If you took THE WARRIORS and mixed in some MAD MAX and made it extra campy and Italian exploitation-like this would be what you would get. Spaghetti-sploitation master Enzo G. Castellari here takes us on a journey into the future(which is technically now the past) where the Bronx is a no man's land ruled by bikers, pimps, roller-skating hockey players who look like they just rolled out of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, some sandpeople from STAR WARS and what looks like a Broadway dance troupe. They live a great life of rumbles and dance offs until the man sends the police in to rescue the presidents daughter(so with this plot point here we also get a touch of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK to spice things up).
This movie is probably my favorite of the 80's Italian post-nuke extravaganzas, though this isn't technically post-nuke but more of a post-violent criminals run wild and take over film. It's also the only one of this action sub-genre that I've ever seen in a theater in front of an audience and that really elevated it a lot in my opinion. You get a great cast with Fred "The Hammer" Williamson as Ogre, the leader of our pimpalicious gang that drive around in 50's hot rods, George "ANTHROPOPHAGOUS" Eastman, who I think is supposed to be Asian here, as the giant martial arts master and leader of our roller hockey fellows, Vic Morrow who plays a cop/hitman named Hammer which makes no sense since everyone knows Williamson is "The Hammer" and as our main hero a strangely cast, skinny, slightly effeminate fellow named Mark Gregory who I guess wins fights by the force of his earnest staring abilities. Crazy over-emoting acting ensues, ridiculous fight scenes with cool weapons happen, people get burned alive with flame-throwers, die overly dramatic deaths and it all ends in an absurd body-pile of ridiculousness.
There was a sort-of sequel to this in '83 called ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX A.K.A. BRONX WARRIORS 2 where Henry Silva takes over the Vic Morrow role and that one's equally fun for a stupid good time. There was also a planned BRONX WARRIORS 3: ESCAPE FROM THE EARTH that never happened since Gregory seems to have vanished from the public sometime around 1989.
sep 19 2012 :
ReplyDeletebronx is no better now than then !
where was the GOVERMENT OVERSIGHT ?
no we all have the results of freedom ! gone wild !
they done over come , indeed .
I think most people would say the Bronx is a lot less scary now than it was back in the 70's and 80's. Of course I never hang out in the Bronx so what do I know?
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