City Limits

I'm so mad at this movie. The plot was absent. The acting was awful. The sound was unintelligible. I can't believe that this came out the same year as Back to the Future! Poor James Earl Jones! Poor me! There was a montage in the middle of the thing that referred back to things that were apparently cut out of the film. The costumes were cheesy, and the hair--don't get me started on the hair! You know, I do kind of enjoy a B movie, but I need something to chew on. Some fixed reference point--like a character name or something. I mean, even the credits were inept...they lasted for about 15 minutes and were filmed in irritate-o-rama--a cheesy stop-frame thing. I've had more enjoyable infections.

It took a lot of talent to make one really big pile of crap. James Earl Jones looks as if he'd rather be somewhere else and one can only imagine what the heck was going through Robby Benson's mind when he signed on.

It deserved every bit of abuse it received when it was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

It's really hard to know how to rate this film because there's two ways to watch it. One ways is horribly wrong, and the other way is wonderful. If I'm rating the movie on its own merits, it's a horrible piece of garbage which should never have been made (what was James Earl Jones thinking accepting this part...). If, however, I'm rating this as an MST3K fan, it is comedy gold. So, to recap, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE JUST FOR THE MOVIE ITSELF! You will regret that decision forever. Do, however, pull up the MST3K version of this on Netflix and enjoy it.

15 years after a mysterious plague ravaged the world killing off most of the adults and leaving behind a world of orphans, Lee (John Stockwell) having been raised by guardian Albert (James Earl Jones) sets off to the ruins of Los Angeles in search of a legendary gang of scavengers known as the Clippers. Once in Los Angeles, Lee runs afoul of the D. A.s a rival gang to the Clippers who maintain an uneasy truce with one another with rules such as "eye for an eye" and no firearms. After resolving a grievance caused by Lee, Clippers leader, Mick (Darrell Larson) welcomes Lee into the Clippers. The D. A.s however are in league with the Sunya Corporation who seek obedience from the city's denizens in exchange for resources like light and power but the Clippers are unwilling to accept Sunya's demands.

City Limits is a 1985 post-apocalyptic action film from director Aaron Lipstadt and writer Don Keith Opper both of whom got their start in the industry doing production work on various Roger Corman produced sci-fi films such as Galaxy of Terror and Battle Beyond the Stars or in Lipstadt's case, assisting with the visual effects for John Carpenter's influential action classic Escape from New York. City Limits was a reteam for Lipstadt and Opper having previously collaborated together of the 1982 sci-fi film Android. City Limits was a troubled production with the original version of City Limits slated for a 1984 release only for it to miss this release window due to reshoots and a discarded score by frequent Jim Jarmsuch collaborator John Lurie in favor of a new score by Mitchell Froom. I'm not sure what contemporary reception was like to the movie as no box office information is available nor did I find any archived reviews, but most people know of this movie from its appearance on movie mocking showcase Mystery Science Theater 3000 where puppet host Crow T. Robot notably sang a tribute to Kim Catrall who by chance saw the episode and arranged flowers to be sent to Crow (certainly better reception than Joe Don Baker's threats of punches to the face). City Limits is clearly inspired by the various post-apocalyptic touchstones of the time such as the Mad Max films and yes it's not good, but it's hardly "2.4" on IMDB bad.

The movie has an intriguing setup with a world of orphans left without parental supervision and society having devolved into roving gangs of savagery and barbarism in what's basically a all encompasses gender and racial take on Lord of the Flies, or so you would think. In practice this world really doesn't feel like a world run by adults who as children were left to their own devices or living by the "law of the jungle" as everything is too clean, there's not much devastation in the streets of what used to be Los Angeles, and there's a corporation called Sunya Corporation that appears to be functioning and serving its purpose of doing.... businessy business (they never actually say what Sunya does). In terms of themes it's a very standard "freedom versus the establishment" narrative designed to appeal to countercultural youth and those are perfectly fine, but the world the movie creates to make that story doesn't make all that much sense.

I think the cast are quite likable and do a good job and when you have the likes of Kim Cattrall, Ray Dawn Chong,John Stockwell or Don Keith Opper (a stable of the enduring Critters movies), it's a pretty solid dream team for your b-movie exercise. We also have James Earl Jones in an extended cameo as Albert Lee's guardian (and occasional narrator but that goes off and on) and Jones is one of the best reasons to see this movie because even in material that's not up to his level there's something infectious and charismatic about his performance you can't help but get invested in, and a scene where he pilots RC Planes as guided missiles pushes it over the edge in terms of entertainment value. On the villain side we have Robby Benson as primary villain Carver whose "special appearance" couldn't be more uninterested if you tried as he spends most of his role sat behind a desk looking annoyed at a phone, but opposite that we have German actor Norbert Weisser as Bolo, Carver's primary henchman who is absolutely devouring the scene playing his character as if channeled through Ronald Lacey's Gestapo character from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Weisser is just an absolute delight as a villain and brings that energy to the forefront.

City Limits is stupid and nonsensical and it's nowhere near the top of the heap of Mad Max post-apocalyptic clones that tried to ride the coattails, and yet I can't deny I was entertained by it. I'm not going to act like this is some kind of misunderstood gem, but I'd much rather watch this then some bigger budgeted material of this ilk like Solarbabies. The movie doesn't make much sense in terms of its world or plot but there's a passion and drive in the performances (mostly) and that drive and passion kind of pushes the movie into a schlocky zone where I can kind of forgive its stupidity and nonsense.

It's the future for the year it was released. Society has crumbled, and a bunch of handsome young people are living in a broken down part of the city, dressing in cast-off clothes, riding around on their perfectly maintained motorcycles, reading comic books and holding competitions where they try to kill each other. For some reason, adults wish to interfere with this utopian existence, offering them things like food and medicine. The nerve of some people!

It's a chaotically organized movie, filled with performers available on the cheap, -- James Earl Jones does intro and extro in voice-over, and there's Rae Dawn Chong, Kim Cattrell, and for that Star Turn, Robbie Benson in a brief bit. There are motorcycles aplenty, and plenty of signs of a functioning society, including a scene where some of the principals break into a schoolroom to shoot each other. In sum, none of it makes any sense.