Titles come more nondescript than Max Cloud, but the 2020 film’s name remains pretty bland. When you look at alternate moniker The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud, though, you get a much better idea what to expect from this sci-fi adventure.

Set in 1990, teenager Sarah Noble (Isabelle Allen) loves video games, and she especially enjoys the side-scroller Max Cloud. To her delight, she discovers an Easter egg in this program.

However, this offers unexpected consequences, as Sarah encounters a hidden portal that transports her into the game. There she takes over the avatar of Jake (Elliot James Langridge), spaceship cook.

As Jake, Sarah interacts with Captain Max Cloud (Scott Adkins) and deals with various threats. Back home, Sarah’s pal Cowboy (Franz Drameh) tries to help Sarah get out of her 16-bit situation.

Though it takes place in 1990, Cloud really pays homage to the 80s in every way outside of its video game technology. It seems clear that 1984’s Last Starfighter offers a big influence, as does 1988’s Big - heck, the characters even acknowledge the connection to Big as well as 1988’s Vice Versa.

In addition, Cloud clearly plays like a movie made in the 80s. From its music to its photography to its general style, everything about it comes across as an homage to that era.

Which doesn’t seem like a bad idea for a movie. Though I don’t tend to love this kind of semi-spoof, Cloud plays it straight enough that it can be enjoyed as a goofy romp even if you don’t want to take it as a parody.

Unfortunately, much of the entertainment in Cloud remains theoretical. While not a bad movie, it lacks the cleverness it needs to work as well as it should.

Some of the problems come from a lack of real focus. Cloud may revolve around Sarah’s adventures, but the movie doesn’t really bring a central character in reality.

With only 89 minutes at its disposal, Cloud allows itself to branch off into tangents too frequently. Honestly, the movie often plays more like a collection of scenes than a coherent narrative.

That wouldn’t turn into a problem if these vignettes seemed more delightful, but they come across as erratic. Although some provide fun and adventure, others simply seem feeble and fail to produce the necessary fun.

For the most part, the actors help sell the material. The weakest link comes from Adkins. He doesn’t seem bad as our he-man hero, but he tends to lean toward a Bruce Campbell impersonation without much charm of his own.

The others fare better, at least. In particular, Drameh, Tommy Flanagan and John Hannah bring some spice to their relatively small parts.

Nothing here truly fails, so Cloud turns into a decent, semi-campy little romp. It just lacks the coherence and the competence to make it a vivid comedic adventure.

Footnote: a very minor auditory tag appears at the conclusion of the end credits.

Max Cloud appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not great, the image usually looked fine.

Sharpness mostly felt appealing. Some softness crept onto wider shots, but the majority of the flick offered reasonably good accuracy.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and the presentation lacked edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

In terms of palette, Cloud often favored a mix of blue and purple, though it also tossed in plenty of red and orange. These tones tended to seem a bit dense, but that seemed to be an intentional throwback to 1980s films, especially since the heavy tones only came with shots inside the video game universe. This left the colors as semi-unattractive at times, but they seemed to fulfill production goals.

Blacks became fairly deep and dense, while shadows offered mostly solid clarity. This was a perfectly watchable image.

With all the movie’s action, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack brought a lot of potential for sonic involvement. To some degree, the mix delivered, but it didn’t become as engrossing as I might expect.

Nonetheless, the soundscape usually opened up matters fairly well. Music used the spectrum in a satisfying manner, and effects cropped up around the room.

These added spice and spark to the tale, but they didn’t become as vivid as anticipated. While the soundfield gave us a good sense of the action, it didn’t threaten greatness.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed natural and concise. The synth-heavy score offered appealing range and fidelity.

Effects showed good punch, as they brought nice accuracy and impact. Nothing here excelled, but the mix deserved a “B”.

The disc opens with ads for Cosmoball, Synchronic, and Possessor. We also get the trailer for Cloud but no other extras appear.

A spoof of 80s films, Max Cloud comes with the potential to delight. Though the movie occasionally manages entertainment, much of it tends to fall a little flat. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio but it lacks bonus materials. Expect a decent but unmemorable piece of fluff.