Damnation Alley!

[Alan Smithee]

I'm surprised the webmaster of this site doesn't have a review for this crappy movie (unless he thinks it's a 'good' movie).

What's amazing is that the movie studio had more faith in this turkey than it did with some other obscure sci-fi movie (cough*Star Wars*cough) back when it was released in 1977.

I think most of the budget went into that armored mobile home that was the movie's centrepiece.

[Eirik]

I loved this cheesey movie.  The beginning when the woman falls off the motorcycle and then you see a scene of tarantulas devouring a Barbie doll... I almost didn't get that it was supposed to be giant spiders eating the girl.  And I just loved how somehow Albany, New York, survived the nuclear war and people were hanging out on their neighborhood streets like it was any other Saturday morning.  Actually, to be fair to the movie, the Soviets may have logically reasoned that the worst thing to do to Albany would be to leave it as-is.

[Mr Hockstatter]

I love that movie too.  Yeah the special effects were funny but that didn't detract from the enjoyment at all.  When we toured Universal Studios years ago they had that Landmaster sitting in a lot across the street and we got to gawk at it.  Next to that was the hovercar from the Logan's Run TV series.  Pure heaven for a kid in his early teens!

[Matt]

I liked "The Killer Cockroaches".

[kriegerg69]

Fun, underrated movie which I (and others) happen to enjoy. Its long-awaited widescreen DVD release is due out later this year from Anchor Bay.

[DaveMunger]

I liked it the last time I saw it, might or might not if I saw it again. I remember that they thought the guy had a woman on his motorcycle, he pushes her off, giant scorpions attack, and then you see that it's just a mannequin he found somewhere. I learned right on this board that it was made for TV.

[kriegerg69]

Dave Munger wrote:

> I learned right on this board that it was made for TV.

You learned incorrectly, because the movie was made for THEATRICAL release. It was filmed in widescreen....which is simply NOT done for tv movies...and was released in the "Sound 360" process (aka 4-track stereo).

[Mr Hockstatter]

Yeah I remember my dad and some friends went to see it in the theater when it came out.

[AndyC]

Post-apocalyptic adventure with George Peppard, Jan Michael Vincent and Paul Winfield in it? How could any B-movie fan not like that?

This is one of the three roles I most identify Peppard with: Hannibal Smith, Space Cowboy and this guy. Really coloured my impression of Breakfast at Tiffany's when I finally saw it.

[BoyScoutKevin]

And let us not forget Jackie Earle Haley as the kid in the movie. Who, by the way, is back in motion pictures after some twelve years, appearing in the remake of "All the King's Men."

I, too, saw this, when it first came out. While not by any means a great sci-fi film. It it memorable, and is probably best enjoyed as being an example of a good "bad" movie, like many of the movies on this site.

As a side note, it is based on the superior novel, of the same title, by sci-fi writer Roger Zelazny, which I have also read.

[Yaddo 42]

I think I mentioned this in another thread about this film, but a lot of people THINK this was a TV movie because we first saw it on network TV as kids in the early 80s around the time Peppard and JM Vincent returned to regular TV series. I did when I first saw it.

A fun bad movie typical of the era, before "Star Wars" changed the industry and what sci-fi films were like. Since studios are businesses that want to play it safe as much as possible to get their money back, I can see why at the time they would have more faith in this film. It was something they were familar with.

AndyC, what no love for George Peppard as Banacek? TV's hippest, smuggest, mystery solving, Polish proverb-spouting, freelance insurance investigator and international playboy. Only Peppard could explain every episode's hoaky and convoluted heist scheme (they made the scheme's in Scooby Doo episodes look like simple liquor store robberies by comparison) with a straight face.

[DaveMunger]

Yeah, I've been convinced it was made for TV for years, then someone here straightened me out. Probably the same guy as this time. But I switched it all around in my head already! I'm pretty sure I've seen that vehicle in a couple of other places too. Maybe TV movies, that could contribute to the confusion.

[AndyC]

Banacek! How could I have forgotten? My only defense is that I didn't get into that show until A&E reran it in the 90s. The others, I remember from much earlier.

[odinn7]

Never mind...someone removed him already.



Post Edited (03-18-05 06:40)

[Cheecky-Monkey]

Gotta love the cockroach 'carpet' effect...