Watch Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone For Free

Simply A Masterpiece

Overrated

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Sure it's just Mad Max meets Star Wars with a main character that is obviously trying to be Han Solo, but it's got some cool ideas mashed up in the familiar packaging. The effects are decent and the action moves along at a good clip even though you've probably seen most of this stuff before. Worth checking out anyway because it has an old school charm lacking in today's CGI fests.

"Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" is a blend of a couple different influences on science fiction flicks of the 1980s. Imagine if a reluctant hero-for-hire in the vein of Han Solo traveled to a planet where the inhabitants live in a society that resembled the dystopian world of "The Road Warrior." It comes complete with scavengers, mutants, and a makeshift city whose citizens enjoy watching people fight for their lives in a deadly maze. It all sounds a little familiar, eh? It also sounds like a lot of fun!In the year 2136, Wolff (Peter Strauss), a wily salvage pilot and intergalactic bounty hunter, answers a distress signal on Terra Eleven. Agreeing to pick up three women who've been shipwrecked, he lands on the planet only to discover they've been kidnapped. Following their trail, Wolff soon encounters Niki (Molly Ringwald), a spunky orphan who agrees to guide him across the Forbidden Zone, a vast wasteland populated by plague-infested mutants. After many battles, Wolff and Niki finally reach the lair of Overdog (Michael Ironside), the planet's half-man / half-machine ruler. Discovering the women are held captive in Overdog's slave pens, Wolff's rescue mission finally begins."Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" was originally released during the 3-D craze of the early 1980s. "Jaws 3-D," "Friday the 13th, Part 3-D, and "Amityville 3-D" are other movies which are more identifiable from this era. The film is presented in 2-D on DVD, but you can definitely tell where the 3-D would've played a part at times. The cast of "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" was made up of some familiar 1980s faces. Peter Strauss is known for his many roles in television shows and movies. Ernie Hudson is best known for his character Winston Zeddemore in "Ghostbusters" and "Ghostbusters II." When the movie came out in 1983, Molly Ringwald's only major parts were in "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life." She comes off as an annoying tag-along here until the end of the film, where she makes an attempt at redeeming herself by facing down her fear and working hard to stay alive. Michael Ironside fully embraced his role as the cyborg tyrant Overdog. "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" is rated PG. It includes mild violence and gore, profanity, and frightening / intense scenes. One of the bat creatures in the film is shown topless, but it's not known whether the monster is male or female. There's definitely nothing sexy about the scene. Newer viewers might find "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" a bit heavy on the cheese and slow in stride. The special effects are all practical as well. It's nice to see all the hard work the crew put into the visual look of the film. If you love the original "Star Wars," then you'll no doubt enjoy it. Watch it through the eyes of a 10 year old in 1983 and everything will be fine.

I saw this in July, 2008 for the first time and was surprised by the amount of mechanical devices and vehicles built for this one. And the attention to detail is higher than many modern productions.A funny thing about making movies in 1983 is your choice of either using miniature models or constructing full scale behemoths. This movie goes for the latter option, which is one of its strengths, almost everything you see is right there and not some blue screened effect or shoddy computer graphics. This investment carries very well still today some 25 years later. It is like watching Road Warrior with all of the bikes, cars and trains and it all looks authentic because its actually there. Speaking of Road Warrior, it must be said that Spacehunter has an apparent look and feel of a post-apocalyptic desert world similar to that of the Mad Max films.Striking are the interesting locations which are thrown at the viewer at a fast pace where new environments show up around every corner during their hunt in the forbidden zone. While short scenes in themselves, they come together nicely in creating the feel of a good adventure movie reminiscent of the Indiana Jones movies.Not sure of the budget here, many things look really nice, some space scenes are awful but very, very short. I've mentioned two series of other films in this review, don't expect to find either one of them in Spacehunter, rather expect to find elements of all of them combined.

Believe it or not this film was released as the same time as "Return of the Jedi" and was shown alongside Jedi at most major movie houses across the country. The studio execs knew it didn't have a chance against "Jedi" so the 3D effects and the release date were primarily a marketing tool to lure you into their movie after "Jedi" had sold out.Another 3D sci-fi film from 1983 was also released during the Theatrical run of "Jedi", it was Called "MetalStorm: The Destruction of Jared Syn" the producers of that film to were also hoping to make a fast buck hoping that audiences who were coming to the movie house to see"Jedi" would see their film after "Jedi" had sold out - again using 3D effects as a lure.both mid-to-low budget sci-fi films(both filmed in 3D) ...SpaceHunter:Adventures in the Forbidden Zone & MetalStorm:The Destruction of Jared Syn were both financial flops. And they are forever linked together in their producers quest to make a fast buck hoping that audiences would stroll into their film after "Jedi" sold out.... However they are both fun to watch. Space Hunter is far away the better of the 2 films