Radioactive Dreams

Gosh golly, Marlowe, i surely do love this film. All right, so it's another tidbit of trashy 80s post-apocalyptic fluff, but it's really the cream of the crop and has a great soundtrack, fun sets and costumes, tongue-in-cheek writing and acting, cannibalism, swing dancing, love, innocence, mayhem, violence, and plenty of silly 50s references... Philip and Marlowe (ha, ha) leave the bomb shelter after basically their whole entire lives, and emerge into a radioactive wasteland, to search for their fathers. This ranks right up there with "Rockula," "Bill and Ted," and "Pretty in Pink" as the cutest 80s kitsch films. Okay, so maybe i'm a little hung up on Raymond Chandler and Humphrey Bogart and that whole genre, so i enjoyed this a little more than someone who didn't grow up in the 80s and who never saw "The Big Sleep" more than 20 times. But i still recommend this as rollicking fun for everyone who loves mutant new wave girlies on motorcycles etc.

Pyun's ambitious effort is well-made but extremely lacking in plot and character development. Essentially, it is a half-baked post-apocalyptic comedy about two Hardy Boys-esquire young guys (John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff) who see the world for the first time. They run into various zombies, 80s bondage/biker chicks, a genuinely creepy butcher, and several other zany and morally ambiguous characters as they search for their father.

Like a lot of Pyun's films, it doesn't take any effort to level the ground for the audience. It has flashy ideas and camera maneuvers and some decent action, but it was hard to understand what was going on. Or maybe it was hard to understand that the movie WAS going on without any real plot lying underneath its surface. By the end I was giving up on it because there was no interesting conclusions or character accomplishments. If it were trippier and filled with more complex weirdness it could have been more watchable, but it still needed better characters and more fun.

There is a dance number at the end that is pretty amazing though . . .

The only thing I really liked about this movie is Michael Dudikoff. This was his first (and, until about BOUNTY HUNTERS nearly eleven years later, only) turn at comedy, and he proved he definitely has what it takes play a comedic role. He and John Stockwell play two teens who have grown to maturity inside a bomb shelter with nothing but Philip Marlowe novels, and when they finally set foot out into the post-nuke future, encounter everything from a mysterious woman to some really ugly creatures. I really had no idea what was happening in this movie. I just liked watching Dudikoff do comedy for a change (his teenage girl-like reaction to discovering that a giant creature hanging from the ceiling is alive is hysterical) and show off some cool dance moves at the end. Of interest to only Dudikoff fans, and even they might be disappointed outside of him.

The movie itself is not particularly good. B-movie-esque with a few laughs, and the otherwise simple plot is told in a rather incomprehensible and messy way. The acting is pretty bad and the cutting almost hilarious. There are definitely many better movies to watch before this one, unless you have a thing for 80s kitsch (I do).

The movie does however shine in one particular area; the soundtrack. I have watched (or listened to) the first 3 minutes on repeat for a good while already. Hard-punching 80s synth wave / new wave epicness bathed in reverb - I love it!

As a young buck I was an extra in this film in LA. There were so many extras and no real coordination, we didn't know when the camera was rolling and when it wasn't. Shooting seemed to go on forever without a break, so when you got tired you just walked off the set and went home.

We knew when making it that it would go direct to video. It was actually released, and played at my local theater for about two days before it was yanked. I had never before seen a movie taken out of the theater that quickly.

I'm still looking for the video just for nostalgia. I'm glad there are some people out there who can enjoy for something.