Spacehunter- Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

The good natured but unspectacular Spacehunter, along with having one of the most tiringly long 80s movie names, second only to The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, is very obviously trying to cash in on Star Wars. Not only is it pretty slow out of the blocks though, coming out in 1984, a year after Return of the Jedi, but it also doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself. In its favour, it actually does seem to have an at least adequate budget, although it does fall more on the Mad Max 2 side of set design than Star War’s futuristic worlds. It also features some good actors doing solid performances. Peter Strauss is Han Solo, sorry, Spacehunter, Ernie Hudson is Lando Calrissian, sorry, Washington, Michael Ironside is Darth Vader lite, sorry, Overdog, and Molly Ringwald is irritating. But to give her credit, she’s supposed to be.
Throw in a few shots of gory deaths in Ironside’s Crystal Maze like human test, and un-PG sexual references- Spacehunter’s companion at the film’s start, Ringwald in a wet t-shirt, three glamour models forced to strip( although it fades out before we see anything), and this is placed squarely in the early 80s. Yes, this is still a universe where women need rescuing, and black men are untrustworthy. Although Ringwald briefly turns into Sigourney Weaver to escape the maze, and Hudson has a Calrissian change of heart. Ivan Reitman produced which explains the presence of Hudson and some very Ghostbusters type music. There are a couple of surprising moments- the fate of Spacehunter’s first companion, the mutant children, and more unanswered questions. Apart from when he’s trying to kill someone are Michael Ironside’s hands really logical? In the end though, this is a movie that seemed a lot better when I was younger. 5/10