Virginia Highlands Book Signing 7/26, Retro Movie Review: SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (1983)
Third bookstore signing this year, Molly Ringwald vs. Dalek Vader, and THE THING IN THE WOODS discounted again
I’m signing books at Virginia Highlands Books from 1-3 PM on Saturday, July 26th. This is the second time I’m appearing at that bookstore and the first time I’ll have The Walking Worm available there.
If you’re convenient to in-town Atlanta (Virginia Highlands is between Midtown and Emory), definitely come by. It’s going to be fun — the bookstore is making it an official event one can RSVP to.
And if you’re looking for places to eat before or after, I can personally recommend Surin (Thai), Ocean Wave (the same Thai food as Surin as well as sushi), and Morelli’s Ice Cream for dessert. Here’s a whole list of VaHi restaurants.
Retro Movie Review: Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
I recently read After The World Ends, an illustrated history of post-apocalyptic movies, and one of the films mentioned in it was Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. I vaguely recall seeing at least bits on TV as a little-little kid and I think the movie was among those in the Drive-In Delirium compilations I bought years ago in Austin.
Fortunately Tubi had it available to watch for free, so it was time to renew acquaintances, in Myopia Movies fashion, and see how it turned out.
The Plot
The film opens with a space-going passenger liner suffering a disaster, with only three young women surviving in an escape pod. They crash-land on a failed colony quarantined after a plague ravaged its population, only to be captured by a bunch of Mad Max scavenger types. Summoned by their distress call and the prospect of a substantial reward, space trucker/bounty hunter Wolff (Peter Strauss) lands on the planet to rescue them. Not long after he arrives, however, the three women are captured by “trikers” working for the villainous Overdog (Michael Ironside).
Wolff has to partner with entrepreneurial native teen Niki (Molly Ringwald) and “sector chief” (a space policeman or soldier he’s worked with before) Washington (Ernie Hudson) to rescue said women from Overdog, who looks like the unmasked Vader crossed with Davros from Doctor Who and does not have honorable intentions for his new guests.
The Good
*The cast is good. I’m not familiar with Peter Strauss, but I’ve seen Michael Ironside and Ernie Hudson before. I haven’t seen a lot of 1980s teen movies (other than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) so I’m not as familiar with Molly Ringwald, but the filmmakers certainly put in the effort to secure some higher-end talent. Strauss — an Emmy winner — does a decent job as the Han Solo-like Wolff. The interaction between him and Niki is amusing, largely due to how incredibly exasperating Niki starts out. Ringwald does a good job demonstrating a teen’s emotional volatility, ranging from being loud and obnoxious to sympathetically emotional and vulnerable. The almighty TVTropes points out how much she’s playing against her usual type here. Ironside is having fun channeling the Kurgan from Highlander, and he has a really impressive Evil Voice.
*The movie is short and pretty fast-moving. Good entertainment for the elliptical.
*There are a lot of good practical effects. Although there is some bad 1980s CGI early on, most of the creatures, vehicles, sets, etc. are physically present and that’s a plus.
*Wolff and Niki both have arcs, more obviously so in Wolff’s case.
The Bad
*Andrea Marcovicci plays Wolff’s first mate/first mate/love interest Chalmers and is seriously underused.
*The native inhabitants of the planet speak a really strange dialect with terms like “brain-working” for understanding or thinking and other oddities. It’s more pronounced coming from Niki than from the other native characters, probably due to the tone of her voice. It’s kind of annoying.
*Wolff at one point get so annoyed with Niki that he chucks her in a pond, forcibly washes her hair with some shampoo he just happens to have, and then for good measure makes her wash behind her ears. In-universe the first part makes some sense (see my comment about how obnoxious she is), but what was the point of cleaning her up? I imagine the filmmakers, having put in the effort to cast Ringwald, didn’t want her looking like a slovenly teenage boy the entire time, but it’s just weird.
*The three women our hero needs to rescue don’t have much in the way of personalities or agency.
*I would have liked more Overdog. He’s not in the movie a whole lot despite being the main villain.
*More worldbuilding and back-story would’ve been better. Guardians of the Galaxy and its dumber equivalent Borderlands managed that while keeping the focus on the space action-adventure stuff.
The Verdict
Fun but not exactly substantive. A pity the film’s production was such a mess, since it’s clearly set up for future adventures that are obviously not going to happen.
8.0 out of 10.
The Thing in the Woods E-Book Discount
Since today is the Atlanta Comic Convention (where I’ll be vending), I’ve set The Thing in the Woods as a discounted e-book for the next few days. The above link is a Universal Book Link going to Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, etc.