City Limits

It took a lot of talent to make one really big pile of crap. James Earl Jones looks as if he'd rather be somewhere else and one can only imagine what the heck was going through Robby Benson's mind when he signed on.

It deserved every bit of abuse it received when it was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

It's really hard to know how to rate this film because there's two ways to watch it. One ways is horribly wrong, and the other way is wonderful. If I'm rating the movie on its own merits, it's a horrible piece of garbage which should never have been made (what was James Earl Jones thinking accepting this part...). If, however, I'm rating this as an MST3K fan, it is comedy gold. So, to recap, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE JUST FOR THE MOVIE ITSELF! You will regret that decision forever. Do, however, pull up the MST3K version of this on Netflix and enjoy it.

It's the future for the year it was released. Society has crumbled, and a bunch of handsome young people are living in a broken down part of the city, dressing in cast-off clothes, riding around on their perfectly maintained motorcycles, reading comic books and holding competitions where they try to kill each other. For some reason, adults wish to interfere with this utopian existence, offering them things like food and medicine. The nerve of some people!

It's a chaotically organized movie, filled with performers available on the cheap, -- James Earl Jones does intro and extro in voice-over, and there's Rae Dawn Chong, Kim Cattrell, and for that Star Turn, Robbie Benson in a brief bit. There are motorcycles aplenty, and plenty of signs of a functioning society, including a scene where some of the principals break into a schoolroom to shoot each other. In sum, none of it makes any sense.

City Limits is so mind boggling since it can't make it's mind up if it's an apocalypse/biker/romance/comedy. Admittedly, I have never seen a society relying so heavily on comic books and the significance of Insect Man. Add lots of crappy costumes, cheapo sets and even more cheapo actors, typical 80s soundtrack drenched with crappy casio tones and James Earl Jones impatiently waiting for his check and City Limits will have you wishing for Soonya Corp. to take over!! Guest starring (oh, I don't think so) Robbie Benson as the epitome of corporate lifestyle refusing to die in the apocalypse. And Kim Cattrall, one of the dues she had to pay early on. She was great in Big Trouble in Little China, why this Kim?? I still laugh seeing James Earl Jones shooting a shotgun and delivering fine lines like, "Damn boy. I told you to find adventure, not to drag it home." Watch this MST style and it becomes a tad more entertaining.

Though I enjoy the post-apocalypse genre, even I'm hard pressed to mention anything that I liked in this dung heap. Well...some of the music wasn't bad, though it got repetitive eventually. The rest of the movie I was simply amazed at how lame the action and story were, and how cheap everything looked. This actually got released to theaters? Amazing. I hope James Earl Jones and Robby Benson only accepted their (tiny) roles for the money.

Maybe this is fun to watch in the MST3K version - but it's certainly a chore to watch in the original version.