Rating: ***
Producer: Gary Kurtz
Director: Steven M. Lisberger
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Cast: Mark Hamill, Kitty Aldridge, Bob Peck, Ben Kingsley,
F. Murray Abraham, Bill Paxton
This is a neat low budget science fiction adventure that unfortunately falls apart at the end. Mark Hamill plays a tough and hardened bounty hunter who's just a little bit crazy. Tough and sexy Kitty Aldridge is his partner, and she steals the show. They're chasing a wanted criminal (Bob Peck) and complications arise when a travelling rogue (Bill Paxton) kidnaps him for the reward. They all eventually end up in a strange underground city full of old upper crust remnants of the pre-war generation. And that's when it gets weird and the pace slows to a crawl. Oh, did I mention there's a dancing number thrown in there? It's a good looking and interesting film, but where it really shines is in Kitty Aldridge's character. One of the few domestic films that features a strong and uncompromising female lead that's full of conviction and bad to the bone (until the sappy ending, that is!). She's also the first tough chick character that I fell for, which is a significant milestone in the history of my "girls with guns" crusade.
Notes On The DVD Release: I just have to point out that the packaging on all three versions I've seen of this DVD are incomprehensibly embarrassing. Why not use the original artwork? More and more I see DVDs that are just sloppy screenshots instead of the original marketing material, which I find wholly unacceptable. The version I own is the absolute worst, because the headshots of the actors are from entirely different films! Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham continue to have star billing, despite the fact that neither one has more than a minute or two of screen time. Utterly incompetent.