John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff star as two private dicks who emerge from a fallout shelter in the future after the bomb has dropped, once there we witness our two heroes fight mutants, midgets, cannibal hippies and a terrorist group, they've also grown up on 50's style literature and music so their whole "Gee whiz" attitude contradicts the mean world outside. Radioactive Dreams starts out on a promising note. The beginning which finds George Kennedy and Don Murray grabbing two kids and putting them in a fallout shelter while black and white footage of the atom bomb dropping is admittedly a stylish start. Unfortunately all of this goes sour when the premise kicks in and we witness Stockwell and Dudikoff adjust to the overblown horizons. Everything is over the top, things are somewhat pretentious (especially when Stockwell narrates) and worst of all everything is boring. Michael Dudikoff who would become a B.movie level star after American Ninja, really grates the nerves as his over the top shrieking never approaches the funny but always is annoying. Indeed you pick any Dudikoff movie on the video shelf and chances are you will not find a performance of his that reaches this level of bad. Stockwell is also very bad, but he's a veteran of terrible movies and his presence always guarantees badness. (See City Limits, which is even worse than this) Also there is no action which is the only way one can handle such a movie premise, after all it's about two sleuths who save the world, give us some action! Sadly Pyun treats this as a drama and induces slumber on the audience forced to witness this travesty.So what you have is Dudikoff's worst performance, Stockwell in his comfort zone and George Kennedy at his most embarrassed. The ending is somewhat diverting but once again this is a movie that has a great first act and nothing but sheer boredom after. The movie is somewhat bizarre but really this is strictly for die hard Dudikoff fans, who've watched American Ninja 4 too many times. While my advice to Dudikoff's most curious fans,is to stick with Avenging Force, American Ninja, The Silencer and American Ninja 2 after all those at least offer action.
* out of 4-(Bad)
* out of 4-(Bad)