I nuovi barbari

OK. First of all this movie is one of the better B-movies I have seen for awhile. It is a cheap Italian knockoff of "Road Warrior". However, Mel Gibson has been replaced by a major phuckin ham of an actor and Fred Williamson is hilarious. The outfits are utterly retarded, especially those of the bad guys. Was I supposed to be scared of these guys? They dress like rejects from an Andrew Lloyd Weber show and their vehicles are golf carts covered in aluminum foil. Plus there must be some Weirdo,Italian thing going on that I don't understand. Why are the bad guys all Puritan, vigilante homosexuals? One of the more entertaining scenes is one our hero is captured and boned in the rump as initiation for execution, mainly because it is the weakest cinematographic displays of the movie. For a B-movie, this film has just about everything:Bad special effects, bad acting, lame plot, weak characters, crappy dialogue, Casio keyboard soundtrack, Fred Williamson, and way too many cliches. Rent it, get some cheap beer, and watch it with some friends for a good laugh.

I see from the reviews on this board that the film in question is dividing opinion hugely. On one hand many reviewers are describing this as one of, if not the worst movie ever made whilst others are touting it as an unintentional work of genius. For what it's worth, I would place the movie as somewhere in between the two extremes.

Yes, the film is admittedly a low budget, low brow rip off of Mad Max……but…….taken for what it is, and if you approach it in the right frame of mind, it's actually a pretty decent, undemanding watch. In fact, I would even go as so far as to suggest that the film is actually one of the better post apocalyptic Mad Max inspired outings to spring out of Italy during the 1980's.

That staple plot of a lone group of survivors terrorised by nomadic barbarians rears its' hoary old head yet again here. In this case, the villains are a group of self appointed purges of humanity calling themselves The Templar's who are headed by that Italian B-movie stalwart of villainous roles, BIG George Eastman who plays a character named (oddly) One.

There is ostensibly some enmity between One and the hero in this, Scorpion, based on some undisclosed prior events. For his part, Scorpion seems content to drive around in his souped up car and periodically wipe out Templar raiding parties although predictably, Scorpion and One are bound to meet up at the films climax for one final battle.

Although the budgetary constraints are overtly apparent in the films overall look, there are a number of commendable action and gore sequences littered throughout the running time including a humorous beheading scene and a number of bodies exploding in a particularly cool manner! And let us not forget, how can any film be entirely bad when the always awesome Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson is on board?! (Well with the exception of the atrocious Delta Force Commando of course!)

May I finally just add a special mention to Anna Kanakis, the actress in this who Scorpion saves from a Templar assault……she is seriously HOT, HOT, HOT stuff! – Hell, watch the film to feast your eyes upon her if nothing else!

Early 80's cult cinema – and particularly the Italian rip-off industry – made it look so easy to make a film. You only needed an idea that is crazy enough to sell (a fully written screenplay is an unnecessary option), a fairly large selection of grotesque costumes and flamboyant post-apocalyptic vehicles and, last but not least, a charismatic actor who was big in the 70's but desperately needed work in the 80's. Copy & paste all these elements together, add some cheesy Goblin tunes, and you've got yourself a genuine bona fide cult gem that is pretty bad but at the same time enormously entertaining. The year is once again 2019 (that appears to be a dangerous years, as Sergio Martino's "After the Fall of New York also takes place in 2019) and the world is badly recovering from a nuclear holocaust. There actually are only two groups of people left on the planet, namely petrified survivors who travel in caravans looking for remnants of civilization and the Templars; self-acclaimed prophets that dwell the wastelands and kill people for committing the crime of being alive. Then, finally, there are two lone warriors (and a ridiculously young blond mechanic) that courageously defend themselves against the Templars, yeah! "Warriors of the Wasteland" has no significant plot but at least it's never once boring thanks to an overload crazed battle sequences, vehicle-showdowns and silly gimmicks. The hero at one point wears a see-through bulletproof Plexiglas outfit, the blond kid goes around killing Templars with a slingshot and former Blaxploitation star Fred Williamson fires off arrows that explode upon impact. Williamson's character Nadir has a bit of an ego issue, as he clearly worships himself and continuously assures his buddy Scorpion that he is better than him, and the leader of the Templars (portrayed by the awesome exploitation star George Eastman) seemingly suffers from a slight personality crises. In other words, he's probably gay but doesn't realize it yet. Briefly summarized, "Warriors of the Wasteland" is a dumb but fast-paced "Mad Max" rip-off with a massive amount of cheesy showdown and explosions, in order words the ideal entertainment for undemanding 80's fans.

In the future year 2019, the nuclear holocaust is over. What's left are bands of roaming gangs in a desert wasteland. "Warriors of the Wasteland" is one of many low-budget Italian Mad Max knockoff films and is pretty decent one from solid journeyman director in Enzo G. Castellari and the always cool Fred Williamson. The story, such as it is, involves and evil group of white robed baddies known as "The Templars" who raid peaceful wastelander villages and want to rid the earth of it's survivors, so it's up to our hero Giancarlo Prete as Scorpion and Fred Williamson as Nadir to save the world from the evil Templars. George Eastman makes a good snarling villain and there is also a nicely funky score by Claudio Simonetti of Gobin fame. It's also hard to resist the Williamson's exploding arrows, especially when he makes a head shot, or one villain's car that deploys a deadly spinning blade to decapitate his hapless victims. It's this sort of ridiculousness that I found so enjoyable and realized this film was probably one of the more direct influences on the more recent post-apocalyptic cheese fest homage that was "Turbo Kid: Chronicles of the Wasteland." Overall, "Warriors of the Wasteland" is is not a good movie by any measure in the conventional sense, but if you're a fan of these sorts of low-budget post-apocalyptic type of films, then this one is one of the better Italian entries into this disreputable subgenera.

