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Movies / On DVD / Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal

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Heavy Metal (1981)

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Reviews Counted:23

Fresh:14

Rotten:9

Average Rating:5.7/10

Consensus: It's sexist, juvenile, and dated, but Heavy Metal makes up for its flaws with eye-popping animation and a classic, smartly used soundtrack.

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis: This unique collection of six animated stories combines science fiction with fantasy, horror, comedy, sex and rock music. The segments include "Harry Canyon" and "Den." In the first, a New York... This unique collection of six animated stories combines science fiction with fantasy, horror, comedy, sex and rock music. The segments include "Harry Canyon" and "Den." In the first, a New York City cab driver gets mixed up with a beautiful femme fatale. Although he's become so hardened that he keeps a death ray in his car to kill troublesome riders, he lets his guard down long enough to fall for his latest passenger... and it could cost him his life. In "Den," a nerdy student travels to another planet and transforms into a macho stud with incredible strength. While fighting villains, beautiful women throw themselves at him. Other stories in this anthology feature the exploits of a beautiful female warrior, pilots fighting off a creature from another world, and a Pentagon secretary who gets captured by an alien. There's also one off-the-wall segment played purely for comic effect. The stories are all linked by sequences featuring a fiendish green meteorite that claims to be the cause of evil throughout the world. [More]

Starring: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Richard Romanus, Harold Ramis

Starring: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Richard Romanus, Harold Ramis, John Vernon, Rodger Bumpass, Thor Bishopric, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, DEVO, Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Blue Oyster Cult

Director: Gerald Potterton

Director: Gerald Potterton
Producer: Ivan Reitman
Screenwriter: Len Blum, Daniel Goldberg
Composer: Elmer Bernstein
Story: Dan O'Bannon

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Heavy Metal

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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You have to conclude that its makers should have got out more.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/10/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Fantasies that are gratuitously sexist and Fascist (macho whoring and warmongering), and whose roots reach all the way back to post-hippie paranoia, feed the tangled plot-lines of a movie that... should disappoint even the teenage wet-dreamers.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 1 Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A bit of a mixed bag. Some eye popping animation, chock full of nudity, gore, and alien landscapes. The classic soundtrack is what makes it most worthwhile when the stories fall flat

comment Comment
03/21/03
Brian Mckay
Brian Mckay
eFilmCritic.com

No review available.

comment Comment
02/20/04
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Anyone from the era will love it, while everyone else simply won't get it at all.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
07/25/05
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

Some of the animation is first-rate, particularly in the more modest comedy segments, and even the heavy set pieces have greater flash and dazzle than anything Ralph Bakshi mustered around the same period.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
04/16/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

Heavy Metal despite all of its flaws and anacrhonisms, nevertheless represents something of a refreshment in today's sterile climate.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
05/14/03
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
07/15/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

This animated movie based on the comics of the same title is fun once you accept it on its own terms, i.e., brainless and adolescent.

Full Review Source: Sci-Fi Movie Page | comment Comment
01/01/00
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page

Heavy Metal has been animated with great verve, and scored very well, with music much less ear-splitting than the title would suggest.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
08/30/04
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Regardless of its dated stylishness (which still holds up remarkably well a decade plus later), Heavy Metal was a pioneering film in 1981 and remains a pivitol and infuential body of art today.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeff Gilbert
Jeff Gilbert
Film.com

No review available.

comment Comment
07/18/03
Jon Niccum
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World

No review available.

comment Comment
03/11/03
Joshua Tanzer
Joshua Tanzer
Offoffoff

A genuinely outrageous and occasionally brilliant coupling of American animation and classic early-Eighties heavy metal.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

...An unabashed crowd-pleaser. Whenever possible, it goes for the fight scene, the sex joke, the jiggly breasts...

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/17/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Wild animation, tons of blaring rock music, and fanboy wish fulfillment fantasies of the freakiest order. Good campy fun.

comment Comment
07/26/02
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

It's a mixed bag, but successful in a mindless, adolescent way.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
04/16/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A wildly sophomoric and stupid cartoon celebrating gore, rape and bad music.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
Barry Walters
Barry Walters
San Francisco Examiner

No review available.

comment Comment
01/12/04
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

Asked if I wanted to see it again, I figured, why not? I would have remembered if it was really bad. But memory does play tricks.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Bruce Reid
Bruce Reid
Film.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
all

Latest News for Heavy Metal

June 08, 2009: Cameron, Verbinski, Snyder to Direct Heavy Metal Opens in new window
Despite some studio setbacks, Kevin Eastman's "Heavy Metal" redux is rolling ahead -- and with some suitably weighty names attached, too. More...

April 09, 2009: Rob Zombie Approached for Heavy Metal Opens in new window
Nothing's been signed yet, but according to producer Andy Gould, Rob Zombie has been approached by David Fincher and Kevin Eastman about directing a segment of their "Heavy... More...

September 05, 2008: Fincher's Heavy Metal Lines Up Directors Opens in new window
Now that David Fincher's "Heavy Metal" is back on track at Sony, directors are once more lining up to helm portions of the anthology -- including Zack Snyder, Guillermo del... More...

July 10, 2008: Fincher's Heavy Metal Seeks New Home Opens in new window
Just weeks after it was announced, David Fincher's Heavy Metal has been dropped by Paramount due to studio nervousness about the film being "too risque for mainstream audiences." More...

See All

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