DEFCON-4

source: DEFCON-4

I bought this film at a used movie sale. I remembered the title and the poster from way back, and for some reason I had it mixed up with another apocalyptic flick called "Twilight's Last Gleaming". Also I saw the name Tim Choate. I recalled he was "Zathrus" on the show "Babylon 5". I should have saved my money. Very poor production values, although the orbital weapons platform parts looked pretty good for a bad film, the rest of the film is hazy and crappy, and poorly lit. There is no real dialog, it is just bad. The film was made with Canadian Government tax dollars and they put in several things to show the flag, like the weirdo in the kilt who made booby traps with Canadian Government issued Social Insurance cards. Go figure! The characters are terrible, the acting is laughably bad, this film just stinks. You can't even say that it is so bad it's good, it is a lazy effort that makes no sense at all. And Tim Choate's best work was on "Babylon 5" under all that make up.

The artwork on the video box might make this movie look promising, but it's not until you watch it until you realize how terrible it is. The camerawork and cinematography are reminiscent of a homemade porno film, the directing is bad and the performances are even worse. It might have worked better as a feature-length Japanese anime movie. Skip it!!!

A noteworthy member of the post-nuclear apocalypse genre of film that adds admirably to the body of opinion of what the world would be like after an all out nuclear war. More sensible than the fantasy treatment of movies such as "Road Warrior" or "A Boy and His Dog", but not so dismal as "The Day After", this movie gives a bit more feel of what really might happen after a Nuclear confrontation, but has enough action and adventure to make for a good film. The movie is somewhat unpolished, but pleasingly gruesome (as a movie dealing with nuclear war must be). I gave it a 7 of 10.

One of the better eighties post-apocalyptic films was and is Def Con 4. It bombed in 1985 but has gone on to gain a small cult following. It is the story of three astronauts, one in particular, who witness war and nuclear holocaust from a satelite. The space footage is well shot and a genuine sense of dread reigns as we watch them contemplate the deaths of their families and of civilization. When their satelite is forced to land they fall into a nuclear wasteland fillled with armed militants and plague ridden cannibals. This is perhaps one of the dirtiest looking movies of its day, which rather adds to the already oppresive atmosphere. Unfortunately Def Con runs out of steam toward the somewhat hurried finale. Yet if your not easily put off by the brutal tone of the movie, its science fiction worthy of 90 minutes of your life.

Bleak sci-fi begins with three astronauts who are forced to crashland on post-nuke earth after a nuclear holocaust. Much of the population has been wiped out, but those who remain are either savage mutant cannibals (who are first seen carving meat slices off of a severed leg) or unbelievably sadistic punks who imprison innocent people in a slave camp and are led by a fascist Hitler clone (Kenneth King). The special effects work (especially at the beginning) is good, the cast tries and there are some interesting things that happen, but overall it's a grim and unenjoyable film. The script could have used a polish or two. Score: 3 out of 10

I love B Grade movies. I have a fondness for them which is pretty deep, but this was F Grade crud. For some reason i read the back of the DVD cover and thought this may be interesting. Astronauts crash to earth, have to survive against the diseased and megalomaniacal survivors, criminally low budget. Sounds like a winner. Well winner it was not. Not funny enough to warrant it being "so good it is bad" tag, the diseased people pretty much don't rate a mention, the main characters have no charisma and are pretty annoying, the bad guys are kinda OK, the main bad dude look's like a hobo's Patrick Swayze and has zero acting talent, and his offsider is a lot like Bennet in Commando, the camp, extremely unscary psycho bad dude with a mustache. The story line starts off well but begins to worsen not too soon after the start, and gets worse and worse and then plateaus and then gets worse again. The ending is finally reaches the so bad it is good stage, but if you watch that far into it, as I did, then you are a fool. By the end you are stupider than you were before. Written, Produced and Directed by the same cretin, this abysmal effort wasted my 2 dollars spent hiring it, and my time watching it. I feel cheated. I want blood.