****CAUTION: This review is Rated R*** (because of: offensive language, mild drug references, exaggerated violence, a soft erotic sex-scene not mentioned in the review, idiotic nonsense)

What can I say? To give you a good idea of what this movie is all about, I'll try to make my comments as pointless as the movie itself. The plot? There is none. But there is a premise: In 2019 the Nuclear Apocalypse has happened. The Templars are a group of violent nut-cases driving modified 'futuristic' looking cars that would make the vehicles in MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR turn around by themselves, drive to the nearest Nuke & Repair Auto-shop and go into hiding until this film is over. The Templars wardrobe and hairdo's are a nightmare to every designer with at least a single notion of good taste, or (depends on the way you look at it) a dream-come-true to fashion-experts high on Swedish designer-drugs. The Templars simply look THAT hilarious. You won't believe your eyes!

The Templars are on a mission, apparently... A simple mission at that too: This world is dead. So, accordingly, everybody in it must die too (except themselves, of course).

The characters in I NUOVI BARBARI have all remarkable, profound-sounding names (like Scorpion, Shadow, Father Moses, One,...). Scorpion is the loner-hero. As much as the Templars have no reason for killing everybody, Scorpion has absolutely no reason for being a hero. As well as Fred Williamson has no reason to be in this flick. All he does is drive around in his amazing buggy, give Scorpion some sort of Jedi-like training during his revalidation and shoot explosive arrows (and boy, do they go "booom!" indeed).

Now, it has been a while since I had so much fun with a very wrong movie like I NUOVI BARBARI. Most of the movie consists of superb (?) action-sequences of the Templars driving and crashing their cars. With a lot of amazingly (?) shot, but utterly pointless slow-motion shots.

The two main attractions of this movie are:

-- The cars: The vehicle's designs are simply mind-boggling. I can not put it any other way. Most of them even have very vicious 'boobie-traps', such like: grenade-launchers, ultra-long drills coming out of the front-grid, car-doors that launch themselves and explode on impact, flame-throwers (of course) and my personal favorite: a circular saw, expanding from the side of the car which decapitates innocent civilians running for their lives.

-- Claudio Simonetti's completely warped musical score: I have simply no idea on how he did it, but he came up with his most spaced-out compositions I've ever heard from the man. It sounds like he might have dropped some extremely nasty LSD and then went nuts on his Korg Analog Sequencer. I tell you: this is a milestone in Soundtrack History. Echo's of Pierre Henry's pioneers-work in electronic music can be heard in Simonetti's score. As well as sounds and bleeps still used by todays electro-acts like Tosca and Autechre (to name only two totally unrelated ones of the so many). His score is motivationally groovy, pulsatingly warped, hauntingly electronic, strangely rocking and almost unbearably dripping with 80's cheese. And will you just please listen to the many completely unworldly sound-effects? Simply every machine or electronic device (from the cars over the guns to broadcasting equipment) makes completely undefinable noises. I will go on a frantic quest in search for this soundtrack on CD. Simply must have it!

Other highlights of this movie are undoubtedly the many various ways to blow people up (often in slow-motion too): Full body-explosions. Head-explosions. Chest-explosions,... One scene even has a guy riding a motorcycle with his head blown off for several seconds! And then there's this one incomprehensible torture-scene: The Templars have captured Scorpion and they're gonna make him die like a Templar. He's hanging in chains on some metal device. Then, George Eastman lashes out with 'something' at Scorpion's body. Then it looks like he is opening his pants (!) ready to give him the ass-f#@k of his life (!!) while some other prominent Templar seems to be holding up a sword ready to chop off Scorpion's head (!!!). I mean, WTF $@%#?!?! Only, you absolutely can't tell for sure what is going on in that scene, because the editor starts cutting up every shot with strangely framed pointless shots while Simonetti's wildly psychedelic sounds come on again. I had no clue what the hell was going on there, other than what I previously told I got out of it.

I just mentioned the utterly pointless framing, right? Well, the cinematographer was very persistent about that technique. Consistently throughout the whole movie, he keeps framing his shots with complete pointlessness. Most shots are often zoomed-in too closely on the action (whether the action be just people talking or cars crashing into something; doesn't matter). Resulting often in the viewer feeling the urge to try and look left or right of the TV-screen to see more of the action. But of course, the viewer then finds himself, very annoyingly, staring at his TV-speakers. Completely puzzling, the way they shot this film.

And to round it up with a final message this film seems to be carrying: Drugs are bad, okay? I don't know if George Eastman's character's superior visions initially came from using drugs too much, or his megalomaniac ramblings were already there to begin with, and they simply got enhanced by doing the stuff. One scene has him smoking the (probably radio-active) green herbs while getting even more high on himself, listening to his OWN recorded voice (on a tape) declaring nonsensical philosophies. You just gotta dig that. Simply hilarious, again.

Vomitron's final judgment: Was this a fun flick?: Hell yes, baby!!! Dig it, or don't! 8/10 Was it a good movie?: Geeezz... What do ya think? 2/10 That leaves us with an average rating of 5/10. Way to go Enzo G. Castellari!