Heavy Metal (1981)

Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll!
The Good Things
*For the 80s, it's pretty good animation quality. Definately an interesting style.
*Many of these short stories are fascinating.
*Good focus on sex, drugs, and rock and roll! Also some violence.
*Excellent fantasy and sci-fi elements. Some of the imagery is impressive.
*Strong good vs evil theme.

The Bad Things
*Pretty darn wierd. Some short stories are strange and shallow.
*Despite the quality, it is a dated cartoon.
*Not for kids.

Despite being wierded out and confused on the first viewing, this movie grew on me. This series of short stories are told in an interesting way, and many of the stories are interesting to watch. It is particuarly good to see the final story, which has strong iconic imagery (the chick with the leather outfit riding a terydactl with lightning striking her sword...that's pretty darn cool). As a sci-fi or fantasy film, it's strange and somewhat perverted. But as an exemplification of sex, drugs, and rock music, it's pretty darn cool.

Every red blooded American teenager should watch this film
I am younger than many people reviewing this film, so I am ignorant to the cultural impact it may of made back in the day. One of my hobbies is renting bad horror movies with my friends such as Full Moon or Troma classics. On one fated night my friend recommended that we rent this film because the cover art looked delightfully cheesy. I had heard of Heavy Metal because I am a fan of cult films, so I was actually kind of excited to see it. I asked the video store clerk what he thought of it. He just looked at me with a straight face and said "Every red blooded American teenager should watch this film." I looked at him stunned and then he said "unless you're a hippy or something," obviously commenting on all my friend's long hair. Well I'm no hippy,so I rented it and discovered that it was probably very shocking back in the day. However it really has lost all of its shock value just because I grew up surrounded by cartoon boobies. I gave it two stars because there are certain animated sections that look beautiful even today and then soundtrack (Devo and Cheap Trick) really isn't to bad except for that Journey power ballad. (What the hell, Open Arms in a movie called Heavy Metal?) So unless you grew up in the eighties or you're just plain weird I would have to pass on this.

a snapshot in time
oh, funny - saw this a bunch of times when it 1st came out. somehow got a bootleg VHS version of it in the late 1980's, was not quite as riveting as it was in 1981. we were a lot younger then! anyway - cheap trick's "reach out" is a crushing song, and blows me away to this day. man, did those guys put out the energy when they had a mind to...perfect for this movie. anyway - cannot imagine sitting through it 18 times now, at the age of 46. but it does bring a smile to my face to recall that awesome summer, tell you what!