As with too many of Charles Band’s flicks from any era of his career, the impression that one gets from Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983) is one of impoverishment. Here, working as the director under his producer father, he tries to realize an epic yet incomprehensible script with leaden dialogue via a handful of bad actors, a score of extras, some shoddy special effects, and an acre of scrubland, all tied together with a gimmick: the theatrical 3-D process which boomed and busted in 1983.
Nathan Shumate is the proprietor of Cold Fusion Video Reviews and the publisher of Cold Fusion Media.
#1 by Ed on October 1st, 2010
Am I the only person who feels Charles Band would have benefited greatly from having Roger Corman teach him how to do low budget filmmaking for a few years? Say what you will about Corman flicks but at least they could usually fill up the running time.
#2 by Nathan Shumate on October 2nd, 2010
I don’t know. You’d think that growing up on father Albert Band’s movie sets would have taught him all he’s going to learn.
#3 by Ed on October 3rd, 2010
Indeed, and yet look at what he’s done. It’s a damn shame because I dig quite a few of the films from Empire.
#4 by MatthewF on October 10th, 2010
This, along with ‘SpaceHunter:Adventures in the forbidden zone’ haunted the video hire shops of my childhood, for some reason it was absolutely everywhere. As a ten year old the front cover promised so much, but the movie delivered so little I can still remember 25 years later. Great title though.