User reviews

In 1982, you could not read a comic book without seeing the ad for Megaforce. It's the first hype I can truly remember, save for the similar ad strategy for 1977's Orca. As a ten-year-old chubby geek, I needed to know all about Ace Hunter and his crew of super soldiers.

I wondered, "As a small child living in a small town, could I truly be ready to join Megaforce?" The answer was no. I was too small for the bikes, too rotund for the jumpsuits. But it was a dream. A dream I have refused to give up on.

The Republic of Sardun is peaceful. Gamibia, a neighboring country, is not. So they send General Byrne-White (Edward Mulhare from TV's Knight Rider and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) and Major Zara (Persis Khambatta, Star Trek: The Motion Picture) to ask Megaforce for help. The conflict will bring their leader, Commander Ace Hunter (Barry Bostwick from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), into conflict with his former friend and now rival, Duke Guerrera (Henry Silva, Killer Kane from 1979's Buck Rodgers, Chained Heat, Fists of Steel, Amazon Women on the Moon).

That's alright, though. Megaforce has incredible motorcycles, dune buggies and a big RV. Things will all work out.

Zara decides to try out as Hunter falls in love with her. She passes, but he cannot allow her to join them in combat -- she'd throw off the rest of the guys. That's right -- an empowered woman success against the odds but can't make it to the team because these guys wear spandex and headbands and need to just be guys, alright? It was 1982. The glass ceiling for Megaforce was ankle level.

Megaforce attacks Gamibia and blows up the base, then have some trouble getting out of the country. Seems that all these tanks are in the way. No worries -- the boys all make multicolored smoke come out of their vehicles, which self-destruct and they leave on foot, except for Hunter, who flies his into the cargo plane. Even then, he gives Guerrera the thumbs up, which the bad guy returns. Again, this was 1982. America was back, baby, and if we wanted to blow up all the vehicles instead of saving them, no matter how great and unique they were, we were going to do it. Who are you to deny Ace Hunter? Does he come down on the corner and knock the dicks out of your mouth? Don't presume to tell this bandana-clad gentleman how to lead Megaforce.

Barry Bostwick was all in on this movie. And why not -- he had a three picture deal in case things picked up. His interviews at the time are so wonderful, like when he said that the Pentagon tried to stop the movie because of how close Megaforce was to covert CIA strike teams (one only wonders if they all had flags on their bikes and crazy collared dress uniforms, too). Or when he opined that the world needed a real-life Megaforce.

Megaforce came to us from Hal Needham, a former stuntman who went on to direct Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run, Stroker Ace and 80's BMX megafilm (seriously, it ruled the video stores of my teenage years) Rad. He even had his own toy -- the Hal Needham Western Movie Stunt Set! You don't even have to guess if I had it as a kid.

Barry Bostwick and Hal Needham weren't alone, though. There were other members of the team, like Dallas (Michael Beck from The Warriors and Xanadu), who has a Confederate flag on his uniform, because we didn't understand racism in 1982. Other team members have one name and are one note, like Ivan, Suki, Sixkiller, Anton and Lopez. All of their clothes were designed by Mattel, who saw big toy potential in the film, but only ended up making a playset and some Hot Wheels. My brother and I had them, even if he would not allow anyone else to play with his Megafighter dune buggy. There was even an Atari game!

That said -- the film flopped hard. It's been forgotten by nearly everyone, save the ridiculous folks like me that kiss their thumb and give people the "Megaforce salute."

In fact, two of those people were Matt Stone and Trey Parker. There is no way to watch their Team America: World Police without seeing echoes of Ace Hunter's hard work.

And the government itself got really interested. After the military refused to aid the production, they asked Needham for the plans for the Megaforce vehicles. He happily handed them over and claimed that Desert Storm's hardware came directly from this film.

I cannot stress how completely dumb this film is. No one is ever in danger. No one ever appears to be a real human being. Therefore, it is wonderful and I also recommend that you seek it out. Deeds not words!

