Radioactive Dreams Reviews

A fitfully interesting post-nuclear comedy that tries to do too much and, therefore, accomplishes little. The year is 1996. Just before the world destroys itself in an all-out nuclear war, two fathers lock their young sons in a fallout shelter with a huge store of food, clothes from the 1940s, and a large supply of detective novels by Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler. By 2010, the boys, Phillip (John Stockwell) and Marlowe (Michael Dudikoff), have grown into young adults. Dressed in their best 1940s suits and driving a vintage car, the boys set out for adventure. Soon they pick up Miles Archer (Lisa Blount), a tough blonde on the run. Miles steals Marlowe's .38 pistol and deserts the boys, but doesn't realize that she's lost a pair of very important keys to the launch controls of the only remaining MX missile on Earth. The holder of the keys can rule the post-nuclear world. From here the film becomes one long chase with every power-hungry fringe group vying for possession of the keys. RADIOACTIVE DREAMS is a sprawling comic-book-style movie that really falls flat. While some scenes are memorable and directed with flair by Albert Pyun, the film is haphazardly paced, sketchily developed and confusing, and looks like a hybrid of BLADE RUNNER and THE ROAD WARRIOR. The black humor is rarely biting, insightful, or funny.