Ragewar

Do you love excessive doses of 1980s cheese? "Ragewar" (re-titled "The Dungeonmaster" to profit from the popularity of the Dungeons & Dragons game) is the movie for you! It's one of the most deliriously cruddy B movies that this viewer has seen from that decade. If you're anything like this viewer, you'll be smiling while also shaking (or holding) your head. It's that goofy. The acting is priceless, the special effects plentiful, the sequences blessedly brief, and it never pretends to be serious stuff. Hell, it's got to get an extra point for the cameo by heavy metal band W.A.S.P. alone.

Each sequence is written and directed by a different director, and there are *seven* of them in total: Rosemarie Turko, John Carl Buechler, Charles Band, David Allen, Steven Ford, Peter Manoogian, and Ted Nicolaou. They each tackle a different "challenge" that computer repairman Paul Bradford (Jeffrey Byron) must meet as he is menaced by an overlord named Mestema (Richard 'Bull' Moll of 'Night Court') who's been looking for a worthy opponent. Also along for the ride is Pauls' imperiled girlfriend Gwen (Leslie Wing). Fortunately, Paul has on his side a computer intelligence that he's created that he can conveniently wear around his wrist.

If you're still reading, you should have a fairly good time with this, knowing full well that the movie itself may not be "good", but earns many big laughs. Makeup effects expert Buechler and the late special effects artist Allen do some good work, the music is fun to listen to (both the score and the W.A.S.P. tune "Tormentor"), the acting from the heroes endearing if not that competent, and Band and company throw many different elements - a claymation giant, ice "sculptures", post-nuke mutant bikers, a serial killer, cartoon dragons - to help prevent us from ever getting bored.

If I'd first seen this back when it was originally released, doubtless my rating would have been even higher.

Aahh... One from back in the days when Charles Band still made *cough* great *cough* movies... I saw this one countless times as a kid, and believe it or not, it was just too much fun re-watching it last week. I admit, it's not a very good movie. In fact, you can hardly call it a real movie. It's more like a collection of shorts, much like an anthology movie. But the main characters remain the same throughout all segments and there is an on-going story present.

If you like your 80's cheese fantastically melted, then you're going to have more than a mouthful with THE DUNGEONMASTER. Jeff Byron plays computer-geek Paul (with a computer called "Cal" installed in his... glasses, no less) with a beautiful girlfriend. Absolutely for no reason at all, he and the girl suddenly get zapped to another dimension where Mestema reigns. Mestema (Richard Moll with evil make-up, very appropriately acting the part), is some devil-demon-dude who is just bored out of his wits, and decides to have some fun by subjecting Paul to seven challenges. This is where the fun begins!

THE DUNGEONMASTER simply is an excuse to display as much 80's special effects wizardry and cram as much horror/sci-fi/fantasy you can in one movie. All segments are utterly pointless. The whole movie is, for that matter - I think the point is: If Paul loses one of the challenges, Mestema gets the girl. Or something. But what matters is: THE DUNGEONMASTER is just too much fun. Especially if you still carry the child within, as they say, and allow yourself to be amazed and entertained by this old school SFX extravaganza.

We've got a claymation giant made out of stone. Trolls. Zombies. A little devil puppet-dude. A werewolf. Blackie Lawless and his band W.A.S.P. performing. A serial killer. Post-Apocalyptic mutant-bikers. Animated dragons. And much, much more... I ask you: How can you not have fun with this film? Also, go take a look at the full crew involved in the making of this film. We are talking the pre-Full Moon dream team here: Charles Band, Richard Band, David Allen, John Carl Buecher, Patrick Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou,...

I admit, when people should give this a first time watch in this day and age, they'll probably call it a bad movie. But if you grew up on silly nonsense like this, there really is no substitute.

So yeah, I should call this a guilty pleasure, but I honestly love this flick. So don't hold my rating against me.

This movie is vastly imaginative. So imaginative in fact that it took 7 directors to make it! The sets costumes and monsters all work well together to paint a fabulous picture of a computer warrior overcoming adversity through 7 different evil worlds. One of which is an evil heavy metal concert featuring the band W.A.S.P.This movie is filled with marvelous special effects including dueling magical dragons, a stone giant, disgusting undead warriors and a score of fantastic weapons originating from the computer wristband worn by the hero. A very action packed epic by a team of excellent directors including the legendery Charles Band!

This movie is not at all that bad. I rate it a 6 which averages out to *** out of ***** stars. There is some nice stop-motion animation by David Allen and some fine make-up effects, included a neat little creature puppet. The " Heavy Metal " segment directed by Charles BaNd does not have much of a point so this is sort of the downfall on the movie. The acting is somewhat corny but what do you expect. It would have been better if David Allen's sequence--Stone Canyon Giant--would have been longer. It is a fine model and the animation is rather smooth. There are only about 12 stop-motion shots, If there were 20 and add a little more plot to this sequence (the actual sequence lasted only about 6-7 minutes but the giant didn't really get to do anything except chase the protagonist around some large rocks before it gets destroyed. If you liked this movie ok and gave it *** or more you should see----Laserblast, Ghoulies 2, and Robot Wars.

Part of the problem is the plot summary is innacurate; the idea is that the 'Dungeonmaster' is looking for a worth opponent. He sees the hero, the nerd, and sees his skills, he decides to pull him into his world and put him through the challenges, using the guys girlfriend as collateral should the hero decline. It was a good movie, especially considering that Empire pictures wasn't some huge company like Universal.