Shepherd

Matters get to a great start in this at least with some nice special fx work depicting the inception of a war in space - Great say I and I was immediately filled with high hopes.....but it was sadly not to be for any initial positivity was subsequently dashed horribly upon sitting through this to the end. Frankly, this film is a mess; Irritating characterisations, a story that goes nowhere and poor action sequences do not a good movie make!

Both main stars, Howell and Piper are utterly wasted in their roles although the latter at least does appear to be enjoying his role somewhat whilst the supporting cast are made up of infuriating oddities such as an annoyingly voiced priest/bookie, David Carradine as a psycho ventriloquist(!) and an annoying soldier who spends half the film beating up on his subordinates.

There's really very little to say about this film in fact other than to avoid it - it's ninety or so minutes better spent on the toilet if you ask me.

yes, this is a prety bad film, and it does have some unexplained aspects, plus the sex scene lasts way too long, and does nothing for the plot. anyway, this was a very class film, you have to see past the imperfections of the film, however badly it was filmed, and however pathetic the martial arts aspects, in fact, i kick better than howell. i loved this film no matter how badly it was made, i reckon that if this had been made as an annimation, it would have kicked ass, considering it was only a very low budget film, they just couldn't achieve the grandure and scale that was needed to make that film work, that and the fact that the robot, was about as effective as a lepper with a sharp stick, they quite blatently used the leftovers from short sircuit on that thing. i draw cartoons as a hobbie, and i'm gonna say right here and now, that i am going to remake this film in animated form and send it to the makers of this film, simply because i think this film deserves a second shot.

A giant piece of crap, but an amusing one. If it had kept up the energy it has at its outset, and if it, you know, made any kind of actual sense by the end, it might actually have been a decent B movie. As it stands, it's definitely of the so-bad-it's-good variety. C. Thomas Howell stars as a "shepherd" (which was the film's original title before it was rebranded with a more sci-fi title), which is some sort of religion-based assassin. You see, it's the future. Great wars were waged on land which have driven the survivors underground. Now a handful of crazy religions are fighting it out down there. Roddy Piper plays the major villain, a Christian preacher who is sick of losing ground to a cult of women under the watch of Sophia (Marina Anderson). Howell is tasked with assassinating a member of her cult (Heidi von Palleske), but she and her son remind him of his dead family so he saves her and tries to keep her from other assassins instead. Oh, and David Carradine is along for the ride as a ventriloquist. It's all very nonsensical, but the silly (but even sometimes clever) production design is fun and everyone overacts to a hilarious degree - except for von Palleske who comes off like a robotic Jessica Chastain.

First of all, let me start by saying that I have been a devoted follower of C Thomas Howell's career ever since "The Outsiders" and "The Hitcher". He was an up and coming star in the 1980s - with hits such as "Soul Man" also. The future was bright for this young actor and he had the potential to go on from there and really assert himself in Hollywood. Put it this way - Tom Cruise had a bit part in "The Outsiders" while Howell had the lead. Look at Cruise today !!! But picking material like this drivel will only denegrate Howell's career even more - if that was possible. Why does he pick stuff like this? A small part in a major movie would be of more benefit to him than this rubbish. Essentially the story here takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everybody lives underground where chaos reigns. Howell is a Shepherd - protecting the flock of various religious leaders by killing off any undesirables. He's a hitman in other words. The sets are so bad, they wouldn't look out of place on a Thunderbirds episode. The use of slow-motion needlessly repeats itself throughout the movie but is well backed up by bad acting (and bad is a kind word here), no continuity, scenes that are thrown in for no reason whatsoever, vehicles that looked like they were made from a Corn Flakes box and a directorial style that bordered on stupidity. Oh yeah, and the storyline was pathetic too. I hate writing bad reviews about films - especially those in which I really like the star - but this film is so bad I don't believe for one second that anyone could have been proud of it. I am not a filmmaker nor am I a director but I would hide my head in the sand if I'd spent whatever amount of money and time on this movie. In short - this was a monumental waste of time and energy and I would not recommend anyone to EVER see this film. It came free with a DVD player I bought but I still turned the thing off halfway through because I was embarrassed for Howell. Come on C - give yourself some credit and wrestle yourself away from these non-hit wonders and try to knuckle down and get a good part - however small.

I say "flick" because this doesn't deserve the appellation "movie", and certainly not "film". I regret paying for the rental, and although I've never walked out on a movie before, this would have been it, had I seen it in a theatre. A society living underground in the future (oooh, THAT'S original), lots of burning barrel drums, unexplained ambient light shining through windows, an ungrateful woman and her shock-muted son...the list goes on and on. C. Thomas Howell affects the husky voice of the stereotypical loner; you know like Eastwood's been done to death. He needs special sunglasses to remember his wife and child, yet in the flashbacks, he's the same age! Talk about a poor memory! I stared incredulously when the little boy Abe randomly pushes a code into a door and it opens! No tension, pithy religious (what religion?) under/overtones...saddest of all: I expected better from Roddy Piper;

Quite possibly the worst movie experience in my life.