Space Hunter: Rednecks in Space

The full title, while long enough to be a Fallout Boy song title, is Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. This is a truly underrated B sci-fi film that marked one of the more impressive attempts at 3-D in the 1980s. It sure was a hell of a lot better than Jaws 3-D, at least. Produced by Ivan Reitman, it may be most important for introducing the Stripes director to Ernie Hudson, who a year later would fulfill the same wisecracking black sidekick role for him in Ghostbusters.

To be fair, Reitman didn’t direct it - it was done by Lamont Johnson, whose most famous directorial roles were Twilight Zone episodes - but he was involved enough to recruit Harold Ramis to perform a voiceover cameo. This cameo is crucial, as it introduces Wolff, the film's low-rent Han Solo. For those keeping count, we also have skid row Han Solos in Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars and, of course, Spaceballs. A space cruise ship ejects three rich Earth women in escape pods, and they end up crashing on a set that looks to be leftover from Road Warrior. It's up to our anti-hero to earn enough cash to pay off his alimony payments by rescuing the Earth women.

At this point, you can smell the character arc like a twice-shat dirty diaper. We've seen this before - in the beginning, he only cares about the money, but in time, his heart is won over to the cause of righteous freedom. Once on the planet, Wolff loses his female robot to a stray bullet, but fortunately, since this is a wacky space adventure flick, there are plenty of eccentric sidekicks waiting to team up with him along the way. Before he hooks up with Ernie Hudson (fulfilling the Lando role so hard that he may as well be repeating dialogue verbatim), we meet Nikki, played by a teenage Molly Ringwald in perhaps her most annoying role. This is the fault of the script, as well as her distinct one-note acting.

The nuttiness of Wolff's travelling companiosn provides all kinds of great B-movie stuff, including a giant ocean ship pulling a crew of mutants down a random train track, cool futuristic motorcycles, a room full of giant slimy monsters with cottage cheese asses, AND, top top that off, they have an awesome fighting dome overseen by none other than Michael Ironside; this was a full year before the Mad Max legacy would be sullied by Beyond Thunderdome!

Thus, we come to our ultimate highlight. To mainstream movie fans, Michael Ironside is one of those “oh yeah - it's that guy” personalities. To cult and B-movies freaks like us, Ironside is the Brad Pitt or Matt Damon of the movie. His scenery-chewing panache has brought us laughs and tears in Total Recall, The Machinest, V: The Final Battle, McBain, Starship Troopers and in David Cronenberg’s Scanners, which may well be his most memorable roll. You may remember him as the crazy guy who made the other guy's head explode like a ripe tomato near the beginning of the movie.

In Space Hunter, Ironside has one of his finest moments - playing the dictator of the forbidden zone, who is known simply as "Overdog." Why a man as powerful as him would choose the name "Overdog" presents an interesting character study. We quickly learn this guy just doesn't give a fuck - his Zombified bald head sits atop a very heavy-looking futuristic suit, which includes some awesome giant pincer arms. Overdog looks awesome, and matched with Ironside’s voice, he steals the entire movie out from under the forgettable Han Solo wannabe.

Is this movie worth your $2?:

Oh yes. Overdog alone is a crucial part of Ironside’s career, and must be seen to be believed. The vehicles alone give this film a "rednecks in space" feel, and it's just another sterling example of those tax write-off, shamelessly derivative, yet massively entertaining flicks that don't get made any more.