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This howlingly absurd futuristic sci-fi actioner stars Barry Bostwick ("The Rocky Horror Picture Show", 'Spin City'), absolutely nobody's idea of an ideal action movie star. He plays the charismatic "Ace Hunter", leader of an elite fighting unit that is deployed whenever freedom is threatened. And this unit is set into motion when a fictional country begins to be terrorized by a flamboyant mercenary (Henry Silva, who's a hoot as usual). Among the people on Aces' team is easygoing Southerner "Dallas" (Michael Beck of "The Warriors" fame), who shoots at errant reptiles and delights in showing "holograms" to people.

This is the kind of movie you enjoy for its utter cheesiness and ineptitude. While it may not be quite as terrible as some reviews will lead you to believe, it sure ain't much good, either. Still, stunt expert turned filmmaker Hal Needham ("Smokey and the Bandit", "The Cannonball Run") and his merry crew do have some fun here. A lot of their set pieces are quite simply chaotic and over the top, as they just go for broke and refuse to worry about it ever making much SENSE. There are explosions and vehicular stunts aplenty, as well as some sky diving. Although there is a gorgeous leading lady in Persis Khambatta ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Nighthawks"), romance is not really in the air, since Ace doesn't want to involve an "outsider" like her in his mission. He says his men are like a machine that moves and acts as one.

Bostwick is amusing, his miscasting be damned. He does seem to be enjoying himself. Silva, while not at his absolute best, is still in fine form as a smiling villain whom you can't really hate at all. The movie co-stars Edward Mulhare ("Our Man Flint", 'Knight Rider') as a military man and George Furth ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "Blazing Saddles") as a Q-style gadget, weaponry, and vehicle designer.

Despite the ropey "Introvision" effects, this utterly goofy entertainment does possess a certain oddball charm.

Five out of 10.

In all honesty, this was a movie with some real great potential. It could had actually really been a decent movie, if it had only an actual script to work with.

This movie is totally lame and silly but almost in a good way. It has so much cult potential in it with its awesome main concept, great weapons and vehicles and over-the-top silly action, that defies all logic. It makes the movie real fun to watch but at the same time it also remains simply an horrible one.

It's literally a laughable bad movie, which is not just due to its simplistic story and lame characters and dialog but also because of the way how it looks. I'm not even talking about Ace Hunter's heroic costume and haircut but more about the overall visual look of this movie, that is horribly cheap. The use of the blue-screen is often real laughable and some of the action is just totally insane, in a true laughable way, without giving anything away about it. Seems like this movie got also actually aimed toward kids, also judging by its action. The movie is at least being very childish and simplistic.

But really, I could had been OK with all this. This movie would had been a perfect, campy, science-fiction, action, cult-classic if only it had a half decent story in it. Seriously, I can't even tell what this movie is about and it's not like this is being a very complicated movie. It's just about nothing really and it only seems to rely on its main concept of having Megaforce, battling and blasting away a bunch of bad guys. But why, how and who? I have no idea about that really. Granted that I was not alway paying much attention but that was because the movie could hardly hold my interest.

It's still a movie you could have a fun time with watching because of how bad and silly it can all get but still it remains a huge waste and shame that they didn't do any more and anything better with its potentially great and awesome concept.

3/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

One of the first jobs I ever had was with a catering company. Imagine our excitement being hired on for the desert-location filming of MEGAFORCE! Everyone involved with this production seemed quite confident that it was going to become a smash summer hit(*snicker).

Watching the filming at Nevada's dry lakes, it did feel like something monumentous was in the making, but nobody could have imagined just how negative a reaction this movie was going to receive. I almost didn't want to see it, but curiosity got the better of me. Truthfully, I don't think it's nearly as horrible as many have made it out to be, but nobody in their right mind would call it legitimately "good", either. There's enough vehicle stunts, random explosions, and weapons futurismo to keep average 12-year-olds very entertained, and I think that may be exactly what Hal Needham intended for this project.

I still have a box filled with t-shirts, ball-caps, and other promotional crap emblazoned with "DEEDS, NOT WORDS". It may not have the iconic carriage of, say, "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU", but I'll keep these things for posterity, anyhow...

