Allan C
THE ROAD WARRIOR was a seminal sci-fi action flick that spawned endless imitators and ripoffs. Most well knows are films like SPACEHUNTER, CYBORG, TANK GIRL, or even big-budget Hollywood films like WATERWORLD, DOOMSDAY, or TURBO KID (which is a loving homage to these knockoff films and not the originator of the genre). Lesser known are the Italian knockoffs, like 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS or THE NEW BARBARIANS. Even lesser known are the Roger Corman produced Filipino knockoffs, which are my personal favorites of all the post-apocalyptic warriors-of-the-wasteland knockoffs. In this one, the world's water supply has dried up due to some sort of apocalyptic event, which leads our hero, Stryker, to help a beautiful woman who knows where the last spring still exists, though guarded by fierce Amazonian warriors. From the writer of "The Unholy Rollers" and "Vampire Hookers" (and also several Care Bears episodes) and the director of HELL HOLE, NAKED FORCE, and CAGED HEAT II: STRIPPED TO FREEDOM, you know to moderate your expectations. However, director Cirio H. Santiago is an exploitation director who brings more flair to his low-budget pictures than most. He's actually made my favorite low-budget Max Max ripoff, WHEELS OF FIRE (that is unless you count CHERRY 2000 as a Mad Max ripoff, but I feel like Cherry is its own special thing). Besides providing some solid action sequences, Santiago adds lots of little touches, like some highly entertaining Jawa-like creatures that are wonderful. He also gets the most out of his barren locations and makes them look truly bizarre at times. Overall, don't go into this expecting something on the level of THE ROAD WARRIOR, but if you have a love of cheesy sci-fi flicks you picked out at the video store because they had rad VHS box art, then you're in for a treat with this one.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
ethan q
A fun b-movie and the jank of the movie make it entertaining to watch for fun. I recommend you watch it with friends to heckle the movie.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This was another low-budget post apocalyptic affair that Cirio Santiago put together to cash in on something like the Mad Max films, and it's about as middling as you'd expect. A lot of conflicts in settling that look like gravel pits, that sort of thing.
I think you know if this is your cup of tea or not, based on that description.
Rental?
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It would be very easy of me to say this was a simple rip-off of the first two [i]Mad Max[/i] movies but hey, come on, seriously...take a bloody look at this thing. Its a flippin' rip-off of George Miller's dystopian creation...visually at least.
The Earth is a scorched barren wasteland. Small pockets of people is all that is left of the human race after a devastating nuclear war. The most precious commodity now is water (sound familiar?), not food, not fuel, not bullets or guns because apparently there's an abundance of that stuff, no its H2O. The remaining small groups of people fight amongst themselves for the water. Kardis, a tyrant with a loyal following wants the location of a colony that has a natural spring. Said colony is peaceful but remain hidden to fend off the violent Kardis and his black leather wearing minions.
There is seemingly only one man who can help the colony and stop Kardis, that man is Stryker (Steve Sandor), oh and his black leather clad partner Bandit...excuse me?. Stryker is your complete stereotypical 80's anti-hero...that has been cobbled together from other movies. He's a silent, roguish, gruff, tanned, muscular bloke with longish hair. Unfortunately the hair is slightly blonde, very curly (almost an afro) and doesn't look very cool. He wears a tight vest to show off his big arms, he has on what looks to be armoured shin pads and camouflage type pants (similar to Snake Plissken in 'Escape from New York'), and he often wears a cowboy hat and bandana around his face. Naturally he's a dab hand with all types of guns and knives.
His sidekick, Bandit, is also very quiet, slim, athletic, actually has more muscular tone than Stryker and has wavy black long hair complete with bandana. As already said Bandit wears all black leather and is also darn good with guns and knives. Both of these (apparent) butch blokes travel around the desert in...wait for it...a black, heavily modified 1970 Ford Mustang that just so happens to look very similar to the Ford Falcon in that other desert set flick.
