Aftershock

AFTERSHOCK (1990)

Directed by: Frank Harris
Written by: Michael Standing
Starring: John Saxon, Chuck Jeffreys, Michael Berryman, Matthias Hues, James Lew, Richard Lynch, Christopher Mitchum, Russ Tamblyn

Wow! That's really all there is to say about Aftershock. Just, wow! Now, post apocalyptic action movies from the 1980s are often full of all kinds of madness, strangeness and low budget weirdness. Well, Aftershock pushes the madness, strangeness and weirdness to its absolute bonkers limits. Seriously, this movie is mad. It's also incoherent, low-of-the-budget, random, badly acted, most likely made when most of the cast and crew were ingesting large quantities of drugs and makes absolutely no sense at all. Which, all makes it kinda of awesome. Plus it has some pretty decent and frequent action.



Ok, so the earth is scorched, the land a wasteland and the great John Saxon (who might have been the only one not on drugs, judging by his "what-the-hell-is-going" appearance) is the leader of some kind of military outfit who rule the burnt out world with an iron fist. Well, they just kind of make a nuisance of themselves and the devastated planet consists of one derelict setting shot from every possible angle to make it look bigger and more post-apocalyptic (though admittedly it's a pretty cool setting). Then for reasons that are so absurd and nonsensical, they will probably melt the average person's brain, a pretty alien babe (Elizabeth Kaitan) beams to earth, hooks up with chiseled hero Jay Roberts Jr (White Phantom) and comedy sideckick/ace kung fu dude Chuck Jeffreys (Bloodmoon) and the trio spend the rest of the movie running around in circles trying to get away from Saxon and his goons.



Well, that's not all they do. They also have to outwit a cowboy bounty hunter who is there, well, I have no idea why he was in the movie other than to randomly shoot people for no reason every now and again. Which, I guess, was kinda cool. They also join some resistance, sort of, which is led by Robert Mitchum's son; then fight a drag queen Michael (Hills Have Eyes) Berryman and a Conan the Barbarian dressed Matthias (I Come In Peace) Hues for reasons that actually made this reviewers brain melt; Jay Roberts Jr rides around on a motorcycle with a sword on his back because, well, it looks cool; B-movie legend Richard Lynch pops up in one scene (most likely drunk!); and absolutely nothing at all makes any sense, at anytime during the whole movie.

There are bunch of cool looking post-apocalyptic Mad Max like vehicles, plenty of gun battles and random explosions and the fight scenes have a low rent punch to them, with Chuck Jeffreys busting some pretty cool kung fu moves. Too bad he disappears half way through the movie without any explanation. If you love schlock like this (and I do!) then get a copy of Aftershock now and drive yourself to the brink of insanity by watching the utter delirium that is this movie. Warning: your head will probably explode from sheer madness/awesomeness that Aftershock is.