...and I hope everyone on the set enjoyed the food...

**EDIT, 7/28/23 I watched this again last night, for the first time in nearly 30 years. Amazingly, MEGAFORCE has ripened on the vine. The passing of decades has blessed it with an almost rapturous camp appeal...a big ol' wheel of cheese that entertains for (mostly)all the wrong reasons. I was smiling a mile wide.

Rest in peace, Mr. Needham...looks like you've succeeded despite yourself.

I remember this film, because its the first film I ever walked out of. And for this-then action film-obsessed 14-year old, for a film to be so utterly bad that he felt his lack of intelligence being insulted, well that was like a 2 year old telling his mother that the Teletubbies were stupid. I remember when I was first getting into movies, and I would keep a log of what films I saw, when I saw em, and what I rated em (I think I used a scale of 1-to-10), I recall this one getting my first ZERO. More recently I am pleased to find that when I ask others about the film that most people have never heard of it. A few months ago I saw it late night on cable and finally saw the film's ending, and I must say that is as that two year old would say, "stupid". Utterly, embarrassingly, mind-boggingly stupid.

A friend and I used to find the most potentially atrocious movie then playing so we could heckle it, years before MST3k debuted. Seeing the TV ads for Megaforce, we knew we found a "winner". We went during the economy hour (of course)- at the ticket window I requested one adult ticket for "Mega-Bomb", and the lady grinned knowingly. (Ah, youth...) Anyway, we were laughing to ourselves as the movie trundled along. After about an hour, we could only gawk at it, utterly stupefied. We almost felt guilty about our actions, as if we were making fun of the mentally retarded. But then came that "climactic" scene when Gary Boswick's damaged super-cycle miraculously recovers with the help of a blue-screen that was too attractive to keep hidden. All guilty feelings were wiped away as the audience around us laughed along with us.

Looking back on "Megaforce" over twenty years later, I can just imagine the cartoon character Johnny Bravo starring in an animated re-make. That would earn at least a 7-star rating from me!

Please remember that when you are judging this movie, you are doing so with the jaded eyes of a sophisticated 21st century movie-goer. The acting was bad (Barry Bostwick acted with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek and Michael Beck still had the taste of Xanadu in his mouth...ptuey!), the effects were cheesy and the plot could have been at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre! That being said, when I saw the movie in theaters I was 12 years old; the target audience. The movie was made for me because I lacked the ability to criticize something that just looked so cool! If there were motorcycles, tanks, dune buggies and lasers then how can it be a bad movie? Simple times, simple pleasures, simple movie. I only wish I could now sit and watch a movie with such abandon. Oh yea, the song at the end by 707 really rocked!

Sometimes, all you really need in life to make you happy is watching a really cheesy and utterly retarded early 80's movie with a grotesque plot, flamboyant types of vehicles, action heroes in tight gay spandex outfits, absurd futuristic gimmicks and nasty looking villains that are smoking big cigars. You know, movies that are basically knock-offs of great cinematic blockbusters, like "Escape from New York" or "Mad Max", and deliberately exaggerate in the amount of excessive violence and sleaze they deliver. I thought that "Mega Force" would perfectly fit into this little category, but boy was I ever mistaken! This film, although brought to us by the same team who made the enjoyable Burt Reynolds hoots "Cannonball Run" and "Smokey and the Bandit", is unimaginably boring and dim-witted. Even worse than the moronic script and cheesy execution is the fact that the whole production was seemingly aimed at child-audiences! We do not witness any of the characters – good or evil – dying throughout the whole film and the decors look even cheesier and less convincing as those of "The Thunderbird" TV-series. In order to satisfy the absolute youngest viewers, like 3-year-olds or something, there even is a completely redundant interlude with a dancing Porky Pig hologram. The main reason why I enjoy these typically 80's fabricated rip-offs is because they're usually so extremely violent and exploitative, but obviously Hal Needham & Co didn't intend to make a rip-off but an actual new classic. Talk about an epic fail. Mega Force is the name of an elite army force, located in the USA but sponsored by the United Nations, which is called upon by the desperate government of a Middle-Eastern country called Gamibia. The small nation is continuously invaded by the evil war-hungry general Guevara, and need help to fight back. The first half, revolving on the introduction of the Mega Force and its incredibly gay leaders, is still somewhat entertaining. It's embarrassing to behold respectable actors like Michael Beck ("The Warriors"), Henry Silva ("Almost Human") and Barry Bostwick ("Rocky Horror Picture Show") mutter their ridiculous lines whilst parading in flashy outfits, but nevertheless fun. The second half of the script, after an immensely irritating love-story interlude, tries to be intellectual and politically engaging, but fails tremendously. The intentionally humorist parts of the film are pathetic, while the serious moments evoke uncontrollable laughs. That's never good.