The baddie named Kardis looks like Ben Kingsley and dresses relatively sensibly, albeit with a slightly Arabic look. Its his henchmen that look bloody ridiculous and are somewhat of a copyright infringement. All of his men are dressed in black leather, some wearing odd helmets, masks, goggles, body harnesses/fetish gear etc...It literally looks like they just stepped off the set of 'Mad Max 2', its so blatant. The only real difference is these bad guys travel around on tanks (which does look badass), although they do use the odd battered vehicle.
Again ripping ideas straight outta other specific movies, this movie also has a band of female warriors that are all incredibly sexy looking. Each and every female warrior is wearing very tight skimpy booty shorts that show more arse than anything (its very nice). They all wear white clothes (as do all the peaceful goodie people) and in another blatant copyright infringement some wear what looks to be white American football type shoulder padding (yes from 'Mad Max 2' again). All these female warriors also tend to use bows, arrows and crossbows rather than guns. So essentially these characters are just another stolen idea.
There is very little dialog in this movie which is somewhat unsurprising I guess seeing as most of the actors are dubbed. But the lack of actual talking is still quite odd really, its like the movie is just one long collection of action sequences stuck together around a crap plot. That plot basically being, the baddies are after the water, the goodies have to stop them, guys wearing black bad, people wearing white good...and that's it. There are various characters that do get captured and whatnot, there are some flashbacks to explain what happened between Kardis and Stryker etc...but none of it matters. Baddies wear black, goodies wear white...fight!
Admittedly there are a lot of reasonable action sequences involving vehicles. Nothing you hadn't seen before in some other movies (ahem) but they have been directed and carried out pretty well all things considered. Yes there is a tanker sequence, of course there is, no its not as good as [b]that[/b] tanker sequence. Yes there are many nice shots of Stryker's souped-up car against sunsets, closeups, the roaring of the engine as it thunders down the deserted highways etc...Honesty the car is sweet, they've done their best to match (or copy) the iconic Ford Falcon pursuit special and its not half bad, I wouldn't say no. Other vehicles are standard desert bound stuff like jeeps and various 4x4 things. The female warriors have a neat looking three wheeled motorbike thingy.
Most of the action is pretty hokey as you might expect with men throwing themselves around when they get shot. Lots of explosive squibs to simulate gunfire, wounds and ricochets etc...The locations work nicely, I believe its all in the Philippines but I could be wrong. Sure some of it looks to be in quarries and some rundown ruins but it does the job. Everything looks yellow, dusty, rocky, sandy, battered etc...what else do you need for an apocalyptic movie in the desert? Steve Sandor is clearly having a ball being this supposedly ultra cool anti-hero, he growls and snarls when required, ignores the sexy women like a true badass would do...I guess. His sidekick Bandit is virtually mute but does get a sex scene, so not gay then? Jury is still out on that because he sure as hell doesn't like it when Stryker leaves him at the end, dude almost breaks down in tears in front of his new hot girlfriend.
The movies poster is sexy stuff, its literally why I watched the film! I was predictably somewhat disappointed to discover the poster isn't really accurate (how many times man? how many times?). Going in I knew this would be a mix of many things that have come before, twas bloody obvious, but is that bad? I mean, yeah sure its bad in a legal moral sense, but for entertainment purposes its actually alright. Yes the movie is cheap and tacky but thumbs for effort, credit where credits due, this ain't half bad for a low budget B-movie. The fact that it looks like there was not much health and safety involved whilst making this makes it even more impressive and fun. Final thought, someone really needs to explain to me why there was a band of Jawas/Dinks in the desert. I...I really didn't quite understand that, quite simply, why is there a band of little people in the middle of the desert?
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
For those who have tired of Italian Mad Max ripoffs, Stryker comes from the Philippines. Here groups battle for scarce water supplies in the post nuclear wasteland. Features several daring rescues and a hero who is more of a strong silent type.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Reworking of the Mad Max premise using water as the key resource.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
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