Video: Backlash: Oblivion 2
Television: Kindred: The Embraced

Backlash: Oblivion 2

It may be high noon at the end of the universe, but not much changes in Oblivion

Our pick:
1 2 3 4 5

• Backlash: Oblivion 2
• PG-13
• Starring Joseph Paul and Julie Newmar
• 82 minutes

ar in the future, and in a galaxy far far away, the little town of Oblivion continues its saga in Backlash: Oblivion 2, picking up right where the first movie left off. Marshal Zak Stone (Paul) is settling in after saving Oblivion from the evil villain Red Eye.

Into Oblivion lands Sweeney (Maxwell Caulfield), "the galaxy's deadliest bounty hunter." Sweeney is looking for a dangerous female criminal, who he believes must be the vicious Lash (Musetta Vander), Red Eye's former partner and lover. The reluctant marshal joins Sweeney in his pursuit of Lash, although Sweeney seems equally interested in pursuing the Marshal's girlfriend.

Lash has a scheme of her own involving a mine full of Derconium, the galaxy's rarest mineral. Sweeney nabs Lash and deposits her in the town jail just as Jagger -- the deceased Red Eye's smarter brother -- shows up to claim Lash and her Derconium mine. Sweeney and Jagger threaten to tear the town apart to get Lash, with Marshal Stone and Oblivion caught in the center.

With a minuscule plot and little of the cleverness of the first film, Backlash: Oblivion 2 hasn't got much going for it. If Oblivion 2 were just a western, it would be a really bad western. With Red Eye killed off in the first film, there's no interesting bad guy to drive the story, and nothing much is done with Lash and Jagger. There just isn't any backlash in this Oblivion.

Sometimes special effects can shore up a lack of plot, but here the filmmakers haven't done much except throw in an occasional science fiction reference, a hologram and a big, silly-looking killer turtle. The arrival of Sweeney's ship is all done off screen by character reaction, so there are no pesky special effects to bother with. It's as if the filmmakers decided, since they had the sets and actors around, they might as well make another movie. This theory is supported by the fact that the first movie ends with, "To Be Continued."

About all Backlash has going for it is Oblivion's characters. The film uses the same cast as the first movie, with Paul in the lead as the Marshal. None of the acting is very good, even by the well-known actors, but that's the point.

There is some fun poked at old television characters. George Takei plays Doc Valentine as a cross between Bones from Star Trek and Doc Holiday, with lots of Star Trek gags. Julie Newmar plays off her Cat Woman character from Batman as Miss Kitty (proprietress of the local saloon and cat house). There's also the faithful native companion -- who looks a lot like an Indian, but who talks like a philosopher -- the cyborg deputy, and the town's deadpan undertaker.

There could well be another trip to Oblivion ahead, judging by the ending. But for my money, I'd rather see a rerun of the not so old Adventures of Brisco County Jr. Now there was a show that knew how to poke fun at westerns and television, and do it with style. -- Kathie

ack to the top.

A prince must keep the peace between five clans of vampires

Our pick:
1 2 3 4 5