Deathlands : Le Chemin du retour

Unfortunately, this film doesn't sink to the level of truly horrendous, which would have made it much more enjoyable. The characters aspire to be cardboard cutouts but don't rate quite that high. The occasional scenery chewing actually comes as a relief. The dialogue could have been generated by a word processor set to "bland". The kingdom, or "ville", being fought over resembles an abandoned shoe factory. The henchmen, or secman as they are known, couldn't put a beat down on a sack of kittens. One of the heroes, the Armorer, looks like an accountant going to a Halloween party dressed an Indiana Jones, and is about as dangerous.

One of the only barely original touches is to kill the sound whenever there is an explosion or action sequence. After discovering I hadn't accidentally muted my TV this was interesting for 5 seconds or so, then just became annoying. The ending credits were probably the best done part of the movie.

All in all, go to your local community theater instead of watching this. It'll be time much better spent. I just don't understand how movies like this get made.

It's always a gamble when a book is adapted to screen. It's more of a gamble when a popular book is adapted to screen.

However, when you take a book that's got "CULT" written all over it, that's where your real problems begin.

I've only read a few of James Axler's "DEATHLANDS" books, but enough to know they definitely took some liberties. A major character from the group was completely omitted (Doc Tanner), and a good deal of the backstory was changed, but not really enough to ruin the movie for me. Oscar-worthy, it ain't, but it's nowhere nearly as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.

What puzzles me is people who claim to read the series are complaining about the rather tepid dialogue. Well, what books HAVE you been reading?! The dialogue in the "DEATHLANDS" series is about as sophomoric as any adventure series (barring "THE DESTROYER" and DL's "sister" series, "OUTLANDERS"). The terms "fireblast", "nukesh*tting", just to cite a couple of examples, pepper the prose throughout these books. Not exactly Henry James.

But, I digress...

Vincent Spano, never one of my favourite actors, actually did a passable turn as Ryan Cawdor, 'though I would've preferred him to be more like the introspective "Snake Plissken" clone the character was created to resemble. Jenya Lano was admirably cast as Krysty Wroth, even if the on screen version was a bit too timid. Cliff Saunders, physically a bit too Phil Collins-esquire to accurately portray the gaunt Armourer, JB Dix, did a good turn, though a bit more talkative than his literary counterpart. A lot of other complaints were that the characters were too "goody-goody". Well, that's as may be, but it's also one of the primary reasons why the "DEATHLANDS" series has a C U L T following instead of mainstream. If these characters were constantly as ruthless on screen as they are in the books, the creators of the movie / proposed TV series would be hard-pressed to get as large a viewership as they'd be aiming to attract.

The villains (and some of the protagonists) were over-the-top, but no more so than in any of the books I've read thus far. While some of these people gave shuddering performances, it strikes me as pretty much spot-on in comparison to the the four books in the series I've read thus far. The violence was toned down SEVERELY, as was the obligatory sex scene between Ryan & Krysty, but, as it's a made-for-cable movie, it's about what I expected, and actually, some of the more graphic scenes they left in really surprised me.

The cinematography was visually startling and very effective, giving the edginess to the Deathlands that the books convey. It's unfortunate that their budget was only around $2 million, but given that's all they had to work with, they have my kudos in spades for even getting it made, let alone seen by anyone.

"HOMEWARD BOUND", the 5th book in the "DEATHLANDS" series, was the director's personal choice from what I read. It was a nice idea, but I think it might've been a bit too ambitious for a debut movie. As far as post-apocalyptic scenarios, the first book in the series, "Pilgimage to Hell", prob'ly would've made a much better choice. The readers are still introduced to the characters one at a time, but there's still some mystery to them, whereas "HOMEWARD BOUND" tries to explain way too much at one time. Had this gone to series, "HB" would've been more apropos as the first season's cliffhanger / second season's opener.

All-in-all, however, it's somewhat heartening to see that the writers and director actually drew from the source material instead of merely paying lip service to it. It gives me hope that they may one day re-do a DL movie, or move on to "OUTLANDERS" with better results.

Yes, this movie could've been a lot better, but it also could've been a lot WORSE.

having read many of the deathlands books i was happy to see this listed on the show guide for the movie channel. having endured the massacre of the premise and actions of the lame cinematography and the inane dialogue, (everyone talked like they were addressing a primary school class) i reflected on the time at my deathbed when i would be wanting these two hours back.

The acting is good, Traci Lords and Vincent Spano are in it, and the red head is a knockout!

It's a Sci Fi where the hero kills the bad guy.

It's action adventure.

Film Fans,

Okay, it's not like the book. Surprised? It never is like the book.

Enjoy it for what it is.

What do you expect Die Hard?

You try and a make a movie with two name actors for under a million, go ahead, see what you come up with.

Farside has a little more juice behind it than this piece by Stanton but she has less time to tell the story.

I really liked the way that the red haired mutant kept calling Spano (the Ryan character) lover. So warm in today's PC world. Refreshing.

But the restrictions of television were evident in the romantic scenes.

i think that for the most part the movie was okay. i would have found it a lot more enjoyable if i had not read some of the books first. i wasn't very pleased with Jak, who is my fav charecter in the book. he is supposed to be much more 'economical with words' and i didn't see him use one knife in the movie. Jak is supposed to be a knife fighter, though he does own a .357 Magnum. also, though not as important- his hair is supposed to be longer and he should have two scars on his face, one on his cheak and one on his nose. in addition to that, Jak does drive more then anyone else in the book. he does not need a drivers licens. i was very disappointed at the non-appearances of Lori and Doc, who are key charecters. also--i was not aware that anyone in the story had such good grammer. though not idiots, for the most part they are not really schooled, though most of them could read, not just ryan. overall i just found that there were to many differences from the book.