The Dungeonmaster

Well before its time, the dungeonmaster held me in suspense for hours after viewing it. Chocked full of ingenious lines unparalled by contemporary scripts, this movie provides for an hour and a half of pure entertainment. Richard Moll makes this movie by delivering line after line of unfiltered brilliance...at one point I had to cover my ears because I could not physically or mentally handle his vivid intensity. The line "I reject your reality, and I substitute my own" has no equal. They should require a screening of this movie annually for all Americans. Appreciated by few, hated by almost all, this movie is unbelievable.

.Jeffrey Byron stars as a computer technician who, along with girlfriend Leslie Wing, gets transported to another dimension to do battle with Mestema (Richard Moll from TV's Night Court). Mestema is a Satan-like evil wizard who wants to pit his magical prowess against the technology of the hero. He does so by transporting the newly-outfitted computer tech to various scenarios that he then has to escape from/defeat the monstrous villains in his way. These scenarios include an ice cave filled with random statuary (a wolfman, a witch doctor, Jack the Ripper) that come to life and attack him; a cave with a little horned troll on a throne who commands zombie warriors; another cave (sensing a trend here?) with yet another horned troll; another scene takes place in a nightclub during a stage performance by the hairmetal band W.A.S.P., because why not? Each segment was written and directed by different people, 7 in all, which helps explain the lack of tonal consistency. Fans of garbage 80's genre cinema may find something to chew on, but most viewers should avoid.

2.5 out of 10? Really? It's not that bad for what I'd like to call - along with ELIMINATORS - a proto-video game movie. Say you're working at your standard schlock factory - i.e. Empire Pictures - and you and six of your other director friends do a semi-anthology piece for fun together. You end up with this ....

Think DRAGON'S LAIR with a Clark Kentish nerd in Subzero's ninja get-up from MORTAL KOMBAT, only instead of a dragon there's Bull Shannon from NIGHT COURT as the villain. When you're done laughing, crack open your beer. Now here's the punchline: you can watch it with your kids. No boobs, no blood. When you're done doing a spit take, wipe your mouth, and give it a shot.

Vintage essence of 1980s in a bottle, stop-motion courtesy of Dave Allen - of LASERBLAST infamy, and a Charles Band soundtrack.

~Ray

Part of the problem is the plot summary is innacurate; the idea is that the 'Dungeonmaster' is looking for a worth opponent. He sees the hero, the nerd, and sees his skills, he decides to pull him into his world and put him through the challenges, using the guys girlfriend as collateral should the hero decline. It was a good movie, especially considering that Empire pictures wasn't some huge company like Universal.

This movie is not at all that bad. I rate it a 6 which averages out to *** out of ***** stars. There is some nice stop-motion animation by David Allen and some fine make-up effects, included a neat little creature puppet. The " Heavy Metal " segment directed by Charles BaNd does not have much of a point so this is sort of the downfall on the movie. The acting is somewhat corny but what do you expect. It would have been better if David Allen's sequence--Stone Canyon Giant--would have been longer. It is a fine model and the animation is rather smooth. There are only about 12 stop-motion shots, If there were 20 and add a little more plot to this sequence (the actual sequence lasted only about 6-7 minutes but the giant didn't really get to do anything except chase the protagonist around some large rocks before it gets destroyed. If you liked this movie ok and gave it *** or more you should see----Laserblast, Ghoulies 2, and Robot Wars.