PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*
Now in contrast to the previously reviewed film PHOENIX THE WARRIOR, these two films come closer to the mark as far as making mildly entertaining films. If you as filmmaker know that you really have no coherent, non-derivative ideas, then just go for broke, and throw everything and the kitchen sink into the mix. The titling of the two films is a prime example of this mentality. They're really films One and Two in a series of two, but some marketing genius decided to make it seem as if they both descended from some hypothetical "EMPIRE OF ASH" out there in the Platonic nether-regions.
Producer Lloyd A. Simandl seems to have originated the basic story, and as both co-writer and co-director he keeps both films on the same basic track. For once, we've got a post-apocalyptic film taking place in heavily forested areas, which never seems to be a serious problem for all the Mad Max-style transports wheeling around. Supposedly we're in a post-nuclear "New Idaho," as played by the forests of Canada, and ordinary people are constantly menaced both by a cult of religious fanatics and by scientific nuts who like to experiment on human subjects. Some reviews claim that the two groups fight one another, but I mostly remember them contending with main heroine Danielle (Melanie Kilgour).
Both films are search-and-rescue films. In the first, the science geeks kidnap Danielle's sister for their experiments, and the gun-wielding warrior woman goes after them. On her way she befriends a roguish traveler, Orion (Thom Schioler), who only reluctantly joins her cause (I think he agreed after she slept with him, but I'm not sure). EMPIRE 2 is full of lots of random running around and shooting, and there are times that neither Danielle or Orion are on screen while the plot just wobbles all over the place. The most charismatic character is not the heroine-- though these are two of a very small number of post-apoc films with female protagonists-- but the main villain, a striking blonde enforcer for one of the evil groups, maybe the techie madmen. I thought for sure the film was setting viewers up for a face-off between good girl and bad girl, but the end just dissolves into another big shoot-up and the rescue of Danielle's sister. The film's highlight is a daffy sequence in which one of the tech-geeks blows up a building by launching miniature missiles from his hat.
There's no trace of Orion or the sister in EMPIRE III, but Danielle decides to help out a young guy named Harris who's trying to rescue his girlfriend from the tech-weirdos-- who now have a hot brunette in charge, and who AGAIN does not get a final catfight with the heroine. EMPIRE 3 is just as aimless as the first film, and Kilgour is still not especially charismatic, with the dominatrix villain again getting some of the best scenes. One small advantage of the aimlessness is that "kitchen sink" approach I spoke of. For instance, there's an amusing scene that brings back the guy with the hat, given the name "Rocket Man," and shows him as becoming tongue-tied when two hot young babes want to get a better look at his "missiles." The leader of the religious fanatics this time out is American "heavy" William "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" Smith, but although he intones his pseudo-Christian dogma well enough, his character doesn't do much as a whole. But the first film must've made some money, since this time the producers sprung not only for Smith but also for some cuts from American rock favorites. An implied lesbian almost-rape adds to some of the delirium, and for once the girls chosen to drop their tops are well chosen-- not always the case for a lot of Canadian movies of the eighties.
No comments:
Post a Comment