Slipstream (1989)
8/10
A guilty pleasure from the 80's
27 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The first time I saw Slipstream, it was one of those all night movie binges that I and a handful of friends had on regular occasions during our final year of high school. We'd passed all the important stuff, and took the opportunity to unwind, with B-movie greatness! I admit, I don't remember the first viewing that well, I was half asleep around 3am in the morning, but something about it stuck with me and it became a target the next time I went to the rental store. It's been a guilty pleasure of mine ever since.

It's not the best, but it's a good romp through a very different Earth of the future, with a group of unlikely heroes and a very memorable adversary in Mark Hamill, and he's not using the Force folks, he packs a very big gun in this one! Hamill's by-the-book cop, and Bill Paxton's, fly by the seat of your pants pilot, looking to make the "Big Score", make great rivals. Throw in a joyride through a well shot landscape of varying future cultures and a mix of strange religions and hidden recluses, and it's well worth a watch on a rainy afternoon.

The idea for the film seemed pretty well thought out, it's just that it came out at a time when anyone and everyone could get money to do a film, but maybe not quite enough to do it justice. I'd like to have seen what a bigger budget could've done, because Slipstream had potential. Would've been nice to see a bit more of the world, and maybe some more background material, but what you get does a good enough job of getting the "feel" of the movie across. My only sticky point would be the rather cut-short ending, but it's still a favorite and has a place on my DVD rack as long as it wants it!
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