In the year 1992 after a nuclear war has devastated most of the United States. Dr. Paul Dean (Robert Glaudini) develops a leech-like parasite that grows to large portions after it consumes the blood of its host. Paul flees to the desert when the government storms his lab to collect the parasites to use for their own purposes. He is pursued by “Wolf” (James Davidson) the “merchant” employed by the government to retrieve the last of the parasites. Paul carries one of the last parasites in a canister and the other inside of his stomach. He seeks refuge in small desert town populated by scavengers who constantly threaten his work. While most of the scavengers seek to rob him blind one woman Patrica Wells (Demi Moore) finds an interest in Paul and helps him to destroy the parasites before they multiply and devour the Earth’s remaining population. Written by Matthew Patay and directed by Charles Band.
Tag Archive for 'nuclear-war'
This week for our dueling review and movie of the week, we picked “Endgame” or as it’s also known “Endgame - Bronx lotta finale“. Endgame is directed by the famed Joe D’Amato and stars Al Cliver as badass Ron Shannon, and George Eastman as the hunter Kurt Karnak.
Endgame takes place in New York City during the post apocalyptic year 2025 where mutants and scavengers scrounge to survive, while the elite occupy their time by watching a reality show called endgame. Endgame is a game show that puts contestants in a fight to the death where 3 gladiators take the role of hunters, while a single gladiator takes the role of prey. Ron Shannon is a tough as nails champion gladiator who has won numerous times, and he’s now become the prey. Shannon easily dispatches 2 of his hunters, and spares the life of a third, Karnak, whom he will meet again.
Shannon befriends a telepathic mutant during the endgame, Lilith, who asks him to help take her and a group of her friends outside the city so that they can be transported away. Shannon assembles a rag tag group of mercenaries to help with his tasks, and hijinks ensue.
Sean: I had high hopes going into this movie, as it’s 80’s Italian cinema, which is quickly becoming a favorite subgenre of mine. When I read the description of this movie, it sounded like a great story, and I figured it would make a good watch. I enjoyed the first half of the movie, and the endgame action, but the second half of the movie slowed down and lost me a little along the way.
Raz: “Who loves you and who do you love?” Sorry wrong movie… Although this movie is not “The Running Man” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger they do have a few similarities. At least they do in the beginning. Endgame is a very popular televised game show in the future where one man fights many in a fight to the death. During the broadcast the government starts killing off mutants to ensure they don’t take over. Mutants flee with Shannon’s help and they run into all sorts of trouble along the way. This movie did start out quite well but I also felt that it started to slow down after awhile.
Sean: I found it really funny that they had these stereotypical sidekick characters. They had the big fat guy who’s supposed to be really strong and provides the comic relief, the karate instructor with the eye patch, and the asian fighting machine who’s named “Ninja” of all things. Why didn’t they just name the guy QuickKick or something? I came up with that in 5 seconds and that’s a little less contrived than ninja. I also thought the action scenes were done well for the most part, and you could find little subtle things that were amusing, like guns that never had to be reloaded except at the most inconvenient times. There was one scene where about 10 guys are running towards the heroes and a grenade is thrown towards the oncoming group, then the next cut is a scene of a bunch of guys running away from an explosion. I also thought that they must have had extra potent bullets, because a lot of the bad guys were taken out by shots to the legs or one hit knockouts.
Raz: The effects in this movie were quite hilarious. I loved the part where the armies of “Darth Vader” men were getting pelted with Styrofoam rocks. Shannon reminded me of Chuck Norris, with his wild dirty blond hair and beard. Perhaps they couldn’t secure Norris to play the part of Shannon, but they sure did a good job finding a look alike. Another great aspect of this movie is the crew that Shannon rolls with. You have “Ninja” the kung-fu man, “Viking” the GIANT Norse strong man, “Eye Patch” that is dead on with a machine gun and “Dude” some guy that can catch and throw everything. With the exception of “Ninja” those are not really the character’s names, but they might as well have been.
Sean: The guy that could catch stuff was the best. I’d want to be him in if I was in the movie, because he’s pretty lame, and he dies quick. Also, you’d think the pirate with the eye patch would have a hard time hitting stuff, with his depth perception being off an all. Anyhow, I thought the movie was a little confusing, poorly edited, had a few laughs, but also lost me a few times - especially at the end. While I hate to say it, I think overall this movie is a pretty forgettable experience. I’m looking forward to seeing a few more Italian action movies, and I hope they’re going to be a lot better.
Raz: I thought this movie was average. It had a strong start and kinda puttered out in the middle, but overall the movie was ok.
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An astronaut returns from space after triggering a nuclear war… Sounds like a great premise for a movie, right? It is a great premise, unfortunately it loses a little in the execution. I’m talking about Michael Shackleton’s only feature film as a director, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Survivor (1987) is what killed his career. Survivor has a pretty small cast, and the major characters consist of Chip Mayer (One of the replacement Duke boys from Dukes of Hazzard) playing the title role of “Survivor” and Richard Moll who’s probably best known as the bailiff Bull Shannon from “Night Court”. Richard Moll also has the distinction of being in this movie called “Survivor” and a movie “The Survivor” from 1998 which has no relation to this movie - two bad decisions in one career…
As mentioned before, Survivor is a about an astronaut who is sent to space to deploy the “star wars” missle defense system, which was supposed to defend the US from a foreign nuclear threat. Unfortunately for this guy, the Russians take this as a threat, and they shoot down the defense satellite and launch a nuclear attack which destroys the ozone layer and knocks the earth off of it’s axis. The survivor, along with his post apocalyptic bleached blonde mullet (he strangely resembles Solid Snake from the Metal Gear videogame series) saves a woman from slavery, who nurses him back to health, and then gets kidnapped by the psychopathic Kragg played by Richard Moll. This leads to the survivor making his way into “Paradise” where water and food is plentiful.
The movie starts off really well, as all the sets and the narration that runs through the movie help show the isolation and solitary conditions that the characters are put into. It also moves really well for the first half of the movie, but then it starts to slow down and falls apart quickly. There’s a drawn out unlikely sex scene that pops up about a third of the way through the movie, and shortly thereafter is when the slowdown happens. The wheels really start to fall off when the movie enters the whole paradise phase.
While the story is believable, a few things pop up that really start to make the whole thing look really laughable. Early on the main character gets stabbed, and he suffers through this gaping wound for the rest of the movie, but he has no problems running, fighting off several dudes, etc. despite this wound. Also, he carries around this bolt action rifle with the barrel sawed off for the entier movie, and he ads a stock and scope to it, and it’s suddenly a sniper rifle. One last thing is that the survivor just doesn’t fit this “astronaut” role, he’d be better suited as being a former commando or something, but then he would have probably been destroyed during the whole nuclear war angle. A silver foil jumpsuit doesn’t make you an astronaut, and believe me, I know (don’t ask.) How many movies from the 80’s featured people shooting guns from the hip accurately? I need to find out. To hell with aiming a gun, just hold it on your side and you can shoot people from 300 yards with pintpoint accuracy!
Again, while it starts off with a lot of potential, in the end it leaves you wishing it had gone another direction. Maybe I got a bad edit, but it there were actual scenes that didn’t match up but I doubt any additional scenes would have helped this one. Unless you dig cheesy 80’s romantic ballads and totally inconclusive endings, I’d advise to avoid this movie unless you feel like wasting and hour and a half of your life.
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