SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

   Film (1983). Delphi Productions/Columbia. Dir Lamont Johnson, starring Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Michael Ironside. Screenplay David Preston, Edith Rey, Dan Goldberg, Len Blum, from a story by Stewart Harding, Jean Lafleur. 90 mins (but reported as being originally 105 mins). Made in 3D. Colour.

   Bedevilled with production problems, changing directors in midstream (it was begun by Jean Lafleur), suffering from the ominous stigma of 6 screenwriting credits, S:AITFZ is surprisingly relaxed. Strauss is a space scavenger who comes to plague-and-pollution ridden Terra Eleven, the post- HOLOCAUST chic of whose citizens owes much to MAD MAX 2 (1981; vt The Road Warrior), to save three maidens. He is joined by a fast-talking tomboy (Ringwald) and an old army buddy (Hudson), and they fight their way past Bat People, Barracuda Women and feral children to the showdown with CYBORG woman-despoiler Overdog (Ironside) and his barbarian cohorts. Strauss is appealing as a down-at-heel Indiana Jones in space, and, while the movie is derivative and meandering, it isalso often ingenious and enjoyable. The overtactfully used 3D becomes an inconsequential irritant.

   PN