Prison Planet (1992) Poster

(1992)

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2/10
Makes you want to BBQ your VCR
formicidae13 July 2001
This movie is absolutely terrible, which means if you watch it with some friends some night when you have NOTHING else to do, you might actually have a good time (which is why I gave it a 2 instead of a 1).

The inane "plot" follows some kind of freedom fighter (I think) who purposely has himself sent to the prison planet (hence the name), so he can find the spiritual leader of the resistance (I think). Along the way, he is sidetracked with stolen slave girls, a convict (go figure) warlord/slave trader, and some guy in a suit whose very presence is perpetually nonsensical.

One of my friends summed up the quality of this movie when he said "it's like a porno without the sex". Brutal. Look for the scene in the tent where the lighting actually changes from angle to angle. Or any of the dialogue. Or the hovering spaceship shots (Plan 9 From Outer Space, is that you?). Or the spaceship door that flaps in the wind. This must be the only movie where a hunted man can be found anywhere on a planet with only four bad guys and two cars to do the job (note: if you're on a planet and four guys are looking for you, don't run along the planet's only road).

If you want to save yourself the cost of a rental, show your ten year old nephew your copy of Mad Max and ask him to videotape something like it with his friends. It would probably be better. (Though not as funny.)
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2/10
Escape from the prison planet
BandSAboutMovies12 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
"Mad Max meets American Gladiators in the ultimate road war!"

Wow, that tagline promises so much.

Also called Badlanders, this movie moves us to the year 2200. Earth's ruler is threatened by his brother Himshaw (Jack Wilcox). The rebel leader who is soon sent to Annakin, the prison planet that gives this movie a name, so two of his commandos named Blaine (James Phillips) and Shiba (Kim Kopf) get caught on purpose so that they can rescue him.

Michael M. Foley, who played the big bad guy Broxton, went on to play Tracey "Tracer" Swedom on WMAC Masters, a kung fu fighting show that tried to air around pro wrestling in the mid 90s. It didn't last all that long. Hosted by Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial artist Bruce Lee and sister of Brandon, it had Ho-Sung Pak (who was Shang Tsung and Liu Kang in the first two Mortal Kombat games), Chris Casamassa (Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat movie) and Michael Bernardo (Nick from the two Shootfighter films). It was created by Chairman/CEO of 4Kids Entertainment Alfred Kahn and their President Norman J. Grossfeld along with Kathy Borland, who in addition to writing the initial episode also was the costumer for Two Evil Eyes, Monkey Shines and Day of the Dead.

Director Armand Gazarian also made Games of Survival, Double Cross, Streets of War and The Searcher. He wrote the script too, which was based on a story by James I. Nicholson, who directed Dark Harvest.

This was followed by two sequels, Prison Planet 2: The Armageddon and Prison Planet III: The Revenge. Neither of those movies share any of the same filmmakers as this movie, nor any of the actors. In fact, they are comedies about two men who steal a king's pizza and get banished to a prison planet.
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1/10
Who's idea was this? You should be ashamed.
AndyStew80212 December 2009
I have the tendency to lean in the direction of artistic license, but honestly this was the worst film I think I have ever seen. There was nothing redeeming about it, NOTHING! Except, there is the most amazing mullet/wig ever put on film. Even the names... the planet Anakin? Really?

Absolutely positively the most hilarious overacting ever, just atrocious on all levels. I remember making movies when I was 12 that were technically superior to this film. So enjoy it and be warned. I saw it under the name Badlanders. Thanks for making this movie, idiots.

Sidebar-there are two more of these? holy god. They must have made them to launder drug money or something
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Only for z-grade / b-movie enthousiasts
KGB-Greece-Patras30 September 2003
Having absolutely nothing worthy, this film definately has to be the WORST 'bad' film I have ever seen. That doesn't mean I didn't have a good time, which proves exactly what an abnormal person I am!

I have read comments on bad acting or overacting many times in IMDB for other films. Guys, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT OVERACTING IS, unless you see THIS film. Definately one of the most hillarious characters ever filmed.

So NOBODY should see this film! This is film for the sake of it. Of course the B-movie enthousiasts around the globe might wanna check it out, but be warned: this is BADlanders!
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1/10
I Never Laughed So Hard At A Movie Ever!
clintonmarket5 February 2016
I always thought that Mel Brooks was the greatest master of intentional and calculated comedy, but boy was I wrong. I happened to catch this simply awful film on Comet, and I started laughing almost right away. From the silly elongated disco wig on the main villain to absurd sliding sheet metal doors on the "airlock", this film is one of the most unintentionally silly and funny films ever. Maybe this film once aspired to be a MAD MAX ripoff, but instead achieved a level of hilarity not seen since the days of Ed Wood and PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE...

If you're looking for a good SciFi film this is certainly not it....But, if you want laughter, this film is one of the most funny films ever produced!
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1/10
How could such a bad movie have got financed?
jonathancsuch15 December 2008
Prison Planet made in 1992....I watched it tonight (using a fair amount of fast forward). It was called Badlanders here in Bahrain. I thought at first it was made in the 50's about the same time as Quatermass etc.

I went on line to check its date. I was surprised to see 1992. What a load of rubbish. The technology displayed was ancient, the hovering vehicles stupid and the car a mince meat version of something out of Mad Max.

