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Pyun's ambitious effort is well-made but extremely lacking in plot and character development. Essentially, it is a half-baked post-apocalyptic comedy about two Hardy Boys-esquire young guys (John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff) who see the world for the first time. They run into various zombies, 80s bondage/biker chicks, a genuinely creepy butcher, and several other zany and morally ambiguous characters as they search for their father.

Like a lot of Pyun's films, it doesn't take any effort to level the ground for the audience. It has flashy ideas and camera maneuvers and some decent action, but it was hard to understand what was going on. Or maybe it was hard to understand that the movie WAS going on without any real plot lying underneath its surface. By the end I was giving up on it because there was no interesting conclusions or character accomplishments. If it were trippier and filled with more complex weirdness it could have been more watchable, but it still needed better characters and more fun.

There is a dance number at the end that is pretty amazing though . . .

This fulfills the criterias to be a cult classic, something to love OR hate for everyone. I belong to the first category: 2 kids growing up in a nuke shelter with a large collection of detective novels deciding to be the post apocalyptic worlds first dicks, The Atomic Dicks! Fastpaced wachy post apocalyptic tong-in-the-cheek comedy. Irresistible. B-movie queen Lisa Blount pops up in this weird mix and singer Sue Saad gives a few nice songs like the excellent title song "Radioactive Dreams", the soundtrack certainly deserves to be released. Great acting, excellent photography and score. It is very low budgeted, but every last penny is up there on the screen and stretched well beyond its limit, just as it was the case with director Albert Pyun's "The Sword And the Sorcerer". This movie stands up to repeated viewing. 7/10

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.

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.

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.