As noted, this movie isn't even really good for watching for the unintentional humor. Barry Bostwick is the least believable action hero of all time, and somewhere, someone seems to have thought Persis Khambatta was an interesting, attractive, exotic beauty with screen presence: Megaforce proves this theory, however unlikely, dead wrong. Basically an ego-vehicle for Hal Needham, who tries to cash in on the success the Smokey and the Bandit movies attached (undeservingly) to his name. Definite proof he should have stuck to stunt work.

Directed by Hal (Smokey and the Bandit) Needham, and set in the far-flung future of the 1980's, Barry Bostwick, dressed in jumpsuits so nauseatingly tight you can see what side he dresses on, leads a top-secret mercenary force against an oppressive dictator who rules over a country that looks an awful lot like a vacant dirt lot behind a shopping mall in New Mexico. While it's common knowledge that bad movies can often be enjoyable in a fun way, this obscenely bad production is so lame, no amount of audience wisecracks can make it watchable. Needham shows a complete lack of directing ability with battle scenes so disjointed, they seem more like endless stretches of dune-buggies overturning. If, by chance, you do end up viewing this, try to make it to the very end to see one of the most inexcusable uses of blue-screen technology ever committed to film. Man, am I glad the 80's are over.

The movie is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most crippled excuse for an action flick ever to be pressed into celluloid...

*BUT*, here it is almost 20 years later and we all remember the movie vividly. There is something to be said for that dubious sort of immortality.

One shop on a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway here in Orange County, California, has one of the old brown, yellow and burnt red Megaforce dune buggies parked near the front entrance. I'm always amazed at how the owner has the audacity to chain it to a sign imbedded in the concrete. As if any self-respecting criminal would steal a relic from this movie!

I was very excited as a kid when this movie was being released to the theaters. The US Military was apparently on location studying this one on location to design the future of warfare.

It was STUNNING when Leonard Maltin reviewed this film on television and was so offended by it that he gave it a ZERO out of ten.

My childhood friend and I went to see it on the opening weekend and were completely blown away by it's crazy energy. Adding to the amazement of the day was that the theater was almost totally empty. We 'owned' the place, as if the film was made totally for us.

Back then all we had was allowance money, but decided that we *HAD* to see it again. We considered rushing back that week, but decided to wait for the following weekend and to our horror it was gone! It was one of the tackiest movies ever made, but the energy was like Rambo II on steroids.

"Normal" people will probably never bother with this one, but if you do watch at *LEAST* the first 10 minutes, and see the ultra cool military-machinegun-rocket-motor bike intro scene. The music and editing made me want to join Megaforce.

Never before, and never again shall we see one like this...and but for we happy few, the whole world missed it. The audience for this one were as few and elite as the Megaforce itself! I still laugh with glee about this film.

This movie was definitely a big, fat, fun time...If you're on a low protein diet, watch out, 'cause this movie is chock full o' cheese, cheese, cheese. I really enjoyed watching this movie. The special effects are ok, especially given that the movie was made in 1982. But the gadgets are way,way cool(I want them all!), and the people who made this movie never take themselves or the movie too seriously. If you can imagine Barry Bostwick w/blond hair, then this is the movie for you! As previously stated, the cheese factor is high, but that's the best part of this movie. If you're looking for ground-breaking cinema, don't look here. But, if you want a good laugh & a good time, this film provides you with both.

