Review: The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud

DVD & Blu-ray: The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud (2020)

It’s 1990 and Sarah (Isabelle Allen) is a video game enthusiast who is particularly fond of playing a game starring the titular Max Cloud (Scott Adkins).

Little does Sarah know that due to a weird series of events she will end up in the game, helping Max and his crew overcome the evil Revengor (John Hannah) and his sidekicks.

Making things just that little bit more difficult is the fact that Sarah, now being a playable character within the game, is being controlled in the real world by her friend ‘Cowboy’ (Franz Drameh).

A deviation from the ass-kicking, gun-toting roles Adkins is known for, he still gets to show off his martial arts skills, albeit in the fashion of a 16 bit video game character…which definitely raised some smiles from me, especially when he ends a fight with a flashy “victory stance”.

The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud is a fun movie, all bright colours, exaggerated characters, corny dialogue, and filmed with tongues firmly set in cheeks, replicating the feel of the 16 bit video games of the era.

The sets and special effects are a pastiche of late 80’s/early 90’s video games too, with some fight scenes being played out in all of their 16 bit glory. This may be a hard pill to swallow for some Adkins fans that came into this expecting “Boyka in space”, but for those of us who grew up playing video games during that era, it is a fun nostalgic trip down a fighting game memory lane.

Kudos to Adkins for stepping outside of his core audiences comfort zone, as I’ve long admired him as an actor that could (and should) be doing more than the action roles for which he has become known.

If you want a bit of tongue in cheek, silly, video game inspired fun, then Max Cloud is an enjoyable ride right through to the game over screen.

Also, make sure to listen to my interview show with Scott Adkins.

Review by Dave from a streaming link kindly supplied by Aim Publicity.