“Spacehunter!”  Hot damn, this movie captivated me as a kid.  And I didn’t even get to see the 3-D version in theaters in 1983; I caught it through the magic of VHS a couple of years later.  (By the way, I am linking here to The Duke Mitchell Film Club on Youtube.)  

“Spacehunter” is often derided as a ripoff of the “Star Wars” films, but I don’t think that’s fair.  It really is its own thing.

It is by no means “a great movie.”  As you can probably tell from the trailer, it’s a pretty cornball B-movie.  But a hell of a lot of work went into the sets, makeup effects, special effects and creature effects.  “Spacehunter” is fun as hell if you are a kid at heart where monsters are concerned.  There is one scene that got under my skin in the 80’s, and it’s still creepy today — it involves deformed, singing mutant children throwing bombs at our heroes from the cliffs above.  

This movie was also only the second feature film for a young Molly Ringwald.  She’s actually really good in the role, no matter how bad her dialogue gets.

If you can stomach the 80’s cheese and you can find a copy of this, I actually recommend it as late-night viewing.