Warriors of the Wasteland (1982)




Director: Enzo G. Castellari
a.k.a. "The New Barbarians"

One thing about those Italians, when they decide to rip off a genre, they bleed it till there is nothing left, that's for sure. This one here is probably about the hundredth Italian remake of Mad Max, but any one who is appreciative of super low rent exploitation, like me, will get a kick out of it. After the usual nuclear war, the survivors are essentially split into two groups. Group one is your typical post apocalyptic survival group, good people who are pinning all hopes of survival on a remote radio signal they pick up here and there, which hopefully is proof that society still exists somewhere. Try telling that to the Templars, a group of mauraders who wear really fruity costumes that look like rejected stormtrooper suits. The Templars are led by a guy named One who sees his mission in life to obliterate all survivors of the nuclear holocaust, and who scoffs at the idea of any such radio signal existing. One and his Templars drive around in dune buggies equipped with rockets, sawblades and the like, terrorizing the group of survivors. Our only hope falls on the character of Skorpion, who drives around in a knightrider type car (an old chevy) which is equipped with likeminded gadgets of its own, as well as a big bubble on top of the roof for some reason. This bubble reminded me of the old board game Trouble, which had that popomatic bubble. That's what Skorpion's car reminded me of. Anyone who watches this flick will see what the hell I am talking about. Pretty funny. Skorpion teams up with everyones favorite black badass, Fred Williamson, to help save the day. Old Freddie boy is equipped with a bow and arrow that blows stuff up, which comes in handy since all he does is bail Skorpions ass out of trouble half the time. Anyway, we have our big final battle at the end, blah, blah, blah. This one was so damn cheap and cheesy it's almost impossible not to like. My only gripe was that while the film did contain some pretty cool (and phony looking) special effects, if we could have had a couple more decapitations, blown up mannequins, sorry, bodies, and perhaps a naked chick or two we would have had ourselves a classic. Anyway, just sit back and enjoy the bad costumes, cheesy sound effects and f/x, as well as the funny as shit "acting". Good fun.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy
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