Oblivion

Fun-tastic sf-western, full of gags, thanks to a sassy script from Peter David: the son of a great marshall of the law is forced against his will to take the star from the deceased father and fight against a bunch of criminals, lead by a lizardman call Red-Eye. I think this is the only movie where you may find a Wishmaster, a Catwoman, a Sulu, a Lurch...

Boy, this movie is like a circus: a variety of bizarre and colorful characters and events spiced up with fun & cheesy special effects. I think this movie might have created a total new subgenre on it's own by mixing sci-fi/western/comedy/horror/drama/revenge flicks all together. This movie spawned from production company Full Moon, which was at it's best - in my opinion - during the late eighties and the first half of the nineties. OBLIVION, though not their best movie, is a fine example of how crazy they can get.

We've got: Spaceships, a 19th century western town with money-machines, a green alien lizard-man with an eye-patch, a cyborg-deputy, a faggot-mariachi, giant stop-motion scorpions, an S&M/Gothic-babe with a whip (Musetta Vander can lick my neck anytime), an over-friendly grim-looking undertaker, an Indian with too much brown make-up and a bad long-hair wig, a drunk Japanese dude (George Takei giving us silly STAR TREK inside jokes), midgets in a barfight, a coffin-shaped coroner's house, pyramids (huh?), an empath protagonist, a poisonous Manh-Ding, Bingo on Thursdays, Indian magic, a grande finale in the Badlands,... ehr, I'm gonna stop now, 'cause the list's getting awful long here.

This movie also has a cameo by Isaac Hayes (the man can't act, but is funny as hell), a double roll by Andrew"Djinn"Divoff as the lizard-man Redeye and a dumb hustler Einstein (slightly hilarious) and a delicious performance by hot-babe-dressed-in-leather Musetta Vander as the whippin' Lash. (Musetta also stars in MANSQUITO, which is like a b-movie cross-over between THE FLY and MIMIC, so go see it, you pulpy movie-lovers!)

What about the story of OBLIVION? Hell, who needs a story if you got all the above-mentioned ingredients? But there is one, and it's full of stupid and funny dialogues and situations. I recommend this for 90 minutes of pure ridiculous nonsense. Now, somebody please give me the sequel, OBLIVION 2: BACKLASH. I have to see it!

What do you expect? After all, these are the people that brought you Jack Deth and the Trancers movies! It's an occasionally slow-paced sci-fi western parody. The acting is mostly dreadful, and the plot is telegraphed a mile away, but if you didn't expect that from the Full Moon folks, you deserve what you get. A movie best experienced with friends and vast quantities of intoxicants. Those of us who read comics in the 70s will get the "Man-Thing" reference, and it is a hoot to see George Takei telling a bottle of whiskey, "Jim Beam me up!" Meg Foster is totally wasted as a cyborg deputy, but she does what she can with a terrible role. I loved Musetta Vander as the S&M fantasy gal Lash. A good bad movie in spite of occasional slow bits and obvious plotting. MST3K material for sure.

Oblivion is a low-budget cheesy space-western with so many in-jokes and running gags and stereotypes that it has twice been the cornerstone of video parties at my place!

The story is coherent-but-flimsy. The real fun is in the bizarre special-effects, the character references, the costumes, etc.

To enjoy this movie, make sure you know what the major players have done before. Keep it in mind. Listen to every word. Have half-a-dozen other people there. With lots of snacks or beer.

Oh, and the plot? Who cares. Much like a Batman or Addam's Family movie (for several reasons, both), this movie is about look, feel, and fun. Plot is almost incidental.

Set in the year 3031 on a frontier planet light years away from Earth, a bizarre gang of desperadoes set on turning the tumbleweed town of Oblivion into their own private haven.

Made nearly 20 years before the arguably pretentious Cowboys and Aliens, Oblivion is an obscure FullMoon nugget. Although the costumes and sets appear cheap they're fitting enough in this outlandish western futuristic alien tale.  Despite the offbeat humour and pacing director Sam Irvin gives us forcefields, cyborgs, fistfights, spaceships, guns, gadgets and giant Harryhausen- like scorpions. Oblivion is an 90s film with and 1980's b-feel and 70s stock soundtrack heart. 

The 'Biff Tannen' villain Redeye played by Andrew Divoff makeup is effective. There's an odd mix pop-culture cast including Batman's Julie Newmar, Star Treks George Takei, singing legend Isaac Hayes, Master of the Universe and They Live's Meg Foster to name a few. There's also a leather-clad whip sporting  Musetta Vander who looks particularly fetching. 

If you like B-films and enjoy the unlikely list of genre crossovers Oblivion is the closest you'll get to a live action BraveStarr.