This movie is almost completely lifeless. VERY boring. Even the action scenes are pretty lame- just lots of footage of the dune buggies and motorcycles randomly riding through the desert, shooting missiles and laserbeams. Bad special effects. Oh, and the plot... Megaforce is this secret army that occasionally steps in to maintain world peace, or something like that. That's it.

I admit to having chuckled a couple of times while watching this, but it really is not at all pleasant to watch. The only positive aspect is that after it's over you can look back and laugh at how bad it was. Kind of like when something goes horribly wrong and you think to yourself "years from now we'll laugh about this". This film is on the same level as "Stroker Ace". Possibly worse.

This movie is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I was an 11 tomboy when it came out and lapped it up. The story's cheesy, the acting way over the top and Introvision left a lot to be desired as an effect process, but still it was fun. Barry Bostwick was a hottie in this film, which is not how I'd usually describe him. Although I had more of a crush on Michael Beck as Dallas. Even as an adult, I still enjoy the heck out of it as whey filled as it is. This is one film that I'm waiting with baited breath to come out on DVD, hopefully in widescreen so I can enjoy it on my 60" widescreen. Megaforce, in my opinion, followed by The Pirate Movie and The Ice Pirates would be the greatest 80's Cheese Ball movie festival ever.

This is without doubt the worst movie I have ever seen in my life.

So fitting for Hal Needham.

At least with Plan Nine from Outerspace there was humor rather it was intentional or not.

Henry Silva rates as one of the worst actors of our time and this performace equals his appearence in Steven Segal's debut "Above the Law."

"Come on Toscani, my sleeping beauty!"

As Dan Ackroyd used to say when performing his role of Leonard Pimpf Garnel of Bad Playhouse, "Now wasn't this just absolutely bad????"

Directed by Hal Needham. Starring Barry Bostwick, Edward Mulhare, Persis Khambatta, Michael Beck, Henry Silva, George Furth. (PG)

The tagline promises that "there has never been a super hero like Ace Hunter," and thank goodness for that. Played by Bostwick, he has a helmet of feathered hair that pairs poorly with a silky beard, and wears a gold jumpsuit that frequently showcases a bulge and a wedgie. He pops a few wheelies on his motorcycle, fires rockets out the front that blow up a bunch of desert acreage, and, in the movie's most hilarious scene, gets it to soar through the air in ways that Evel Knievel could have only dreamed. The second most hilarious scene is an extended "dance" between Bostwick and Khambatta as they skydive for what feels like hours (which must be more time than it took to set up the cheap close-up effects). Theirs is a relationship that starts out antagonistic, immediately turns romantic, then is all but discarded for the second half of the movie. Needless to say, both halves of the movie are truly embarrassing beyond camp value; shoddy, explosion-heavy action without style, purpose or consequence (and repetitive, to boot). Story involves two warring nations in the future, but it rarely makes a lick of sense, and it's hard to care anyway. Kiss a thumb, then turn it downward--it stinks.

18/100

Pure, unadulterated, 80s fromage🧀. The cringe is extreme. The plot so thin that you need a microscope to find it and it has lines so utterly dire that you will literally vomit in horror. The costumes are naff, hair is mental and there are enough pointless flashing lights and random graph displays that the production would have needed a dedicated power station. Insane. But without watching this abysmal trash of a movie, you have not experienced the delight of a 80s school boy who had half this film recorded on a Betamax. It's nothing like I remember it, in fact watching again has destroyed my childhood memories of happy carefree days. Wow!

You need to be smashed up on booze, with mates to watch this belter. Ore cliches than an Austin Piwers box set, but done without irony.

Needs to be seen to be believed.

Commander Beegee with bozeyes in a gold spandex suit leaves very little to the imagination.

Utter, utter pap.

YOU MUST WATCH THIS FILM!

