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Absolutely the worst movie.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

*Spoiler/plot- DEF-Con 4, 1985. Several survivor people try to live and socialize in a post nuclear war scenario. Some are good and some are very bad in their efforts.*Special Stars- Lenore Zarin, Maury Chaykin, Kevin King.*Theme- Man must regain his society after the nuclear war to survive effectively.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W European. *Emotion- A very dark film with amateur productions values for this simplistic plot and franchise genre. post nuclear war society 'what- ifs'. The acting is fine, but the plot gets lost in the very un-lit camera scenes taking place at night. The violence is very gratuitous and bloody. Some sex scenes are un-necessary and look to be shallowly added for box office sales.*Based On- Post nuclear war scenarios.

This low-cost Canadian produced presentation is reasonably ordinary, but for its type not as terrible as it's made out to be. This is one of those films that the cover artwork always made it look quite interesting, but the synopsis on the back had less of an affect. A friend of mine convinced me to watch it, after the first half-hour I could see why because the story does such a great job setting up the highly-charged, innovative predicament (three astronauts in space watch on as world war three erupts with nuclear attacks on Earth) to only lose its way when a couple months later they crash-land back on earth then it becomes a very vanilla-like post-apocalyptic Sci-fi wasteland survival outing (of the very cheap, rancid b-grade kind) with some very unbelievably trite villains that come off more as joke than anything truly threatening. The head honcho played by Kevin King seemed more suited in a "Save by the Bell" episode, than as a ruthlessly imposing leader. At times I was waiting for cued laughter from an audience whenever he was on screen, as he came off more so a brat. Just as poor was Tim Choate in the leading role. Well more so eccentrically annoying. I found the support to be much better; Kate Lynch, Lenore Zann (running around in a school uniform), Maury Chaykin and John Walsch. The opening first half-hour is very well pulled off; with some striking visuals, solid set-designs and usefully gripping details. You could see where all the money went in to, but that could probably explain its weakly conceived abrupt ending. Maybe that had run out. Anyhow during its grounded action, it does create some nasty touches, edgy activity and cement an ugly intensity. Too bad it just too daft (simply lacking the colourful craziness) and at times incoherent. The story is straight-forward, although the script is flimsy and too black and white to make it completely fulfilling. Minimally junky and grim, if particularly plain post-nuke entertainment.

Three astronauts on an orbiting space station loaded with nukes witness the outbreak of Nuclear War. After weeks of orbiting, knowing their loved ones back home are dead or dying an external signal forces them back to Earth. The crew jettison their nukes but one jams in the bay. When they land the female doctor is injured and the captain is killed by cannibals. The third member of the crew (Howe) goes looking for help and is soon in the hands of a local warlord who, it turns out, was responsible for the re-entry of the spaceship. He (rightly) suspected it contained information that would lead him to a "Safe Haven". The two remaining crew members are tried for war crimes and sentenced to hang. Howe escapes but returns, starting a rebellion. He finds the doctor dead. Eventually Howe and JJ (the Warlord's girlfriend) sail away as the last nuke on the downed ship explodes.I'm surprised at the low rating this movie gets. For a lo-budget SF film of the period it is not at all bad. For one thing it does not play safe. Though influenced by many movies: Mad Max - obviously, Dark Star, The Quiet Earth etc. the first section of this film on the station is genuinely effective. It goes downhill a little as we enter the usual post apocalyptic shoot 'em up of the second half but even so, everything that happens is horribly credible. I suspect people don't like this movie because it's not easy. It doesn't drop all the usual clichés into place like the the standard lazy Hollywood cheapo SF flick. The moment where our hero shoots the two guards on the boat is very realistic. He doesn't want to shoot them. He's never shot anyone before and pleads with them not to pick up their guns. They think he's bluffing and slowly reach towards them. He screams at them to stop. Their hands reach out nearer their rifles. He fires. It's horrible. In your standard Mad Max rip off the hero would have blazed in and just blown everyone up. The guards if they were given a chance would have dived for their weapons - not reached out for them slowly like they do here. It's not your standard Holly wood schlock.I'm not saying it's a great film, there are many faults with it. But it doesn't deserve the panning some people give it. For instance: The actress playing JJ (though very good) is too old for the part I don't buy her as a teenager at all - and everyone's hair is far too clean. The end of the world by thermonuclear heck and everyone is wallowing around in filth but their hair is all nice and freshly washed? I don't think so. And I didn't buy the hanging scene at all, there is no way the kilted survivalist wouldn't have stepped forward and saved his own life at the first opportunity. I guess the writers were trying to turn him into a more sympathetic character but it just didn't work.If I was looking to make a low-budget movie I would certainly give this one a look for ideas and inspiration. There is some good stuff in here.

How bad can a science fiction movie get? Fred Ray Olen - the master of shitty sci-fi flicks - would die of envy if he ever saw "Def-Con 4". This is by far the worst movie I've ever seen. Lousy effects, crappy story and BAAAAAAAAAAAD acting. Sometimes movies are so bad you sit there with that B-movie smirk - smiling because the flick stinks so much that it actually (and unintentionally) is funny. Here - I just wanted to rip my my own head off and feed to it to the smelly Golden retreiver next door - hoping that the furry menace would choke on my tortured eyeballs.This is what the back of the DVD-cover says: Three astronauts return to Earth two months after a nuclear holocaust and find disease-crazed humans wandering through shanty towns constructed from the refuse of the previous civilization.And your next question probably is: What the f..k!!! DVD-cover? Did you actually rent or buy this crap? Nope, got it for x-mas 2004 as a part of a 5 disc/10 movies boxed-set named "SCI-FI - 10 GREAT FILMS!".Riiiiiiiight.....