2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983)

  I had first seen this way back in the VHS days and it kinda just blended together with all the other Italian post-apocalypse movies of that time. My favorite is probably 1990 BRONX WARRIORS  but this one is not terrible and hits a lot of the same beats as that one. You get flame-throwing government troops, the wastelands of New York City complete with rats and mutants running amuck and a borrowing of the plot to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK as your framing device. You also get George Eastman back, this time as Big Ape, the hairy leader of a gang of mutants who are also extra hairy and seem to have been genetically-spliced with actual apes for some reason which is never made very clear. Michael Sopkiw takes over the Snake Plissken/Mad Max role and he certainly seems tougher than Mark Gregory. They also throw in androids, a midget gang and lots of ridiculous violence to make this an excellent midnight exploitation movie watch. 

  

                                                                    Italian poster!:

French poster!:

Known in Germany as FIREFLASH: THE DAY AFTER THE END:

LAND OF DOOM (1986)

  Crappy post-apocalypse MAD MAX-rip-off action flick. In between the poorly done action sequences we get our main 2 characters arguing and chatting about how bad things have gotten. It took a couple of attempts to get through this one without dozing off. 

 Our main gal/hero (Deborah Rennard) wears this odd pair of pants that looks baggy in the front but from the back appears to be a thong. Truly the best special effect in the whole film!

                                                     Thrilling action!:

                                      Known as RAIDERS OF DEATH in The Netherlands!:

and known as BAD RAIDERS in Germany!:

CHOSEN SURVIVORS (1974)

  This one starts off as an end-of-the-world disaster flick then a bunch of killer bats show up turning it into an killer animals gone wild movie and then they throw a big twist right in the middle which I won't spoil. While there's probably not much rewatchability to this I did enjoy it on my initial viewing. One thing that has to piss off most viewers is that star Jackie Cooper(yes the same guy who was little Jackie on THE LITTLE RASCALS) plays a really reprehensible character who gets away with some horrible acts, including rape at one point, and never really gets much of any comeuppance. This is a pretty good reflection on reality though so I'll give it points for that.  

   Filmed in Mexico(where apparently bat-lives are cheap), so here's the Mexican poster!:

 

Double feature horror show with British flick THE FREAKMAKER under it's alternate title:

THE AFTERMATH (1982)

  There are a couple of problems I had with this post-apocalyptic flick. Number one is "star" Steve Barkett, who just so happens to also be the writer and director doesn't exactly make the most convincing action hero. Number two is the overwhelming score that seems totally out of place in a film of this sort and seems lifted from A Spielberg film or possibly an enthralling Disney presentation. Looking beyond these two things, which is kinda tough, you get a bizarro version of PLANET OF THE APES(and it was even shot on the same beach as the original APES) but instead of apes there's mutants(guys in terrible Halloween masks) and a gang of rapers and pillagers led by the great Sid Haig. There's quite a few gory bits including head explosions by shotgun, an arm is chopped off(allegedly an arm reused from THE CORPSE GRINDERS) and some pretty gruesome stabbing takes place. Mr. Famous Monsters, Forrest Ackerman shows up for a talky cameo. Maybe if this was re-scored I would have been less annoyed by it. 

This was originally shot in 1978 but that version was never released. It was later re-shot with different actors. I can't even begin to imagine how crappy that first version must have been. 

There was a remake of this in '87 called SURVIVOR

EXTERMINATORS OF THE YEAR 3000 (1983)

 ROAD WARRIOR-rip-off film from Italy. This one unfortunately features a little kid, though he's not as overly annoying(besides his absurd New Yawk accent) as most of the kids in these Italo-horror/sci-fi flicks tend to be. Pretty action-packed, a kid gets his arm ripped off, which is something you won't see in any American films, heads roll and people have wacky names like Trash and Alien so it feels like you're watching a biker movie(oh and there are post-apocalyptic bikers of the future). Good 80's synth-pop soundtrack also helps. Excellent flick to watch with a few friends and some adult beverages.
 Director Giuliano Carnimeo(hiding out here under the Americanized name of Jules Harrison) previously made a whole bunch of spaghetti-westerns, and that groovy CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS giallo as Anthony Ascott.

