4/04/2012

Future Zone (1990)

Future Zone (1990)-*1\2

Directed by: David A. Prior

Starring: David Carradine, Ted Prior, Renee Cline, Gail Jensen, and Charles Napier







John Tucker (Carradine) is back in this sequel to Future Force (1989). This time around, Tucker is having some marital problems with wife Marion (real-life wife at this time Gail Jensen). Also he’s fighting gangsters and corruption - and what does Mickland (Napier) have to do with all this? While Tucker is busy being an old west-style gunslinger in a world gone mad, a mysterious stranger seemingly appears out of nowhere to come back him up. But this “stranger” is none other than Billy Tucker (Prior), John’s son who travels back in time to help his dad. Naturally, they don’t get along at first...well, you know the drill by this point. Will the father and son Tucker team prove that family wins out in the end?

Another question you could ask is, “WHY is there another Tucker?” This movie is really pushing its luck. By that we mean, there was no reason whatsoever for a sequel to Future Force. If David Prior wanted to put Carradine, Napier and Ted in a movie, fine, so much the better, but it really did not need to be another John Tucker vehicle. I doubt fans were clamoring for that. It’s almost wasteful, it could have been a whole new idea. So as it stands, Future Zone is very, very dumb, and with an odd, seemingly too-slow pace to boot. On the bright side, Tucker’s proto-Power Glove is back in force, shooting blue lasers and blowing up helicopters, and there are plenty of blow-ups, but the pace, overall stupidity and one other negative aspect sink the movie...


That being the horrendous score by John Morgan and William Stromberg. It’s old-fashioned, inappropriate, and has loud flutes and oboes blasting in your ears. It sounds like it should be in a Disney or Looney Tunes cartoon. It actually enhances the silliness and flaws in the movie. It’s incredibly grating, so much so, it basically ruins the experience. Plus it’s obvious that Carradine DOES NOT CARE. Maybe he’s acting and that’s just John Tucker’s character, but wow, he really has a lot of contempt for the very fact that he’s even there. It’s just very low energy. By comparison, when Michael Madsen doesn’t care (which is pretty much all the time from what we’ve seen), it’s somehow charming. And when Burt Reynolds doesn’t care (which is pretty much all the time from what we’ve seen), it’s at least funny. But Carradine’s lack of interest just saps energy from the whole project. And it’s already on life support as it is. Ted Prior and Charles Napier do their best to revive the proceedings, but it’s not enough: you check out and boredom ensues - even at an 80 minute running time.

While Ted Prior’s shirt is surely a sight to behold, as is Carradine’s jacket with the hand emblazoned on the back, and Carradine gets a great entrance, it’s, sadly, not enough. This is not David Prior at his best and he should have stopped after the first “Future” movie and made a new project here. Future Zone is a disappointment.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

10 comments:

venom said...

Disagree with you on this one, thought it was decent enough, carradine seemed fine ot me, he didn't look like he had contempt for this film, and I liked how this film mized in western aspects, and the action scenes were well done enough, but I will agree with you that the score is pretty awful.

Ty said...

The score is one of the worst parts...i wonder why it was so goofy? It made no sense. To us, Carradine looked really bored! Lol.

venom said...

The music sort of reminded me of the score from Exterminator 2, which was equally bizarre sounding. Carradine was in some pretty bad films which make this one look like high art by comparison,(I.E. Fall Down Dead, Night Rhythms) but the worst film he's ever done has got to be Midnight Fear, a deadly dull serial killer film, Carradine looks drunk half the time(fitting since his character is an alcoholic) and completely bored for the other half.

Ty said...

Will definitely avoid those Carradine flicks! Thanks for the warning.

robotGEEK said...

Yikes! Will avoid at all costs! lol. Great review though!

Ty said...

Thanks! It is definitely one to avoid. Future Force is a little better. The best part of both movies is the flying glove.

robotGEEK said...

The glove flies???!!! lol.

Ty said...

Lol! It is one of the funniest parts of the movie. Plus it shoots lasers!

ecclefechan said...

I didn't think Carradine looked bored at all in this. Actually, I thought it was quite the opposite. It looked like he was having a lot of fun and knew how ridiculous the material was! Much more entertaining than "Future Force" which had almost no connection to this one.

Ty said...

All both movies needed is more laser-shooting glove action!