Wiwille's movie reviews part 13.

Sci-fi films, with their heavy empathise on special effects, always date themselves quickly. Even though they may be considered classics by some it's difficult to make a big budget film timeless. Some have achieved just that (2001, 1984) but others such as Logan's Run will forever sit in the hallowed halls of film making as one of the most dated sci-fi film ever.

When I told people I've never seen Logan's Run they would always feign shock and ask me why I never took time out to view it. I'm never sure what answer people are looking for when they ask something like this. Should I say "I'm sorry, but I'm too busy spending quality time alone to Italian pornography"?

When the mysterious Lisa submitted this film for review I was estactic to have an excuse to view what I was missing out on. Now that I've seen it I'm puzzled by it's cult status.

Logan's Run takes place in the future in a post apocalyptic world. The future of mankind resides in a large city where humans live until the ripe old age of 30, living out their lives in pursuit of all pleasures. Once you've reached that age you're required to participate in a 'carousel' ritual, where funky music plays and 30 year olds are thrust into the air. All of them blow up in a bizarre fireworks display with the possibility to be 'renewed', or 'born again' if you will.

Why this is I'm not sure. I imagine it's because of population control, but the film never explains it. I was waiting for Charlton Heston to run out screaming something about carousel being made of people.

Some of the citizens aren't happy about this so they decided to try and leave the city. Logan 5 (Michael York) is a Sandman, a cop if you will, who's job it is to kill any 'runners'. He's not quite sure why it's so necessary for runners to die, or to be 'terminated', but he follows his orders without asking to many questions.

Logan 5 then befriends Jessica 6, a member of an underground movement destined to help runners. Logan is asked by his superiors to flee the city and find the place the movement calls 'sanctuary'. Logan and Jessica then go off in their adventure to find the outside world all the while fighting off Sandman and a psychotic robot with moving lips. Yes you read that right. The rest of the film moves along as how you would expect.

It's hard to recommend this film to anyone. While the concept is kind of cool, the acting is far better than the script, and there's good nudity in it really the special effects are so laughably bad that I couldn't help but be pulled from the already thin plot. One of the sets looks like a shopping mall for god's sake. And don't get me started on the robot. Farrah Fawcet-Majors even makes an appearance as well Peter Ustinov. I imagine with a bigger budget and a talented screenwriter this could've been a great film; however it's nothing more than a fun romp that at times takes itself way to seriously.

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"A numbing combination of sloppy writing, vulgar art direction, high school acting, and bungled special effects." - Dave Kehr.