Shepherd

A film that has C Thomas Howell (Dead Fire) as a star should raise alarm, and let's face it, to a certain extent you should know what to expect. The thing with Sheperd is that the whole set up is great: A post-apocalyptic underground world where religious factions fight for the mind and souls of the populace? That sounds great, doesn't it?

In the hands of, say, Enzo Castellari or Joe D'Amato, this would have been a great film, and although the film is full of nice quirks and strange characters, the film just seems to meander along and regularly falls into cliché. On the quirky side, you've got Roddy Piper as a messiah type leader (and truth be told, he's good in this), David Carradine as a John Wayne impersonating, crazy ventriloquist (also good), and various scantily clad women, but the action is terribly filmed and the story is just what you would expect.

C Thomas Howell (Nursie) just doesn't cut it for me as an action hero. His beard reminded me a Gary Bushell, of all people. I suppose with more to do he would have been more acceptable, but he just runs from one scene to the other with a chick and her kid in tow.

You see (Thomas Howell), our hero is a Shepherd, who kills other religious leaders on behalf of Piper, but balks at a hit and has some guys sent after him, one of which was his old cop buddy with a secret. His hit turns out to be another Shepherd with a kid, whom our hero takes a fancy to as his wife and kid were murdered by someone or other. Did I mention that Howell does all this so he can watch his past through sunglasses?

If you want to see Carradine acting really strange, or Piper carrying a cross, then this film has that, but if you want a film where you can guess the ending (except for the head scratching motives of the ex-cop buddy), then well I guess this film has that too. It's remarkably unremarkable.

If "B" movies, tired and corny scripts, and golf carts dressed up as some sort of futuristic mode of transport are your sort of entertainment, you'll probably enjoy this. Otherwise, forget it. The topless newsreader, though completely irrelevant, did give a few seconds of amusement.

I have NEVER fallen asleep whilst watching a movie before.

I did with this one.

Avoid at all costs, give your time and money to a worthy cause instead.

yes, this is a prety bad film, and it does have some unexplained aspects, plus the sex scene lasts way too long, and does nothing for the plot. anyway, this was a very class film, you have to see past the imperfections of the film, however badly it was filmed, and however pathetic the martial arts aspects, in fact, i kick better than howell. i loved this film no matter how badly it was made, i reckon that if this had been made as an annimation, it would have kicked ass, considering it was only a very low budget film, they just couldn't achieve the grandure and scale that was needed to make that film work, that and the fact that the robot, was about as effective as a lepper with a sharp stick, they quite blatently used the leftovers from short sircuit on that thing. i draw cartoons as a hobbie, and i'm gonna say right here and now, that i am going to remake this film in animated form and send it to the makers of this film, simply because i think this film deserves a second shot.

Matters get to a great start in this at least with some nice special fx work depicting the inception of a war in space - Great say I and I was immediately filled with high hopes.....but it was sadly not to be for any initial positivity was subsequently dashed horribly upon sitting through this to the end. Frankly, this film is a mess; Irritating characterisations, a story that goes nowhere and poor action sequences do not a good movie make!

Both main stars, Howell and Piper are utterly wasted in their roles although the latter at least does appear to be enjoying his role somewhat whilst the supporting cast are made up of infuriating oddities such as an annoyingly voiced priest/bookie, David Carradine as a psycho ventriloquist(!) and an annoying soldier who spends half the film beating up on his subordinates.

There's really very little to say about this film in fact other than to avoid it - it's ninety or so minutes better spent on the toilet if you ask me.