Caught this film recently on the internet. Curious to see what it was about, and ended up watching the whole thing.
A group of scientists accidentally discover a portal to a nuclear-devastated future, and fall in with the last remaining humans in their underground society.
The special effects are more ingenious than convincing, but none the worse for that. For example the way, when entering the time portal, the actors move off to the side, then appear on the back-projected film running into the barren landscape; and the otherwise drawn-out scene in the android workshop, where the worker puts new eyes into the head of an android and tests that they move properly, a bit of clever painting of the cubicle below goes a fair way to hiding the obvious.
Being a Brit and not having seen many of these films, the cast were strangers to me, but I found the acting pretty good, with the standout performance being from Steve Franken as Danny, the kooky electrician, providing comic relief.
At the risk of sounding totally un-PC, I've always found the fuller-figured 60s 'babes' more sexy than their modern-day equivalents, and this film features quite a few, mostly with gritty, heavy-smoker voices. The one playing Danny's love interest is particularly pretty, and it's nice to see that in 2071 those sexy 60s hairstyles are still in vogue!
The 'fight scene' between the mutants and androids towards the end is surprisingly violent, including a pretty harrowing shot of a burning android, which I would imagine would give some younger viewers nightmares.
For me, the ending is the most interesting bit, when the protagonists find themselves in an infinite time loop - we get a pared-down version of the film we just saw, then, after they enter the loop again, an even more accelerated version. While the rest of the film is above-par 60s modest-budget sci-fi, this ending has an almost avant-garde feel to it, and the fact that there's no neat 'happily ever after' conclusion earns this film points from me.
The version I saw was from a pretty poor multi-generation VHS, and I'd be intrigued to see a restored print of this released on DVD.
A group of scientists accidentally discover a portal to a nuclear-devastated future, and fall in with the last remaining humans in their underground society.
The special effects are more ingenious than convincing, but none the worse for that. For example the way, when entering the time portal, the actors move off to the side, then appear on the back-projected film running into the barren landscape; and the otherwise drawn-out scene in the android workshop, where the worker puts new eyes into the head of an android and tests that they move properly, a bit of clever painting of the cubicle below goes a fair way to hiding the obvious.
Being a Brit and not having seen many of these films, the cast were strangers to me, but I found the acting pretty good, with the standout performance being from Steve Franken as Danny, the kooky electrician, providing comic relief.
At the risk of sounding totally un-PC, I've always found the fuller-figured 60s 'babes' more sexy than their modern-day equivalents, and this film features quite a few, mostly with gritty, heavy-smoker voices. The one playing Danny's love interest is particularly pretty, and it's nice to see that in 2071 those sexy 60s hairstyles are still in vogue!
The 'fight scene' between the mutants and androids towards the end is surprisingly violent, including a pretty harrowing shot of a burning android, which I would imagine would give some younger viewers nightmares.
For me, the ending is the most interesting bit, when the protagonists find themselves in an infinite time loop - we get a pared-down version of the film we just saw, then, after they enter the loop again, an even more accelerated version. While the rest of the film is above-par 60s modest-budget sci-fi, this ending has an almost avant-garde feel to it, and the fact that there's no neat 'happily ever after' conclusion earns this film points from me.
The version I saw was from a pretty poor multi-generation VHS, and I'd be intrigued to see a restored print of this released on DVD.
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