Radioactive Dreams

As a young buck I was an extra in this film in LA. There were so many extras and no real coordination, we didn't know when the camera was rolling and when it wasn't. Shooting seemed to go on forever without a break, so when you got tired you just walked off the set and went home.

We knew when making it that it would go direct to video. It was actually released, and played at my local theater for about two days before it was yanked. I had never before seen a movie taken out of the theater that quickly.

I'm still looking for the video just for nostalgia. I'm glad there are some people out there who can enjoy for something.

The movie itself is not particularly good. B-movie-esque with a few laughs, and the otherwise simple plot is told in a rather incomprehensible and messy way. The acting is pretty bad and the cutting almost hilarious. There are definitely many better movies to watch before this one, unless you have a thing for 80s kitsch (I do).

The movie does however shine in one particular area; the soundtrack. I have watched (or listened to) the first 3 minutes on repeat for a good while already. Hard-punching 80s synth wave / new wave epicness bathed in reverb - I love it!

You will either love this film or wish you hadn't started it.

I loved it, can't help it.

A great post-nuclear-tribe-based world with no rhyme or reason to it. But who cares. Absolute ridiculous. Totally 80s

Lisa Blount is amazing in her pseudo "V" post apocalyptic costume, a must for her fans (which is how I ended up seeing this). Dudikoff is (somehow) hilarious. Albert Pyun juggles the mish-mash of film genres, whether comedy, action, pop video, or detective noir (little bit tongue in cheek with that last one), and keeps the film together going even at its sloppiest.

Escape From New York meets The Warriors meets John Hughes meets Buckaroo Banzai meets Blade Runner meets low budget meets classic 80s DTV.

I have been a sort-of fan of this film for a long time, as it was an attempt (no matter how misdirected) to like two of my favorite genres of film. This is a strange movie, but about as good as it could have been, given the budget. However, I must warn any potential viewers that you MUST be prepared to suspend a significant amount of disbelief...

The ultimate problem is that it cannot seem to decide if it is a comedy, or more serious film. It begins with sort of a comedic premise, it works well as a strange sort of slapstick comedy (with Michael 'American Ninja' Dudikoff turning a surprisingly good performance). It is two kids who were locked in a fall-out shelter by their 'fathers' the day of the nuclear war. All they are left with is pulp detective books and so they model themselves on the characters therein. They then enter the world after the bomb and thier innocence is confronted by a series of unpleasant challenges and betrayals (some that are surprisingly un-funny, but not bad). They then become 'real' film noir style, jaded anti-heroes and confront the baddies.

Then the film ends in a dance number...

OK, it's wierd, but I honestly believe that anyone who has an appreciation for strange film will really enjoy this movie. It is cute and kind of innocent and relatively entertaining. It is worth at least a watch.

Gosh golly, Marlowe, i surely do love this film. All right, so it's another tidbit of trashy 80s post-apocalyptic fluff, but it's really the cream of the crop and has a great soundtrack, fun sets and costumes, tongue-in-cheek writing and acting, cannibalism, swing dancing, love, innocence, mayhem, violence, and plenty of silly 50s references... Philip and Marlowe (ha, ha) leave the bomb shelter after basically their whole entire lives, and emerge into a radioactive wasteland, to search for their fathers. This ranks right up there with "Rockula," "Bill and Ted," and "Pretty in Pink" as the cutest 80s kitsch films. Okay, so maybe i'm a little hung up on Raymond Chandler and Humphrey Bogart and that whole genre, so i enjoyed this a little more than someone who didn't grow up in the 80s and who never saw "The Big Sleep" more than 20 times. But i still recommend this as rollicking fun for everyone who loves mutant new wave girlies on motorcycles etc.