I see a lot of 1 star ratings. I gave it 2 because the ending was so abrupt, I presume the lame director is planning a sequel to tie up all the loose ends. LOL

Watching your monitor's screensaver demands more concentration, staring at beige wallpaper is more entertaining.
The male lead reminded me of Stargate Atlantis co-star Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) only with even less testosterone coursing through his veins. The crazy vicious leader of the bad guys resembled Ming the Merciless (Flash Gordon) suffering from chronic steroid flashbacks. The lost king reminded me of Obi-Wan Kenobi's senile cousin on a day pass from a nursing home.

This was definitely low budget. How low budget was it, Johnny? The budget was so low...
a) they could only afford a brass house key for the ignition switch on the spaceship.
b) the ship's airlock looked like a patio sliding door on the movie set's dressing room trailer, and I think the ship's navigation panel consisted of 2 game controllers from an old Atari 2600.
c) the director must have hired his 5-year old niece as makeup artist. There were some awesome *cough* action scenes involving fake kickboxing and hobnailed boots, plus any number of rifle butts to heads, yet the main characters suffered fewer cuts and contusions than a couch potato opening a bag of pretzels; the heroine's face showed no bruising after the crazy vicious leader of the bad guys knocked her out with a hard right cross to her jaw. All spare change went for the bottle of ketchup used for bullet wounds. (sorry, no cool ray guns) Most of this flick was filmed on location on a "deserted planet" where an incessant background wind sound effect hinted at desolation. Funny thing, food is very scarce yet the actors are not at all emaciated; the landscape is dotted with high-voltage electric transmission towers and telephone poles just like modern day Earth; vehicles including a 100-year old motocross bike run on tires that aren't dry-rotted. Go figure.

SPOILER: Guys, there's good news and bad news.
The Good - the heroine is a cute VIRGIN! She's blonde AND she's listed as "co-producer." I know! Casting couch promotion!
The Bad - even if you go frame by frame in slow motion, you're only going to catch one fleeting glimpse of her white panties, nothing more, so don't TIVO it. I'm just saying.I confess I cried at the ending. Not because it was a sad ending but because that was an hour and 28 minutes of my life I'd never get back.
You're still going to watch this, aren't you? Of course you are. It's a must for any Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan.
WARNING: Badlanders is also known as Prison Planet, just so you don't watch it twice by mistake.

I thought the characters were engaging! Example: After being captured, they torture the man in order to get information out of him. I truly hoped he wouldn't be electrocuted so he wouldn't have to do such a terrible job acting like he was!

Wow! Badlanders (aka Prison Planet in some releases) is the greatest movie ever made! Seriously! But not for the usual reasons. Not because it has great acting. It doesn’t. This is the worst acting ever. Terrible, amateurish acting throughout. The guy laying in the road calling for help is one pitiful example and of course the head-honcho baddie (Michael M. Foley) who delivers every line through clenched teeth like he has a rabid badger in his pants is another. But whew… I’m happy he finished the movie without having a stroke.Dialog? What a hoot. “Welcome to hell!” not once, but twice (but to be fair, it was two different people in two different places so I guess it’s two different hells and they probably thought it was such a killer line that they should slay the mesmerized audience with it once more and.. oh never mind)Verisimilitude? Well, let’s see… this is a barren desolate planet where the evil king exiles prisoners (hence the title “Prison Planet”) but is the king really evil? I mean, really evil like everybody says? I don’t think so. He’s actually a pretty thoughtful guy. Check it out: as a notorious criminal in exile on a desolate planet, you get some cars, gasoline, guns, bullets and (my favorite!) large industrial power lines to drive under on the way through the wastelands. Oh, and let’s not forget the tiny spaceship made from a painted-over Burger King box flying through the air on a string and the awesome way they show you how to escape from bad guys in a car by jumping up from the hill you’re hiding behind and running out into the road the car’s on.But why is this the greatest movie ever? First, you have to watch the whole thing. But WARNING: be careful of your dosages. Watch maybe 10 or 12 minutes and then take a break. Rest your eyes before starting again. Wear a helmet at all times. Make sure you let somebody know what you’re doing.With those few precautions, you should be fine. And don’t worry: when you’re done, it’s normal for your brain to feel like it’s on fire. It should pass in a day or two. And then you’ll be glad you saw this burning barrel of trash. Because after Prison Planet, you will never ever have to watch a worse movie. If you live to be 100, it doesn’t matter. The worst possible film in the history of film-making is behind you now. Everything after this (even such classics as The Night The Paint Dried) will be an improvement.