The Dungeonmaster (1984)/ World Gone Wild (1988)

Over the weekend I continued my assault on 1980s B-movie sci fi.

First I polished off 1984's THE DUNGEONMASTER.

I remember this film from the ubiquitous painted poster that was in many 1980s video stores.

This film's other claim to fame for me is that it stars Richard Moll (BULL from NIGHT COURT) as the evil demonic sorcerer Mestema.

I definitely give this one a thumbs up. It's great cheesy fun.

The first thing I liked about it is it's an anthology film. The hero faces seven different challenges. Apparently, each segment was written and directed by a different person. There's a story arc that connects them all, and works adequately. The film mixes genres, covering some fantasy, sci fi and horror. 

The challenges are as follows:

-A scene with some Ray Harryhausen-esque stop motion work involving a stone giant. By 1984 this was not cutting edge technology, but as a fan of the genre I liked it, especially as it's just one scene in an anthology and not the entire film.

-Some good quality make-up work on two decaying zombie skeletons, in a scene that also features a demonic puppet.

-A segment filmed at a concert by the metal band W.A.S.P.

I admit I was a fan back in the day, so for me this was fun to see.

-A rather weak scene that takes place in a wax museum. They must have gotten a bulk deal on some costumes or something. It's not terrible, just mediocre.

-A scene involving a serial killing slasher that's loose in Los Angeles, and a race against time.

-Another rather weak scene involving a fight with a troll in a cave.

-A scene filmed outdoors in an aircraft graveyard, followed by a chase involving a dune buggy and some then-futuristic looking vehicles (of a very B-movie quality).

If there's a failing to this movie it's that the action is rarely exciting, and not well choreographed.

I found the final showdown to be anti-climactic. 

Still, just to be able to enjoy this film you need to suspend disbelief on some major themes (a wizard transports a computer expert and his machine to another realm, and holds his girlfriend hostage).

If you're looking for Shakespeare this clearly isn't it. 

This is a simple film, with sharp 1980s visuals.

In that respect I found that it worked for me.

I was expecting some old-school VHS trash, and that's exactly what I got!

The second film I watched was 1988's WORLD GONE WILD. 

Of the recent films in my 1980s sci fi VHS blitzkrieg this is the first one that I'd give a thumbs down to. I thought it was a terrible film, and wouldn't even be worth watching on television.

The first thing that's bad about it is that it actually has a known, professional cast.

Bruce Dern plays an aging hippy warrior guru to a desert encampment centered around a watering hole. I guess he's a working actor and will perform in anything, even in this dog of a film.

It's a shame, because he has demonstrated many times before that he has real talent when given good roles.

Michael Pare is another lead. This is after he had appeared in GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, EDDIE & THE CRUISERS I & II, and STREETS OF FIRE. 

I'm guessing he cursed his agent after performing in this one.

Catherine Mary Stewart had already been in THE LAST STARFIGHTER, NIGHT OF THE COMET and a few other notable films before WORLD GONE WILD. 

She's really the only bright spot in this film. 

She's earnest, and she beams throughout.

Not sure how she pulls it off, when so many of the other actors feel like they're just reading lines.

Adam Ant plays an over-the-top psychopathic cult leader in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

It felt hard to take seriously, just like this entire film.

Visually, this film must not have had much of a budget.

It looks like they're running amok in a junkyard.

The explosions are unremarkable, and there are ridiculous firefights with machine guns.

The dialogue in this film is crap.

I don't think the storyline (an isolated desert community in a post-apocalyptic wasteland defends a valuable resource against a hostile aggressor by hiring a bunch of mercenaries) had to be bad.

It worked in the ROAD WARRIOR.

But everything about this film was unable to pull it off.

1987-1988 (the years this was filmed and released) were the height of bad hair metal, and this figures heavily in the aesthetic and soundtrack of this film (especially when they visit 'the city').

That's what this film feels like.

The visual equivalent of a derivative, latter-era hair metal album by a B-level group.

That's how exciting this film is.

One interesting fact: this movie was filmed in various places across Arizona.

One location was Bisbee, AZ.

I'm familiar with Bisbee because it's where comedian Doug Stanhope lives.

So, if nothing else, this film of very few redeeming qualities has provided me with an idea of what Bisbee, AZ looks like. There's my small blessing.

Eliminators (1986)/ Yor, The Hunter From The Future (1983)

As of last night I can check 1986's ELIMINATORS, and 1983's YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE off my list of 80s sci fi films to see.

