Majorthebys Charming and brutal

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Emily Apricot The hand drawn animation is nearly Disney quality at parts in this sci fi fantasy adult animated shorts film based on a classic teen magazine. I thought I was slogging through a gratuitious display of sex and gore, but it features a surprisingly strong female character and a surprisingly tied together and upbeat ending.

Dalbert Pringle Even though Heavy Metal (from 1981) may be somewhat silly and incredibly disjointed at times, it is an impressively animated anthology of 8 sexy, Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories set to (what else? - but) heavy metal music.These fantastic stories of graphic violence, female nudity and perverse sexuality were adapted for this film from the original Heavy Metal comic book, which was all produced by the magazine's publisher, himself, Leonard Mogel.Heavy Metal's stories follow the path of a glowing green orb called Loc-Nar that contains the sum total of all the evil in the entire Universe. Loc-Nar travels continually through time and space, spreading violence and discordance everywhere in its wicked wake.Heavy Metal's artists and animators were recruited from 17 different countries. The animation process used in Heavy Metal was the old, roto-scope technique, which consisted of filming models and actors, then tracing the shot onto film for animation purposes.To be sure - Heavy Metal is an adult, animated, feature film that is certainly not gonna appeal to everyone.

Neil Welch A glowing orb called the Loc-nar proves to be the linking device for an anthology of science fiction tales.This film, seeded by the magazine Heavy Metal, is very much an animated movie for adults - there is a moderate amount of nudity and sex in it. Old school comics enthusiasts will recognise some of the names whose pieces live behind the 6 pieces (and linking sequence) here - Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson, to name but two.It's well worth a look if you know your interests lie in that direction, albeit it isn't 100% successful - for one thing, you can have too much of a good thing. Having said that, it's not the sort of film that gets made very often, so we should value the fact that it exists at all.

The_Film_Cricket I just don't get it. Maybe it was the fact that so many talented people were involved. Perhaps it was just unusual to have a major release of an animated film with this kind of content. Or maybe it just has something to do with the fact that for the first time an animated film brought about the elements of a bawdy comic book and played it out for the mentality of 13 year-old boys.Whatever the reasons for the success of 'Heavy Metal', I'm afraid I just don't get it. I see the images, I see some original writing in spots, I see the potential for a cult classic. But, for me, 'Heavy Metal' looks dated, silly, disjointed and out of all eight stories I find myself defending only two.I found 'The Legend of Tarrna' (the last one) to be a true original. Sure, it seems sexist and Tarrna is a complete male fantasy but I found it to be strikingly original in its visual imagination. She comes out of the sky riding a giant condor and carrying a sword. She walks into the bar, is hit on by three slobbering goons and you can fill in the rest. This well animated scene owes more than a little to the Clint Eastwood westerns (Did I say a little? She even squints her eyes). I caught myself smiling at this scene, that's why I liked it.I have to admit that 'So Beautiful, So Dangerous' is curiously funny. An alien spacecraft breaks into the Pentagon and kidnaps a secretary. She is kidnapped by a trio of robots, one of whom has an over-inflated libido in it's programming. I wasn't all that keen on this segment as a whole but I have to admit a certain admiration for any scene that opens with a robot and a naked woman in bed after sex and ends with the line: 'Okay, but I want a Jewish wedding'.The rest is pretty routine. I liked where 'Harry Canyan' was going but it seemed to be over before it began. 'Den', a story about a geek who gets turned into a giant blue hulk is little more than a prepubescent fantasy. 'Captain Sternn' had some fun dialogue before disintegrating into predictability. 'B-17' the disturbing story of a plane being taken over by the living dead is a matter of taste (but not mine). The framing material about a sickly green orb that tells these stories to a frightened girl is just plain baffling.'Heavy Metal' is based on a popular behind-the-counter comic book that would make Bob Guiccione blush. The movie isn't anywhere near the graphic level of that book but to fans of this movie that hardly matters. I haven't a clue what makes this film so popular. I find chunk-style movies like this lacking almost by definition. It has it's moments, it fills it's quotient of T&A and graphic violence, but I wasn't all that impressed.Ratings (out of four): 'Soft Landing'- *½; 'Grimandi' - **; 'Harry Canyan' - **½; 'Den' - **; 'Captain Sternn' - **½; 'B-17' - *; 'So Beautiful, So Dangerous' - ***; 'The Legend of Tarrna' - ***.