"Def-Con 4" can basically be described as a mundane and ordinary post- apocalyptic Sci-Fi/thriller from the mid-80's, but at least it has a couple of semi-original elements in store. There were most 'after the nuclear bomb' movies were uninspired clones of "Mad Max: The Road Warrior", with flamboyantly tuned vehicles and deranged Mohawk villains, this film at least tries to put the emphasis a little more on depth and characters drawings. Although I really like "Mad Max" and most of its clones (especially the Italian ones), admittedly it's not a very plausible post-apocalyptic scenario that all remaining survivors will go bonkers and drive around in eccentric buggies. Anyway, "Def-Con 4" starts from a fairly inventive viewpoint. Whilst orbiting around in a satellite and minding their own business, a three-headed crew of astronauts witnesses how our planet Earth is destroyed during a short but devastating nuclear war between the US and USSR. Two months later, their board computer get "hijacked" and the satellite crash-lands in unknown and probably extremely hostile territory. Quickly after their captain Walker is ripped to pieces by unseen assailants, sole survivors Jordon and Howe end up in a secluded camp run by a pretentious teenager. He's the leader because his parents were rich, influential and owned a helicopter. You'd think people don't care about financial status anymore in a world destroyed by nuclear missiles, but apparently they do. "Def- Con 4" is full of illogical and implausible stuff similar to this, as a matter a fact. Do you reckon it only takes two months for survivors of a nuclear holocaust to turn into cannibalistic savages? Two months of hunger and disease and people are ready to devour fellow person's ripped off arms and rape women with nicely red aureoles. We're doomed, I tell you. Still, if you manage to overlook the dumb errors in the script, this might become an enjoyable little Sci-Fi treat with a decent first half hour and a familiarly tacky climax. The "evil" characters are quite funny and actually come across as pathetic instead of menacing. Kevin King tries hard to act like a genuine bastard, especially when he deliberately drops the freshly baked steak of his paralyzed computer specialist in the mud, but it really doesn't help that he has a cute baby-face and high school jock attitude. His first commander is a sort of albino Nazi and their legal system is a throwback to Medieval times. You survived atomic bombs and now you're going to hang people?!? Please!

How bad can a science fiction movie get? Fred Ray Olen - the master of shitty sci-fi flicks - would die of envy if he ever saw "Def-Con 4". This is by far the worst movie I've ever seen. Lousy effects, crappy story and BAAAAAAAAAAAD acting. Sometimes movies are so bad you sit there with that B-movie smirk - smiling because the flick stinks so much that it actually (and unintentionally) is funny. Here - I just wanted to rip my my own head off and feed to it to the smelly Golden retreiver next door - hoping that the furry menace would choke on my tortured eyeballs. This is what the back of the DVD-cover says: Three astronauts return to Earth two months after a nuclear holocaust and find disease-crazed humans wandering through shanty towns constructed from the refuse of the previous civilization. And your next question probably is: What the f..k!!! DVD-cover? Did you actually rent or buy this crap? Nope, got it for x-mas 2004 as a part of a 5 disc/10 movies boxed-set named "SCI-FI - 10 GREAT FILMS!". Riiiiiiiight.....

Perhaps my enjoyment of this movie largely stems from my not being Canadian. It seems that the Canadian reviewers have a grudge against the film. I can only imagine that they are getting some inside jokes that I am not. I have liked this film since I was a kid. I rank it up there with "The Day After" as one of the better post-apocalyptic movies made. A lot of people give that honor to "Mad Max", but I found "Mad Max" boring and far too campy. "Def Con 4" takes a serious tone, which is occasionally undermined by poor acting and special effects. But the overall impression is quite good. Sure it's fun to make fun of, but this is largely because we no longer live with the fear of nuclear war on a daily basis. I found the writing to be quite good, with an effective and interesting opening drawing the viewer into the life of the astronauts as they waited to return to Earth. The movie is actually quite solid until it is necessary for a new conflict to be introduced - when the surviving astronauts meet the teenage, post-apocalyptic Hitler, the downhill slide begins. But even then it's not terrible. It's actually fun seeing how seriously everyone is treating the subject matter. And how can you not love a movie that begins with "It is the day after tomorrow"? The movie also has quite possibly the best tractor-immobilization sequence ever committed to celluloid. On the downside, the action sequences are rather ineptly filmed, and the acting can be a bit wooden. But, hey, it's a low-budget sci-fi film. I recommend it for a fun evening.