ELIMINATORS was better than I thought it would be. It's a pretty solid B movie- the kind I would have rented on VHS at the local video store because of the box art, or the kind I would have watched on late night or weekend afternoon cable TV.

The film has a plane crash, an evil scientist with a lair deep in the Mexican jungle, a cyborg (Mandroid, to be specific!), Roman centurions, a well-intentioned-but-misguided Japanese scientist, a beautiful female scientist that specializes in robotic technology, a grizzled riverboat captain, a riverboat chase and firefight, a small flying robot, a ninja (the son of the Japanese scientist lol), cavemen, armored 3-wheeled motorcycles, and time travel. It's like a box of tropes and character stereotypes were tossed in a box, and picked at random.

If you can get past the silliness it's actually not that bad, and a lot of fun. The film is 96min, which feels like the perfect amount of time. The pace is good, and it managed to keep my attention. All the elements in the story pull together, and actually feel justified (though their use is often humorous). I found myself saying, "Sure, why not?" whenever something new (like a ninja or cavemen appearing in the middle of the Mexican jungle) would happen.

The special effects are pure 80s. If you like explosions and big firefights where people rarely get hit, this film is for you. There are lasers, rockets, machine guns, electrified force fields and beams of energy. There's one scene where the film pays homage with an explosion to a Sean Connery-era James Bond film.

From the trailer I thought the Mandroid involved some stop motion, but that wasn't the case. He's wardrobe and make-up, with this pretty cool 'mobile unit' he attaches to that has treads like the bottom of a tank. It's only used for part of the film.

The soundtrack is good. Standard 80s, nothing exceptional.

According to IMDB this was filmed in Spain. There are some visually-appealing outdoor shots with mountains, rivers and valleys, especially during the riverboat chase. 

On a personal note, I *LOVED*LOVED*LOVED* seeing actress Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) in this. Her acting here isn't Shakespeare, but it's fun seeing her in something other than TREK. For me she is much beloved.

Finally, this film seems to have a lot of love from fans on the internet, and I understand why. It's fun trash. It does what's asked of it. It's entertaining.

YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE was slightly different than I expected. The first 2/3 of this film is a fantasy/ caveman-era action film. Then it turns sci fi. There is not an intermingling of eras of technology.

It's also visually very derivative. The entire movie I kept being reminded of other films that it seemed to copy, or at the very least sought to emulate.

There are two dinosaur scenes that feel like ONE MILLION YEARS BC, and much of the wardrobe seems to mimic that film. A third scene where he shoots down a giant flying bird with a bow and arrow, then uses the carcass as a glider stands in a class of ridiculousness all its own.

Early in the film there's a raid by cavemen on a homosapien village that reminded me of QUEST FOR FIRE and THE BEASTMASTER. Then YOR's roving adventure begins.

There's some swordplay that looks like it's attempting CONAN THE BARBARIAN, but comes off more like DEATHSTALKER.

Once the science fiction begins we're in STARCRASH and FLASH GORDON territory. Again, the quality of the costumes and props are on a similar level.

Overall the story is pretty weak, though not too convoluted. The location shots are actually pretty good, including exceptional opening scenes filmed in the otherworldly rock formations of Cappadocia, Turkey. A then-modern power plant appears to be the location of the sci fi scenes.

I thought YOR had an inconsistent soundtrack that seemed to disappear at times, with one or two anthemic tunes that feel like they're modeled on the soundtrack for FLASH GORDON.

Something cool I learned about YOR while researching my review: it's based on an Argentinian comic book from 1974 named HENGA, EL CAZADOR. It appeared in the long-running anthology comic SKORPIO.

Finally, if you're going to enjoy this film you're going to have to get past YOR's ridiculous blown-out wig. That first barrier might be too insurmountable for some to enjoy this film.

I don't regret having watched it. For me there was enough here to keep my attention. It is cheesy with a capital C, but that's what I expected. Nothing earth shattering. I enjoy the look of movies filmed outside of the United States, and I'm currently going through a trash Italian-cinema phase, so this came at the right time for me.

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In closing I'll say I was looking for 1980s VHS-store low-budget sci fi/ fantasy action, and these films got the job done. It's an era that relied on artistry, make-up, costumes, props, locations, camera angles, artwork, soundtracks and special effects to sell a film. These days CGI and computers have supplanted so much of all this, and appear to have made many of these areas irrelevant. It can be nice to take a trip down memory lane to this iconic, bygone era in filmmaking.