cutting measure. A Western would have required horses and costumes and you wouldn't be able to hire bikers to play the heavies for a couple of barrels of beer.

The other reviewers have amply covered the ludicrous aspects of this movie that make it so stupid, so funny and so entertaining. But the highspot to me came when the townsfolk were waiting for the biker gang to attack them. Our hero shows them how to use guns, but then, just before the gang are due to arrive, he leaves the town and the townsfolk to their own devices. WHY ? He liked the townsfolk. He loved one of the women. He wanted revenge on the bikers. Why ride away and leave the townsfolk to certain death etc ? And it suddenly struck me. That is what Eastwood did in High Plains Drifter......

My review was written in May 1989 after watching the film on AIP video cassette.

"Deadly Reactor", formerly titled "The Reactor", is an offbeat Western in sci-fi clothing that could attract a modest following among home video aficionados.

Filmmaker-singer David Heavene demonstrates, as he did in previous pic "Outlaw Force", a fondness for the Clint Eastwoo/Sergio Leone Westerns, Here he plays a preacher-styled gunslinger in a post-nuclear war West, appointed town sheriff and charged with defending the righteous citizens from a marauding gang (styled like contemporary bikers) led by fatso Hog (Darwyn Swalve).

Relying over-much on Heavener's voice-over exposition, pic opens with him recuperating from wounds inflicted by Hog's gang. Hog rape his sister and killed his family, so Heavener has lots of avenging to do. He's known as "The Reactor", a tag acquire from learning gunfighting from wise old mountain man Stuart Whitman, who taught him to observe the other guy, prompt the adversary to make the first move and then react.

Heavener, who resembles Tommy Lee Jones with beard, is quite effective doing Eastwood's Western shtick, abetted here by a catchy, folksy musical score by Brian Bennett that is inspired by Ennio Morricone's "For a Few Dollars More" theme.

Where DID they get the screenplay and the actors for this laughable attempt at a movie? At times I wondered if perhaps there was a new school of acting where woodenness was considered a new art-form. The gaps in the dialogue let you can almost hear the prompter reminding them of their lines. Look out for the guy who jumps backwards a second after the shotgun blast hits him. Mind you, there is a cute girl who plays as major a role as any in the movie. She willingly shows off her body which goes a little way to reprieving this otherwise sad attempt at movie making. Mind you, I only paid 50 pence for the DVD so I really didn't expect much.

There's a pretty good premise to this. A man's sister, neice, and nephew are killed in the post-apocalypse where only the Amish and outlaw gangs seem to have survived. He is trained by an old timer the ways of the cowboy to seek revenge.

What sadly drags this down though is the horrible acting, weird pacing, and shacky directing. The gang themselves are a little to over the top as well and exceptionally rapey even at weird times. This was Heavener's second attempt at directing and he would get a little better on later efforts like Twisted Justice and Prime Target.