There are plenty of terribly cheesy '80s movies that are fun to watch. This is not one of them. It has just a couple of things going for it. First and foremost is the now infamous finale where star Barry Bostwick flies his motorcycle into a cargo plane. That is indeed as hilarious as it always was when you were watching the Youtube clip. Second, Bostwick's hairdo/facial hair/baby blue headband combo is glorious. This character should have been in a better movie, because he looks awesome. Third, the rockin' '80s theme song that plays over the closing credits is perfect. Actually, the music is pretty good throughout. Everything else about the film: absolutely worthless. The plot is pretty much nonexistent, and 95% of the film is just the characters sitting around talking. It's boring as Hell. Besides Bostwick, whom I actually do like in the film, there's Michael Beck from the Warriors playing a prototype for Woody Harrelson. Seriously, he looks and sounds just like him. Persis Khambatta, the female lead, isn't much of an actress, but she's pretty. For much of the film she tries to join Megaforce (by the way, they're some sci-fi special forces who hang out in the desert spying on everyone and are ready to invade other countries for no real reason at any time), but after a few sequences of showing Bostwick what a badass she is he tells her to screw off. Oh, and that he loves her, like, quite randomly. Henry Silva also co-stars as the bad guy. I have no idea what the heck was up with him. Just watch the Youtube clip, dammit.

this is the stuff of legends....I agree entirely with trevor-k above. he hit all the nails exactly on the head.

This is a baaad, cheesy, cliché movie that should probably have never been made but when you're a 11-12 yr old boy this is the best thing since sliced bread.

my brother and I saw this (about 25 years ago) and thought it was the shizzle! (well, maybe excepting star wars of course), and the next week we went to see something else and decided, Sod it! lets see MEGFAFORCE again!! woohoo!!! This is the kind of movie Homer Simpson would make, says it all really....

It seems as though most of the reviewers have seen this film on cable, tv or video. I remember going to see this film when I was 14 in 1983. This film along with Jaws 3-D were released in 1983 and I was caught up in the whole 3-D thing. While at the time I found Jaws 3-D to be at least suspenseful I, as a teenager, was going to walk out of this horrible film. The only reason I stayed was because I paid for this movie and I wasn't going to walk out on something I paid good money for. In retrospect I think I did more harm in staying. I don't remember the plot the characters or much else. What I do remember is the I the rage that I felt at having wasted time and money by watching this film. The only way I could ever re-watch this film is if it airs on Mystery Theater so that I can poke fun at this film with the hosts of that show.

This film just did not work, though as a kid I sort of liked it. Mainly because of the vehicles were kind of cool, now they look like toys that would not be useful in an actual battle. The plot was rather stupid then as I watched it as a kid and I can not remember all the details all I remember is the stupid final scene with that one dude flying on his motorcycle. I feel ashamed to have even liked this one as a kid even though as a kid I was more stupid. This one was just lame a lot. The fighting with the vehicles has its moments, but in the end the fights look like something from a live action kids action show. I am kind of surprised by how much this movie cost to make and from what it cost to make I can see it was pretty much a flop. Though I can see why, the plot is paper thin, the acting was not very good, and some of the stuff this movie presented is very bad. I am surprised the guy who directed Cannonball Run did this one, but now that I see that he did I can understand why the film seems a bit choppy. His movies are usually kind of a train wreck. And while that works in a comedy in an action movie it simply does not.

I had a sculpture teacher in grad school who would have found MEGAFORCE a working truistic proof of his revelatory comment one day during a pointless, time-wasting studio critique of a student who obviously had no interest in making art when he said "You have to approach art on the level of Beavis & Butt-Head some days. Stuff either sucks, or it rules, and I am sorry but your work this semester totally sucks."

