A giant piece of crap, but an amusing one. If it had kept up the energy it has at its outset, and if it, you know, made any kind of actual sense by the end, it might actually have been a decent B movie. As it stands, it's definitely of the so-bad-it's-good variety. C. Thomas Howell stars as a "shepherd" (which was the film's original title before it was rebranded with a more sci-fi title), which is some sort of religion-based assassin. You see, it's the future. Great wars were waged on land which have driven the survivors underground. Now a handful of crazy religions are fighting it out down there. Roddy Piper plays the major villain, a Christian preacher who is sick of losing ground to a cult of women under the watch of Sophia (Marina Anderson). Howell is tasked with assassinating a member of her cult (Heidi von Palleske), but she and her son remind him of his dead family so he saves her and tries to keep her from other assassins instead. Oh, and David Carradine is along for the ride as a ventriloquist. It's all very nonsensical, but the silly (but even sometimes clever) production design is fun and everyone overacts to a hilarious degree - except for von Palleske who comes off like a robotic Jessica Chastain.

A film that has C Thomas Howell (Dead Fire) as a star should raise alarm, and let's face it, to a certain extent you should know what to expect. The thing with Sheperd is that the whole set up is great: A post-apocalyptic underground world where religious factions fight for the mind and souls of the populace? That sounds great, doesn't it?In the hands of, say, Enzo Castellari or Joe D'Amato, this would have been a great film, and although the film is full of nice quirks and strange characters, the film just seems to meander along and regularly falls into cliché. On the quirky side, you've got Roddy Piper as a messiah type leader (and truth be told, he's good in this), David Carradine as a John Wayne impersonating, crazy ventriloquist (also good), and various scantily clad women, but the action is terribly filmed and the story is just what you would expect. C Thomas Howell (Nursie) just doesn't cut it for me as an action hero. His beard reminded me a Gary Bushell, of all people. I suppose with more to do he would have been more acceptable, but he just runs from one scene to the other with a chick and her kid in tow.You see (Thomas Howell), our hero is a Shepherd, who kills other religious leaders on behalf of Piper, but balks at a hit and has some guys sent after him, one of which was his old cop buddy with a secret. His hit turns out to be another Shepherd with a kid, whom our hero takes a fancy to as his wife and kid were murdered by someone or other. Did I mention that Howell does all this so he can watch his past through sunglasses? If you want to see Carradine acting really strange, or Piper carrying a cross, then this film has that, but if you want a film where you can guess the ending (except for the head scratching motives of the ex-cop buddy), then well I guess this film has that too. It's remarkably unremarkable.

First of all, let me start by saying that I have been a devoted follower of C Thomas Howell's career ever since "The Outsiders" and "The Hitcher". He was an up and coming star in the 1980s - with hits such as "Soul Man" also. The future was bright for this young actor and he had the potential to go on from there and really assert himself in Hollywood. Put it this way - Tom Cruise had a bit part in "The Outsiders" while Howell had the lead. Look at Cruise today !!! But picking material like this drivel will only denigrate Howell's career even more - if that was possible. Why does he pick stuff like this? A small part in a major movie would be of more benefit to him than this rubbish.Essentially the story here takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everybody lives underground where chaos reigns. Howell is a Shepherd - protecting the flock of various religious leaders by killing off any undesirables. He's a hit-man in other words.The sets are so bad, they wouldn't look out of place on a Thunderbirds episode. The use of slow-motion needlessly repeats itself throughout the movie but is well backed up by bad acting (and bad is a kind word here), no continuity, scenes that are thrown in for no reason whatsoever, vehicles that looked like they were made from a Corn Flakes box and a directorial style that bordered on stupidity. Oh yeah, and the storyline was pathetic too.I hate writing bad reviews about films - especially those in which I really like the star - but this film is so bad I don't believe for one second that anyone could have been proud of it. I am not a filmmaker nor am I a director but I would hide my head in the sand if I'd spent whatever amount of money and time on this movie.In short - this was a monumental waste of time and energy and I would not recommend anyone to EVER see this film. It came free with a DVD player I bought but I still turned the thing off halfway through because I was embarrassed for Howell. Come on C - give yourself some credit and wrestle yourself away from these non-hit wonders and try to knuckle down and get a good part - however small.1/10 - and only because there is no setting for 0/10.

yes, this is a prety bad film, and it does have some unexplained aspects, plus the sex scene lasts way too long, and does nothing for the plot. anyway, this was a very class film, you have to see past the imperfections of the film, however badly it was filmed, and however pathetic the martial arts aspects, in fact, i kick better than howell. i loved this film no matter how badly it was made, i reckon that if this had been made as an annimation, it would have kicked ass, considering it was only a very low budget film, they just couldn't achieve the grandure and scale that was needed to make that film work, that and the fact that the robot, was about as effective as a lepper with a sharp stick, they quite blatently used the leftovers from short sircuit on that thing. i draw cartoons as a hobbie, and i'm gonna say right here and now, that i am going to remake this film in animated form and send it to the makers of this film, simply because i think this film deserves a second shot.