review: SOLARBABIES

MGM  //  Buy from Amazon.com In the future, a nuclear war has left the Earth as a desert wasteland where the ocean has dried up leaving the Earth as a vast desert landscape. Most of the water supplies are controlled by the elite corporation E-Protecorate, where the E-Protectcorate takes children away from their families and are forced to live in a orphanage, where they are to be trained as E-Police, the E-Protectcorate's security army led by the cruel commanding officer Grock. After playing a game of Skateball (Hockey on Rollerskates) against their rival team 'The Scorpions'. Daniel, the youngest member of the Solarbabies discovers a glowing orb from another galaxy called Bodahi in a mineshaft and Bodahi heals Daniel's deafness. The Solarbabies learn Bodahi has amazing powers. And the discovery of Bodahi convinces the Solarbabies to escape from the Orphange and fight back against the E-Protectcorate. Pursued by Grock, who is after Bodahi, The Solarbabies travel across the desert wasteland, where Bodhai is the key in their quest to defeat the E-Protectcorate and liberate the world from it's control. I actually saw this film in the theaters when it came out in 1986 - yes, it actually made it up to the Canadian arctic, and the Capitol Twin Theater saw fit to regale the inhabitants of this frozen mining town with visions of rollerskating teens in a Mad Max world. Somehow, my friend's father took us to see this, although in hindsight I can only imagine the sheer horror and visual agony he must've been going through sitting through this abomination of a film. Seriously: rollerstaking teens in a post-apocalyptic world? Really? This movie got greenlit? DAMN I love the 80s! And y'know what else? I love this film. Oh, make no mistake: it is absolutely terrible - absolutely inane plot, dead-on-arrival acting, all the majesty of 80s fashion & music spit up across the screen - but mixed together that's what makes this such a great b-movie, and why fans have been clamoring to see this cult classic released onto DVD for years (thank you MGM for listening!) I love this movie like I love bad 80s sci-fi like "Ice Pirates," "Krull" and "The Last Starfighter" and if any of those 3 titles ring a bell in the far recesses of your brain, then you should definitely check out "Solarbabies" - you won't be disappointed. Video Your choice of 2.35:1 widesscreen or 1.33:1 fullscreen - obviously I opted for the former and was pleased. Nothing special - shows its age, but no flaws to complain of. Audio Dolby surround mix does a solid job - as with the picture, nothing spectacular, but no complaints either. Extras nada Closing Thoughts Pure 80s cheese + zero extras = excellent addition to any b-movie fan's collection!