Warlords

The star of this film " Warlords " is suppose to be David Carradine, (Kung-Fu) but I wonder if he regrets it? I have not seen a movie this bad since 'Blair Witch.' The film is directed by Fred Ray who claims to know his craft. Not so. Not after this poor offering. The premise is of a post apocalyptic world where Dow, the hero (Carradine) wonders the land in search of his long lost wife. With him as a companion of sorts is a mutant head in a box which talks, constantly complains and makes snide remarks. Joining Dow is Danny (Dawn Wildsmith) a renegade woman who is constantly firing her guns and rifles, but can't seem to hit anything. Sid Haig plays 'The Warlord' who with his menagerie of bare-breasted women, is as menacing as a loose tooth. The warlord plans on recruiting a mutant army with the help of Ross Hagen as Beaumont, Fox Harris as the double crossing Colonel Cox and Robert Quarry as Dr. Mathers a veterinarian. You might consider watching this film if you are totally bored out of your mind, which is what will happen to your head if you finish it. To say this film is bad is an understatement. The question remains, why did a fine actor like David Carradine do this film? It has got to be the worse movie of his career. *

My review was written in October 1989 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.

Yet another "Mad Max"-styled entry, "Warlords" benefits from a tongue-in-cheek approach but is still of only limited interest to sci-fi completists.

Pic is set after a nuclear war during an uprising by mutants. David Carradine portrays a cloned vesion of a famous hero, searching for his wife (Brinke Stevens) who's in he clutches of a powerful warlord (Sid Haig).

Taking the familiar sparring twosome trek of films ranging from "Soldier Blue" to "Spacehunter", Carradine reluctantly teams up with tough babe Danny (Dawn Wildsmith, in one of her best, earthiest screen roles to date). Later they're joined by nutty Colonel Cox (the late Fox Harris), In pic's silliest routine, Carradine converses with Ammo, his little talking mascot, played by a childish puppet.

Dim plo line concerning cloning experiments and warlord Haig's true identity fails to rouse much interest. Main fun is watching Wildsmith's antics as she makes the most of Scott Ressler's putdown dialog. Victoria Sellers, daughter of Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland, makes an unimpressive film debut as a girl Wildsmith abandons in the desert.

Tech credits are extremely modest.

David (Caine) Carradine actually come's out of his usual truculent shell for a couple of scenes and with the help of the ever dependable Sig Haig, Fox Harris and Robert (Count Yorga) Quarry make a rather fun movie. Dawn Wildsmith, who play's Danny the leading lady, is a little off kilter in some of the early scenes, but I can't help believe that this could have been corrected by a little intervention on director Fred Olin Ray's part.

The film does bog down a bit at about the hour mark but picks up for a great, if not predictable, ending. Great bad guys and a bunch of pretty ladies with something quite different in the back pack make for a winner.

I sure hope the actors working in Fred Olen Ray's films are having fun when they're making them. Because we, the viewer, sometimes have no fun at all.

Enter WARLORDS. Some sort of MAD MAX-inspired cheese that has really little point(except for blowing up a few cars, and displaying some of the cheapest effects since GHOULIES), WARLORDS is insulting to everyone's intelligence. Anyone who finds this entertaining should go back to the hospital, 'cause you've gotta be sick to like this.

Dawn Wildsmith, once married to Fred Olen Ray, is the damsel in distress, Sid Haig is the bad guy, there is bad chase music, a mutant sidekick, and caves. What Fred Olen Ray movie would be complete without some cave footage(perhaps he is homaging EEGAH?)

WARLORDS is probably no worse than all the other films that Fred Olen Ray directed that year, but this is hardly bragging rights. When the measuring stick is this short, what's the point in playing at all?