Heavy Metal 2000 Streaming

[Elenor Waas]

Verystrong fantasy violence here; the movie is animated, so the violence loses a bit of oomph compared to a live-action movie. The most disturbing include a green glowing ball terrifying a young girl (her expression sends chills down the spine), and a boy dying after being run through with several spikes. (His eyes roll up in his head as the life drains out of them.) Otherwise, there is lots of hand-to-hand fighting, guns and shooting, fighting with swords, and beheadings. Some characters are melted away, turning into skeletons before they disappear. There's also general rampaging and chaos.

Several big-breasted, cartoon fantasy women remove their clothes and have sex with men. Some women are topless, and some are seen full-frontal. There's some full-frontal male nudity as well. Prostitutes are shown, as well as images of a "red light district." There is strong innuendo throughout.

Two aliens snort huge lines of a fictitious white powdered drug. It affects them like pot. They seem spacey and stoned, as they try to dock a spaceship. A human character mentions "beer in the fridge," but he doesn't drink any.

Parents need to know that Heavy Metal is an animated film aimed at teens, but its sexual and violent content makes it inappropriate for most. There are horrifying images of young characters dying, plus fighting, shooting with guns, and slicing with swords. A terrified young girl is a central, disturbing image. Several big-breasted women remove their clothes to sleep with men. There's strong innuendo, toplessness, and full-frontal nudity (mostly women, but men too). Language is strong (including "f--k," "s--t," and "a--hole"). Two aliens snort huge lines of a white powder that makes them spacey. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

In this collection of related stories: An astronaut arrives home with a present for his little girl. Unfortunately, the present turns out to be a scary, glowing green ball. It melts dad and proceeds to tell the little girl several stories of sex, violence, greed, war, and revenge. A cabbie tries to protect a mysterious woman who has also found a glowing green ball. A boy finds the ball and is transported to a fantastic, distant world, occupying a warrior's body. A star witness at a trial turns into a monster and goes on a rampage. Aliens kidnap a sexy Earth woman. And so on. In the last segment, a beautiful warrior princess has one final chance to stand up against the forces of evil.

In 1981, this may have been state-of-the-art animation, but now it looks rudimentary, clunky, and flat. The writing, likewise, is flat. These stories could have been little Twilight Zone-style zingers, but instead they just trail off. One of the stories, "Captain Sternn," came from comics legend Berni Wrightson, and it's the only one that even comes close to having a shape.

What's even more peculiar is the fact that the movie, like the famous magazine it's based on, is designed to lure in teens with the promise of gratuitous sex and nudity, as well as elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and violence. But the movie's overall content and themes make it more appropriate for adults, who will not be as interested. On the plus side, the movie has a good soundtrack of 1970s and 1980s-era arena rock (not all heavy metal, by the way), and the songs are used interestingly as background, often giving scenes an effective and much-needed boost of adrenaline. Ivan Reitman was a producer.

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