“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.
Yes, you see a lot of flat retail sprawl here — but there are gorgeous rural roads among the mountains behind. It’s actually a lovely place to live. Just watch out for bears.
That awkward moment when the doctor shines that light in your inner ear, and you take your glasses off so he can better see in there.
Also … it makes me feel really old when they give me that cheery thumbs-up and say “Stay active!!” I liked it a lot better when I was a young man and they were all like, JESUS, SLOW THE F*** DOWN.
Fun fact — I actually broke those very same glasses when I got home by sitting on them. So that’s sort of an O’Henry ending for our story today.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 