How could such a bad movie have got financed? Surely someone was checking their investment during production. This was definitely the worst film I have ever seen and that is saying something as I have been watching movies for nearly sixty years!
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5/10
What the Heck is This?
gavin694215 August 2013
In the year 2200 Earth is under the dictatorship of an evil king, with only a band of intrepid rebels to oppose him. Blaine, one of the rebels, gets himself arrested and sent to prison in search of the true ruler, the kings brother. But the prison is protected by a brutal warlord and his equally sadistic warriors, whom Blaine must battle if he ever hopes to find truth and justice.

All I have to say is: what the heck? Some parts have the worst acting, the costumes are decent at times and terrible at others... it seems like someone had a good idea here but was just not able to bring it to fruition (with this finished product not being quite ripe yet).

Someone needs to get to the bottom of this...
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5/10
What was the point of it all?
Oslo_Jargo9 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Prison Planet (1992).

Extremely low budget, but it has its moments. Of course it has some of the worse acting around and lousy effects, but it grinds on you and you begin to laugh. For what it is, it's watchable.

A man breaks into a governmental building to get sent to a prison planet where some nut-ball old king is living. He meets desert nomads and runs into "Broxton", a muscle-bound moron with the brains of a rock. It's a mix of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) plus the standard prison escape drama.

The man wears a black leather suit that is like the "Stillsuits" of Dune (1984).

Broxton (Michael M. Foley) reminds me of the white guys from Hercules Against the Mongols (1963), as he has a fake Mongolian mustache and black hair and he wears the armor from the film.

Everything resembles the "Earth", but still, it's a bit fun, yet the ending will leave you asking, "What was the point of it all?"
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1/10
I don't know about this one but...
awitsman8413 July 2018
...the 30 minutes I watched of Badlanders, which is attached to this in some way, was easily the worst footage of the worst acting I have ever seen in my 34 years of life. The details are lazily unresearched. One guy even pumped a rifle like a shotgun.
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1/10
Crazy train by Ozzie Osborn
jessegehrig5 April 2022
This movie is alternately titled Badlanders, because wherever this movie came from was bad also. This movie is the world's best music video except they forgot to put the music on over the movie's terrible dialogue. So just try to imagine that awesome music is playing instead of the movie.
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9/10
Badlanders
EverydayIDecay8 May 2021
This is listed under Badlanders not Prison Planet on Amazon Prime. This move is extremely underrated. Deserves a this is awesome chant majority of the time. Well thought out movie just missing the nudity which is odd not to have for this type of movie. Almost perfect. Definetly for fans of mad max.
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2/10
A low budget cheap Roger Cormon-like production movie without the nudity
jordondave-2808511 September 2023
(1992) Badlanders/ Prison Planet SCIENCE-FICTION ACTION

Edited, co-produced, co-written and directed by Armand Gazarian, another apocalypse movie that has resistance fighter, Blaine (James Phillips) getting himself arrested on purpose and be sent to "Prison Planet" because of a belief of a myth that the once peaceful ruler of Anakin named Himshaw (Jack Wilcox) is placed there by a younger brother,Akira. And by the time, Blaine has been put into Prison Plant, he figures he has two objectives 1) the first is to find and locate Himshaw and, #2) try to find the means to survive in the desert. His first big break is when he volunteers to challenge a bulky muscular brute named Zolo (Charley Rossman) as his promoter Roverin (Leonard Kelly-Young) raised the stakes. That If Zolo is challenged and beaten, that the winner will win a bag of food and a bagful of weapons, which includes a sword and bow n' arrow. And of course, Blaine not only beats Zolo, but he ends up killing him as well. Coincidentally, he also happens to be the younger brother of the leader of the "Hellbenders" gang, his name is Broxton (Michael M. Foley) instructing his gang of marauders to find him for him. Meanwhile, Blaine stumbles onto a source who can lead him to Himshaw, who happens to be a captured woman intended to be sold for sex, as she has a specific tattoo on her hand, we find out her name is Kabilya (Deborah Thompson-Carlin) to help Blaine find a n area called Cypress.

All this is, is a low budget cheap Roger Cormon-like production without the nudity. Even the final sequence of Blaine beating the main bad guy, Broxton with a sizable rock. And yet, that wasn't enough!
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pure crap
HAL9000-1120 May 2004
i just saw this piece of nonsense garbage on TV a while ago.... I mean i did not watch it really, the TV was on, while i was doing something else.

It sucks, i think i have seen at most one or two other movies worse than this.

and this one was not even funny, which tends to be the case with these type of futuristic-incredibly low budget movies.

Don't even think of wasting your money or time renting this, it stinks. each one of the characters are so forgettable, and the acting is like taken out of some school play.
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5/10
Bad but harmlessly enjoyable
brainpuddle28 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This movie has its moments and can definitely make you laugh with friends over some of their I'm sure financially-dictated filming decisions.

Warning: synopsis/spoilers -

(aka Badlanders) Rebel soldier Blaine gets himself captured and exiled to the Prison Planet to find and free confused old man Himshaw, the exiled true-king. Cheap desert scenes filmed in Yuma, AZ. Best bad guys are Fu Manchu-clad leader Broxton and mohawked "Blaine forgets he's fighting you" Krayger. Why does it appear that electrocution torture makes Blaine sleepy?
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