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Simply A Masterpiece

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The first must-see film of the year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Being an avid Deathlands (book series) reader as well as Outlanders (follow-up series) for weeks I looked forward to seeing this movie when I heard it was coming out on the Sci-Fi Channel.I was sadly disappointed in not only the acting, but the details of the characters, environment, and such low budget it made Mad Max look like an Emmy winner.Let me say I am a detail-oriented person, and I realize Hollywood takes certain liberties, and or can re-write stories that ruin them, but this is not that, it is fully down to people who have no business making movies.I'll list my complaints : 1) The Book Becomes A Movie : they based this movie off of isn't even the 1st in the series, if memory serves, it was the 5th book in the series, so starting out on the wrong foot altogether. Probably to drastically reduce their budget. But a quality company would've found a real budget and made it into a blockbuster starting with the 1st book in the series and made 3, 5, even 10 movies out of the book series.2) The Characters : Spano did an okay job as Ryan Cawdor, his acting though is reminiscent of the early days of William Shatner, which SUCKED.I'm not going to go into detail about all of the actors as it's not their fault.But there are two characters which conflict with their book description, "character" of personality, and or totally are wrong.2b) John Barrymore "J.B." Dix : It's like the script writer and or actor didn't bother reading the book series, because there are numerous complaints on this one.J.B. is not a heavyset and or dumpy man, he's lean, mean, and ready to rock, according to the book series.Neither is he a whiny snotty person, the portrayal makes this man seem a wimp.J.B. is an armorer, a guy who can do almost anything with a gun.And his persona is one of almost total confidence only 2nd to Ryan Cawdor, and he's a very quiet man, too much dialogue for him.Wikipedia : J.B. Dix - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathlands#Main_characters"John Barrymore Dix: J.B. Dix, also known as The Armorer, has been Ryan Cawdor's closest friend and travelling companion since both men worked for and travelled with the Trader. He is a thin, wiry, tough man who wears wire rimmed spectacles and a brown fedora. He is very quiet, never using four words when three will do. He is a living encyclopedia on weapons from pistols to tanks to missiles. He is also an explosives expert and good hand to hand combatant, although only an average shot. He carries a large canvas satchel containing his explosives and other weapons at all times." (Wikipedia's typos aren't my fault, copied and pasted directly)2c) Jak Lauren : He's even leaner than Dix to the point of being like a "wolf", they even describe him like that in the books, and his glasses were overdone to be totally stupid, not to mention the actor was too old."An albino distinguished in the books by his unusual syntax when speaking. Jak was introduced in the third book, Neutron Solstice. He is a young man, in his late teens, and is an extremely capable hunter and warrior. His signature weapon are his leaf bladed throwing knives, of which he has between 8 and 12 hidden on him at all times, and often uses them as thrown weapons or for melee when guns are inappropriate. He comes from the suburb of West Lowellton in Lafayette, Louisiana, where the group first meet him. At the time,he is leading a group of rebels against an extremely sadistic baron known as Tourment. When Ryan and the other's first met him, and saw just how skillful of a fighter and leader he is, they are surprised to find he is only 14 years old."I'm going to stop there as even talking about how bad this movie was makes me want to puke.If the writers, directors, and or anyone connected to this movie had read the books, or hired an enthusiast, or a consultant who knew the book series inside out, it MIGHT have been high enough to grade as a B movie.If they had even read the basic Wikipedia on it, it might have been better.Not to mention they actually forgot a character.I'll leave his name out so if you do your own basic research you will see for yourself.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeathlandsUnfortunately, it doesn't even rate a B rating, and that's bad.

