Rising Storm

Rising Storm is a low budget straight-to-video sci-fi comedy which I guess really should be more and more of a cult classic. There are obvious weaknesses to this film, but it is really funny from time to time.

We're in a pot apocalyptic USA in the fascist year of the Lord 2099. Yeah, just that. The States are ruled by a fascist TV-preacher which says the world was ruined by rock music a 100 years ago, and one DJ in particular, Eliot Kropfeld, is to be blamed. The main goal is to get a video tape on TV on "National TV- viewing day" where everyone is forced to watch TV.

Quite insane plot, but nevertheless this film manages to give some good messages of our live back in 1989, or even today. Excavations they do, even brings up rubber dildos (believe to be hand grenades), VHS and music from The Animals (It's my life...) And plastic cards are referred to as "a thing which made poor people rich".

The film uses cliche's from action- and war movies as well, and you'll find nods to films like 1984, Alien, A Clockwork Orange, Mad Max a.s.o. I really think that this film must have been inspired Starship Troppers as well. At lest there are some things which resembles in the film making.

The start of the movie troubles to find the pace, but then slowly the film finds it's form, and get more and more enjoyable. Cheesy, yes. But then it's supposed to be, isn't it!?

If this film had Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead and a bigger budget, it would have been a sci-f classic.

Recommended cult watching!

I have watched my fair share of Post-Apocalyptic movies and I thought I would probably like this one but it honestly didn't really grab me in a big way.

When the movie starts up and it said Directed by Franky Schaeffer, I remembered I had seen a movie by him yonks ago, 'Booby Trap' I think it was, which was another PA movie but if my memory serves I don't think it was as jokey as Rising Storm is. To set the tone of RS it starts out kind of like a parody of the opening sequence of Blues Brothers, with the character that is played by Galligan collecting his brother from Prison upon his release...it even makes the joke about the absence of the nice car they used to own.

As the movie slowly progresses we learn about the wastes being governed by a Televangelist, which is a unique plot point but doesn't add anything interesting to the movie. The brothers set off on their adventure, get up to some low-brow high-jinx and eventually meet up with two women whom end up becoming their companions. Will they bring down the dictatorship? Will they live to eat McDonald's again? Will Bill Katt make a small but significant appearance more than once? You have to watch to find out...but I thought this was really a bit drab, only half the jokes seemed to work and even then they were very mild. If you are still interested then by all means, head into the wastes for the VHS!

During one summer in my life, I did a LOT of late-night cable TV viewing. Saw LOTS of straight-to-cable and direct-to-video films. This one stands out - good cinematography, occasional bits of satire, and well-done action scenes. Rent it on a rainy day, cause there are a lot of parched desert scenes.

In the year 2099, two brothers (Wayne Crawford and Zach Galligan) get swept up in a fight against a religious zealot world leader in a post-apocalyptic USA. This was one of a series of films actor-producer Crawford shot in the late '80s in South Africa. The poster promises a generic action movie, but this one is a really weird one with lots of oddball moments and satirical takes on prosperity religious types. This may come from director Francis Schaeffer (Wired to Kill), who grew up the son of one of the pioneers of the American Evangelical Christian movement (he turned his back on it in his 30s). The desert action is well staged and they certainly get a lot from their locations. I'm assuming the only film in history where someone gets crushed to death by a Bob's Big Boy statue. John Rhys-Davies pops in for a few scenes as the bad guy tracking our leads.

Rising Storm is an all around excellent film. A post-apocalyptic, satirical, B movie that no true movie buff should miss. If you've gone beyond the thunder dome with cherry 2000 and helped the ice pirates destroy Jared Syn, then this is definitely for you.