EQUALIZER 2000 (1987)

 Fairly unmemorable ROAD WARRIOR rip-off flick directed by Filipino hack-meister Cirio H. Santiago who made a whole slew of very similar films around this time and didn't seem to ever get much better. This one has the added impediment of having no nudity(despite top-heavy co-star Corinne Wahl playing what I'm guessing is one of the only women left alive after the apocalypse) to go along with the copious amounts of gun violence on display.
 I viewed the unrated version of this recently and it really just adds a bit of blood and some longer scenes adding up to about 10 minutes extra footage. This really didn't boost my feelings toward this one much either way. Good movie to goof on with some friends though if that's your bag.

 

DESERT WARRIOR (1988)

 Found an old VHS tape of this recently but before that I never knew there was a post-apocalyptic flick featuring Lou Ferrigno as an evil barbarian(don;t worry kids he's not 100% evil). Of course Mr. Lou is best known as being THE INCREDIBLE HULK in the 70s TV show of that name and not know for his great acting abilities. Luckily he doesn't need to do much acting here and just has to look imposing (despite wearing what looks like He-Man's armor), fight and run around a bit which are all things he's very qualified to do. This is a pretty stupid film that was obviously inspired by THE ROAD WARRIOR with some STAR WARS-esque laser fights thrown in for added thrills. It's rated PG-13 so there's not any blood but surprisingly there are naked boobs on display. Not the worst futuristic post-nuke films out there but definitely recommended only for lovers of real cheese-fests.

 

ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX (1983)

 This sequel to the great Italian post-nuke flick 1990: BRONX WARRIORS has Mark Gregory return as Trash, our gang-leading, anti-corporate rebel(I believe they would call him a terrorist today).  He's joined by that kinda dull guy who starred in THE NEW BARBARIANS and a gang leader who wears a pirate shirt.  The bad guys in this(aka corporate America) have Henry Silva on their side in a pretty bad-ass role as a guy who will pretty much kill anyone if it benefits him in some way.
 It's kind of funny how certain aspects of this movie mirror the whole cleaning-up of New York that happened throughout the 90's and on into today by soulless politicians and evil companies(ie Disney etc.).  It's almost like director Enzo G. Castellari accidentally predicted the future of the city, minus the flamethrowers used on citizens in the streets, and made a silly action movie out of it all.
 Also the theme song for this sounds like a variation on Sonny Chiba's STREET FIGHTER theme which is cool.  AKA BRONX WARRIORS 2 and ESCAPE 2000

THE NEW BARBARIANS (1983)

 In a lot of these Italian post-apocalypse flicks Fred "The Hammer" Williamson plays second fiddle to a more typical white action hero.  Why couldn't they have made him the star in at least this one?  I guess Italy wasn't ready for a tough black man to star in their films yet.  In 1990 BRONX WARRIORS  at least star Mark Gregory had a sort of dorky charm but this guy here, Timothy Brent, is pretty generic as far as leading men go.  On the positive side you do get a lot more of George Eastman and that's always a good thing.  Here he's  the leader of a gang, that might be a bunch of angry homosexuals, called The Templars who are dedicated to wiping out humanity because they seem rather bitter about the whole holocaust thing.  Eastman smokes futuristic weed and almost rapes our hero in the ass in a standout scene.  Goofy cars with drills, saw-blades and bubble-domes on top of them get blown up and there's really not much of a plot to get in the way of the action.  Also there's a really strange soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti of the group Goblin.  Also for Lucio Fulci fans you get big-headed Bob from HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY as an unlikely action star and mechanic and the lady who gets a splinter in the eye from ZOMBIE as a member of some religious group of wussies.  Worth checking out for a chuckle-inducing good time.  A.K.A.- WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND

1990 BRONX WARRIORS (1982)

 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.