It's always a gamble when a book is adapted to screen. It's more of a gamble when a popular book is adapted to screen.However, when you take a book that's got "CULT" written all over it, that's where your real problems begin.I've only read a few of James Axler's "DEATHLANDS" books, but enough to know they definitely took some liberties. A major character from the group was completely omitted (Doc Tanner), and a good deal of the backstory was changed, but not really enough to ruin the movie for me. Oscar-worthy, it ain't, but it's nowhere nearly as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.What puzzles me is people who claim to read the series are complaining about the rather tepid dialogue. Well, what books HAVE you been reading?! The dialogue in the "DEATHLANDS" series is about as sophomoric as any adventure series (barring "THE DESTROYER" and DL's "sister" series, "OUTLANDERS"). The terms "fireblast", "nukesh*tting", just to cite a couple of examples, pepper the prose throughout these books. Not exactly Henry James.But, I digress...Vincent Spano, never one of my favourite actors, actually did a passable turn as Ryan Cawdor, 'though I would've preferred him to be more like the introspective "Snake Plissken" clone the character was created to resemble. Jenya Lano was admirably cast as Krysty Wroth, even if the on screen version was a bit too timid. Cliff Saunders, physically a bit too Phil Collins-esquire to accurately portray the gaunt Armourer, JB Dix, did a good turn, though a bit more talkative than his literary counterpart. A lot of other complaints were that the characters were too "goody-goody". Well, that's as may be, but it's also one of the primary reasons why the "DEATHLANDS" series has a C U L T following instead of mainstream. If these characters were constantly as ruthless on screen as they are in the books, the creators of the movie / proposed TV series would be hard-pressed to get as large a viewership as they'd be aiming to attract.The villains (and some of the protagonists) were over-the-top, but no more so than in any of the books I've read thus far. While some of these people gave shuddering performances, it strikes me as pretty much spot-on in comparison to the the four books in the series I've read thus far. The violence was toned down SEVERELY, as was the obligatory sex scene between Ryan & Krysty, but, as it's a made-for-cable movie, it's about what I expected, and actually, some of the more graphic scenes they left in really surprised me.The cinematography was visually startling and very effective, giving the edginess to the Deathlands that the books convey. It's unfortunate that their budget was only around $2 million, but given that's all they had to work with, they have my kudos in spades for even getting it made, let alone seen by anyone."HOMEWARD BOUND", the 5th book in the "DEATHLANDS" series, was the director's personal choice from what I read. It was a nice idea, but I think it might've been a bit too ambitious for a debut movie. As far as post-apocalyptic scenarios, the first book in the series, "Pilgimage to Hell", prob'ly would've made a much better choice. The readers are still introduced to the characters one at a time, but there's still some mystery to them, whereas "HOMEWARD BOUND" tries to explain way too much at one time. Had this gone to series, "HB" would've been more apropos as the first season's cliffhanger / second season's opener.All-in-all, however, it's somewhat heartening to see that the writers and director actually drew from the source material instead of merely paying lip service to it. It gives me hope that they may one day re-do a DL movie, or move on to "OUTLANDERS" with better results.Yes, this movie could've been a lot better, but it also could've been a lot WORSE.

I have a shelf of Deathlands books. I am missing only -ten- of more than 80 volumes in this series, and I am a fan of it. The last 15 or so books have sucked rocks, but this movie...I was very disappointed. I was -thrilled- to know it had finally been made into a movie, and when Canada's SPACE channel aired it last night (July 22nd, 2005) I stayed up til crazy hours of the morning to watch it.But, they could have put more into making the chars like we knew them. JB wasn't a jolly man, he barely spoke. He and Jak are both described as 'never using two words where one would be enough' in the books. Jak is my favorite char, and while I don't know the actor well enough to know whether or not he did his best, I do think he could have pulled it off had the character been portrayed correctly. I DID like the sick little grin on his face when Ryan and JB asked him if he could handle obtaining a rifle. That just screamed 'Jak'. :> I also liked where Jak was getting angry at being locked up. Jak is often described as being akin to a caged animal when he's locked up, and the glaring red eyes help a lot with that.Krysty has crimson hair and emerald eyes, her brightly colored hair and startling eyes are what make her visibly different. I think they should have invested in some hair dye and -made- the actress look the part. Ryan looked exactly as I would have imagined him to look (except lighter of skin...Men and women very used to the outdoors so much, I would have expected to be tanned. Except Jak, of course) Also...everything was very new looking, including Jak's perfect and unscratched shades. JB looked the part although his face was a little rounder than I pictured him to be.I think they did an okay job of telling the story itself, and for such a small budget it wasn't that bad. I think they could have put more effort into making the characters more consistent with the books. Hair dye can do wonders.Also, someone made a note about how unbelievable it was that four people would set out to change the world. They're out to change the world for themselves, to give themselves a brighter future than they each had before. It's all about a search for hope. I'm not sure I would have started a series of movies (Which I still hope for it to be) with Homeward Bound, though. At least one movie to provide setting and background before going home would have been more interesting and might have attracted new blood as they waited to see more. Homeward Bound seems so finite that it doesn't seem like there is anything left to look forward to.

i think that for the most part the movie was okay. i would have found it a lot more enjoyable if i had not read some of the books first. i wasn't very pleased with Jak, who is my fav charecter in the book. he is supposed to be much more 'economical with words' and i didn't see him use one knife in the movie. Jak is supposed to be a knife fighter, though he does own a .357 Magnum. also, though not as important- his hair is supposed to be longer and he should have two scars on his face, one on his cheak and one on his nose. in addition to that, Jak does drive more then anyone else in the book. he does not need a drivers licens. i was very disappointed at the non-appearances of Lori and Doc, who are key charecters. also--i was not aware that anyone in the story had such good grammer. though not idiots, for the most part they are not really schooled, though most of them could read, not just ryan. overall i just found that there were to many differences from the book.