Roger would have been a big fan of MEGAFORCE, which I have concluded does indeed rule. This movie represents a high point, a watershed mark in western culture which has never since been surpassed. I will leave plot & character issues to other commenter's -- This movie is either the dumbest piece of crap ever made by the worst director in history, or it is a form of kitsch masterpiece that is astoundingly honest about how utterly brainless it's concept & execution were. The movie has zero pretense to be anything other than exactly what it is -- a stupid, loud, moronic action movie with heroic music, explosions, vehicular stunts, funky looking high tech junk, tight spandexed jumpsuits, helicopters, jingoistic catch phrase dialog that seems to have been randomly chosen from old episodes of The Superfriends, and Henry Silva.

Henry Silva is one of those actors whom I marvel at with open admiration: His ability to make the ridiculous seem perfectly natural is on the same level as Boris Karloff, and every role he appears in becomes a Henry Silva performance. Here he is somewhat more animated than the usual cold as a railroad track on a frozen February morning hired killer seen in his more typical work as various paid assassins. You have not truly lived until you have seen Henry Silva blow up people with his bazooka in THE BOSS & DEATH COMMANDO. A lot of people may dismiss him as an "actor", but as a character performer he is right up there with Harry Dean Stanton and Ivor Francis as one of the most ubiquitously recognizable bad guys from decades of TV & movies. Mr. Silva, wherever you are, your work is invaluable, and MEGAFORCE is yet another stunning achievement.

Back to the movie, though, this is going to be one of those things you either "get" or don't, like The Three Stooges, Tom Waits, professional wrestling or Rush Limbaugh. You are either going to instantly love it or wonder why anyone on Earth would consider it to be entertaining, let alone having cultural value. Art should always be subjective though, and it should be up to those who consume it to evaluate culture for themselves rather than allow some idiot to do it for you. MEGAFORCE is a lesson in subjective taste: It is either a masterpiece or an embarrassment, will provoke extreme reaction both for and against -- and both sentiments are equally legitimate. It is only those who are not moved that I pity.

MEGAFORCE can also serve as a time capsule for people who want to remember what it was like to be 9 or so, and ranks up there with THE HUMANOID starring Richard "Jaws" Keil and YOR, HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE with Reb Brown as amongst the most stupid, ham-boned, addle minded but enjoyable science fiction movies from the 1980's. You are not supposed to learn anything at ALL, and if you do that's your own stupid fault. The movies exist as pure entertainment -- One sight of the Megaforce rolling into battle on their stupid mocked-up motorcycles and absurd missile launcher armored dune buggies while going against a column of military tanks was all it took for me to make my decision. The kinetic explosions & stunts afterward were just icing on the cake: This is easily one of the coolest movies ever made, and if you don't get it you never will.

10/10

Nothing wrong with comic book movies. Is there? This one is painfully funny if watched with the right attitude. Acting is camp, characters are cardboard camp, plot is Marvel Comics meets 007 camp... and on and on. Anyone who watches this movie and tries to evaluate it as anything but pure camp (Think TVs BATMAN from the 1960s) is in bad need of taste and IQ points. I don't like Hal Needhum films as a rule, but this one hits a popcorn eating mark. I rate this as a rare cult classic right up there with FEARLESS FRANK and XANADU. A real must be seen to be believed. Anyone who enjoys Monster Truck Pulls and exploding outhouses will marvel at the gadgets and tech in this one. Anyone who finds the art of jabbing at live badgers with a dull fork will also be amused. The character of Dallas is the only negative thing in my opinion. I'm a true Southerner...we'd stomp that rebel yell screaming idiot to death in the parking lot if we had to put up with him. Same actor who played Sonny in XANADU...we would've stomped him to death in that one too, roller blades and all. A 7 for pure camp value.

Megaforce is a bad movie, at least in my opinion, but it is a movie that has some entertainment value. The film does look cheap, the cinematography and editing are dull and rushed and the costumes and sets are gaudy but what really cheapened the film were the weak special effects. The script is incredibly cheesy in too many places to count and the story is mostly very thin. The direction is pretty wretched, and then there are some stock characters and some really bad acting including from the (I think) talented Barry Bostwick. If talking seriously, if there was anything I liked about Megaforce it was some of the soundtrack which was quite catchy if very 80s. Overall though, it is a bad movie. 2/10 Bethany Cox