Heavy Metal (Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Rockin' animated flick!
Review:
An astronaut brings home to her daughter a gift, it's a green jewel from a distant planet. But when it murders her father, it turns out that it's called "Loc-Narr" which is the sum of all evil and brings death & destruction including corruption to anyone who possesses it, the ball begins to tell five stories involving warriors, monsters, zombies, aliens, outer space, other worlds, and good vs. evil.

Inspired by the popular adult comic book that was originally from France, this is a stunning and very adult animated movie from the producers of "Ghostbusters" and " Animal House" that blends the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy into one entertaining and fun animated movie. The artwork with animation in the sequences are just terrific and there's plenty of things in this movie to please the fan of animation, sci-fi and fantasy such as sex, nudity, animated hotties such as Taarna the white haired warrior chick, violence, drugs, the voices of Roger "Squidward" Bumpass, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Harold Ramis and an awesome soundtrack featuring Devo, Black Sabbath, Don Felder, Stevie Nicks, Elmer Bernstein, Journey and more.

This DVD Collector's Edition is just awesome! it contains both the theatrical version and the full length in progress version featuring voices and some scenes that didn't make the final cut. It contains two audio commentaries on both version by producer Carl Mareck, a documentary on the film went from vision to cult animated favorite, two deleted scenes like the never before seen "Neverland" sequence, Photo galleries, remastered picture and sound quality.

This is a must see movie and DVD for fans of Animation & Science Ficton and fantasy alike and have some naughty fun.

Also recommended: " The Fifth Element", " Rock & Rule", " American Pop", " Akira", " Vampire Hunter D", " Ghost in The Shell", "Caligula", " Total Recall", "Starship Troopers", " The Running Man", " Big Trouble in Little China", " The Dark Crystal", " The Last Unicorn", "The Secret of NIMH", "Labyrinth", " The Princess Bride", " Dark City", "Blade Runner", " Metropolis ( both 1927 and 2001)", " 2001: A Space Odyssey", "Star Wars Original Trilogy", " The Matrix", "City of Lost Children", " Lifeforce", " Alien Series", "Predator 1 & 2", " Alien vs. Predator", " Perfect Blue", "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend", " The Professional: Golgo 13", " The Crow", " From Dusk Till Dawn", "Army of Darkness", " Conan The Barbarian movies", " Conquest", "Ladyhawke", " The Neverending Story", "Willow", " Lord of the Rings ( 1978)", " The Hobbit", " The Flight of Dragons", " Fist of the North Star (Animated version)", " Scanners", " Dead & Buried", " Fantasia", "Death Race 2000", " Terminator 1 & 2", and " The Mad Max Trilogy".

Rating:
Summary: Heavy Metal
Review: "Heavy Metal" is one of the weirdest films I've ever seen, yet that's why it's so good. I do agree with one of the other reviewers here that said the sound track was great, and I think the different stories blend very well together by matching each other's themes. The animation for this film is really first rate, so it's no wonder why this film is a classic. The film is based off the popular erotic comic book Heavy Metal which features a collaboration of short erotic stories. The movie starts out with an astronaut coming home to bring his daughter a present, but the orb soon consumes her father. So she is left defenseless. Upon her father's death, the orb reveals several different stories in which this jewel has caused chaos and influenced various lives. Although the stories violence and sexual content is a bit exessive and some of the voice acting is bland, it still manages to tell a very powerful story. Overall, this maybe a weird film, but it's still worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: UNEVEN BUT NEVER DULL SET OF STORIES
Review: Based upon the illustrated magazine of the same name, Heavy Metal presents several short sci-fi, fantasy, and horror stories framed by a story concerning a god-like glowing green orb of pure evil. After being discovered by futuristic space miners, the orb is taken home by one as a gift to his young daughter. The orb disinegrates the miner who found it and before killing the girl, it relates several tales of the evil that it has spread throughout the universe.

The stories are wildly uneven ranging from comedic sci-fi, to swords and sorcery, to pure horror. The best stories are as follows:

"Captain Sterrn" Written by Berni Wrightson about a ship captain's trial Who uses a sqeamish fellow to lie and give him an alibi. But he soon turns into a gargauntuan, Hulk-like being and smashes through a space station trying to catch Sternn. Sternn is voiced by Eugene Levy.

"Den" Written by Richard Corben is about a young boy (voiced by John Candy) who is magically transported to a swords and sorcery realm filled with beuatiful, big busted women and he himself is transformed into a Conan-like barbarian hero to rescue a beautiful girl.

"B-17" The most horric tale of the film. Set during WWII, the dead crew members of a B-17 bomber are brought back to life as flesh eating zombies by the power of the green orb. Soon the only surviving member of the crew has to dith the plane and parachute to safety. he lands on a island filled with other crashed aircraft and something far worse.

"Taarna" A warrior people have been corrupted by the power of the green orb and begin a massacre of the peaceful peoples of this far off world. In desperation they summon the last warrior woman called Tarrna, sworn to defend the people. Taarna is a beautiful, blone, leather clad, butt-kicking warrior woman who eventually destroys the green orb leading to a surprising transformation to that little girl from the opening story.

The animation varies from story to story from the gritty look of the Taarna and harry Canyon sequences to the more cartoony looking stories of Captain Sternn and "takin a Ride". The animation ranges from average to outstanding.

As important as the story itself is a now legendary soundtrack featuring artists like Black Sabbath, Sammy Hagar, Cheap Trick, Journey, Devo, Stevie Nicks, Mark Farner (grand Funk). It's my all-time favorite soundtrack and I still have it to this day.

When everyone was going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight movies, Heavy Metal was the one my friends and I went to instead. Still a favorite and this DVD was quickly added to my collection.

Rating:
Summary: Great animated movie for adults!
Review: I was a fan of the magazine(and still am) before seeing this movie one late night on TV. It's still one of my favorites and was responsible for making me want to find other animated movies for mature viewers. One thing you have to understand is that the stories were not origionally related to each other, so its best to enjoy each story on its own rather then as a single movie. Yes, it may be a male fantasy at heart, but it still stimulates the imagination as well.

Rating:
Summary: Heavy Metal 1981
Review: Great sound track, great American anime, greatest opening sequence of all times, possibly number 1 rock and roll movie ever.

Rating:
Summary: You can do much better than this!
Review: Brutally awful film that takes delight in poor taste and sadistic treatment of it's characters. Hardly groundbreaking, animation is ugly and cheap looking. There is nothing redeeming about this film and you can do a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: Heavy Metal special edition
Review: Heavy Metal is an excellent movie. And it's a great way to see the magazine come to life. It has great rock and Heavy Metal music along with it's motion picture score.
It's a cult classic for Friday night viewing. Not to be missed and represents the 1980's at it's best.