In honor of the upcoming Fulci directors show, I thought I’d post this here. I found it while looking at Troma releases on Netflix Instant.
* Original Title: I Guerrieri dell’anno 2072
* Year: 1984
* Director: Lucio Fulci
* Writer: Elisa Briganti, Cesare Frugoni, Lucio Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti
* IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085627/
* Genre: Sci-Fi Action
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imdb synopsis:
In 2072 Rome, Italy, the ruthless CEO of a TV network plots to stage a modern series of gladiator games for ratings while one ‘contestant’ learns of a conspiracy behind the true nature of the results.
This is like the low budget, Italian version of Running Man! Add Fred Williamson in that mix, and you have a winning combination for sure. And his stache was ROCKIN in this one, despite his not playing the biggest role.
This movie was pretty sloppy, but entertaining. The plot felt pretty weak, although it may have been more interesting in a more capable writer’s hands. With so many of these films, we’re not really here for a superb plot, just some cheese and corn and ham. We get quite a bit of it here.
The direction at times was pretty cool. There were some well shot scenes, particularly when the three men are attacking the main character’s wife early in the film which sets the story in motion. It was a little strange, however, seeing Fulci style shots in a sci-fi action film. It was also lacking the nice, crunchy Fulci sound effects I have grown to love over the past few weeks.
The acting is about what you would expect from a film like this. It’s not very good, but it isn’t offensively bad either. Serviceable. Fred Williamson is his usual self, and Jared Martin was pretty good as the lead in a TV actor sort of way. Fitting, seeing as this film is to take place on a futuristic television network, yeah? The supporting actors were pretty throwaway, with one particularly annoying Asian stereotype. I wish he was the one that fell off the chin-up bar of doom…
The action sequences around the meh plot are the meat and potatoes of the film. We get some nice low budget special effects that are sure to please. The motorcycle battles are pretty cool… beheadings, explosions, one even becomes a chariot battle a la Ben Hur (well, sort of…)
Watch out for the evil man in black leather with an awesome laser stick that freezes men in their tracks - complete with 60s era Star Trek special effects! Looks like someone scratched the film or something when creating it. It was funny seeing Fred Williams in the scratchy mess trying to act like a statue.
We’re even treated at one point to an old school Fulci face melt as one guy is blasted in the head repeatedly with a laser! Sweet! Cheap, but sweet!
The costumes were nothing to sneeze at either. Someone must have really stocked up on the gold metallic spray paint, because everything was 24K! There were nice fins on the 80s motorcycle helmets, cycle armor, and all the contestants in the various competitions used old style gladiator weapons like maces, axes, etc. Except for one guy that inexplicably used a flame thrower. Although it did provide a pretty fun death, it didn’t seem fair otherwise.
Boring at times when trying to finish the story, but ultimately fun and cheesy, this one is worth a watch for some laughs.
5 out of 10
