The Bronx Warriors

Rating:
Summary: Dated Cult Low-Budgeter
Review: 17-year-old Mark Gregory stars as Trash, leader of The Riders - a motorcycle gang that survive in the Bronx of the future. Crime has supposedly risen to such impossible heights that the police have abandoned the Bronx to its own devices - the gangs now rule the streets. In reality, most of the Bronx is owned by the corrupt Manhattan Corporation who would like to develop the land. They have inflated the crime rate in order to get the government to give up control, allowing them to forcibly remove people from their homes without interference. However, they do not control the streets and to complete their plans they will have to deal with the street gangs.

The gangs largely co-exist, each staying off the others' turf, with the Ogre (Fred Williamson) ruling over all as self-styled King of the Bronx. The balance is upset when Trash encounters Ann (Stefania Girolami), a girl who has run away from civilised Manhattan, who he saves from a rival gang. The two are immediately attracted to each other, and she joins up with him and his gang. However, she is the heir to the Manhattan Corporation and has run away because she fears being used as a puppet. The men in power will stop at nothing to get her back, even bringing in the legendary mercenary Hammer (Vic Morrow). Ann is taken by another gang, and the race is on as to who reaches her first. But Trash must also prevent Hammer turning the gangs against each other while fighting to get Ann back.

Originally made in Italian (although filmed in the Bronx) as 'I Guerrieri del Bronx', this cult classic was later dubbed into English. Only recently released in its uncut version, it was notorious for its violence and suffered extensive cuts in both its original UK and US releases. It also featured a lot of real Hell's Angels as the supporting bikers. It has to be said that these days the violence in it looks quite restrained and won't shock as many as it once did. Suspension of disbelief is definitely required in order to deal with gangs who roller skate or tap dance, but the imagery of it all remains quite vivid.

DVD Extras: Just the basics with this budget single-disc release.

Extras: Picture gallery, Filmographies, Trailer. 2/10

It's Got: Lots of startling imagery.

It Needs: More violence - it's no longer living up to its reputation.

Alternatives: Bronx Warriors 2, Clockwork Orange, After the Fall of New York.

Summary: Dated cult low-budgeter that nonetheless still has something to offer to fans of the genre. 5/10

(Review by Andrea Chee)

Rating:
Summary: highly entertaining cult movie
Review: 1990 The Bronx Warriors is a cult favorite which can now be seen uncut! This isn't just a bad film, but is a 'so bad it's GREAT' exploitation classic that provides tons of entertainment value. Bronx Warriors is a rip-off of Escape From New York and The Warriors and is an off the wall mixture of quality, crap, comic book stuff, and incredibly funny moments. Another review on this page said it needed more violence, but this film's rep was never all about violence. It was highly censored so most fans of this movie here in the U.S. only saw that highly edited version before this DVD and still loved it. What gained this film it's reputation was not just an extreme level of violence, but it's extreme level of FUN and it just gets better and better as the years go by with each viewing.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre movie but great disc
Review: The early 1980s produced some of the best low budget Italian schlockfest rip-offs in the history of film. It may have been the only time that that ever occurred, but that's beside the point. All that mattered was sitting down in front of the television late at night, turning on a movie channel, and sitting back to watch horribly cheap movies like "Warrior of the Lost World" and "2019: The Fall of New York." Enzo G. Castellari was one of the groundbreaking figures during this time (the others including Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, and Fabrizio De Angelis), a filmmaker never afraid to shamelessly base a film on "The Road Warrior" or "Escape From New York" but with one tenth the budget and talent. "1990: Bronx Warriors" is one of these films. It's actually a sort of prequel to another, equally tasteless and cheap rip-off called "Escape From the Bronx" released by Castellari in 1985. Scary, huh? How could a movie this bad merit a sequel? Three words: worldwide box office. Yep, the rest of the world doesn't have the cynical attitude audiences have around these parts. They'll watch just about anything as long as they think it takes place in the United States or something blows up. Remember how big a hit "Dallas" was a few years back? I think they're still watching that in Kiribati or some such place.

If Kurt Russell could have predicted what the Italians would do to his work in "Escape From New York," he probably would have outright refused to star in the picture. John Carpenter probably would have burned the negatives. Castellari's film follows Trash (Mark Gregory), a gang leader in the blasted remnants of the Bronx. The year 1990 hasn't been a good year for New York City, apparently. Some huge conglomerate called the Manhattan Corporation is taking over the world neighborhood by neighborhood. They own the Bronx, nominally anyway, but the various gangs really control the borough. You've got gangs on roller skates, gangs on motorcycles, kung fu gangs, and gangs that look like rejects from "All That Jazz." A powerful gang lord called Ogre (Fred Williamson) presides over the entire area. It's a wild, wacky world, the Bronx, but it's also a dangerous place to go messing around in. Wars go on all the time in this place. When a young lady named Amy turns up in the Bronx, her appearance incites a brief battle between Trash's gang and the roller skating clowns. Trash soon learns who Amy is and why she's in the Bronx, and her presence is going to cause a world of trouble.

It turns out that Amy is a key figure in the future of the Manhattan Corporation. The head of the company wants her back, so he hires Hammer (Vic Morrow) to infiltrate the Bronx and cause discord amongst the competing thugs. In the process, he'll extract Amy and mop up the syndicates for the last time. It's a good plan on paper but a poor one in execution as a movie. Nothing really happens onscreen for the entire duration of the picture. Oh sure, Trash embarks on a mission to see Ogre, requiring him to navigate a path through many rivals' territory. A bit of hand-to-hand combat, a betrayal within Trash's organization, and a conclusion involving chaotic scenes of combat are all rather tepid and poorly filmed. Even the sight of Vic Morrow laughing maniacally before meeting his maker isn't enough to raise the pulse rate. The plot sort of just lies there, slowly meandering along until the credits roll. The only question the film raises is this one: what was that guy doing out there playing drums when the gangs confabbed at the wharf?

The acting, script, and special effects are so poorly done and horribly presented that I would rather spend time discussing a feature on the extras' menu, namely the very lengthy interview (forty minutes) with Fred Williamson that Media Blasters filmed for the DVD release. The Hammer waxes on numerous topics of interest to the lover of low budget 1980's cinema. He discusses how he moved into the foreign film business, his experiences with several notable directors, and how utterly pathetic these Italian rip-offs were. Williamson talks about the highly praised Lucio Fulci, claiming that the man was not a great director because he never followed up on what was going on. Moreover, he says Fulci never had a sense of continuity in his films because he would just show up and start filming whatever he thought would work that day. Anyone who has seen Fulci's films knows Williamson tells the truth. We worship Fulci for the mind blasting gore in his films even as we cringe at the plodding pacing and sloppy plot. I think anyone who likes watching these zero budget horror and action films should pick this DVD up just for the Williamson interview.

"1990: The Bronx Warriors" does contain several other noteworthy extras. A commentary track with director Castellari graces this disc (!) along with an interview to boot. There's a stills gallery and a bunch of trailers for films like "Flesh for the Beast," "Faceless," "Flesh Eater," and "2019: The Fall of New York." Can't beat that, can you? Well, you probably could, but you get the idea. The inclusion of these sorts of extras for a forgettable potboiler is surprising yet probably an indication that Castellari's films-and by extension, other Italian hacks' films of the era-are still remembered and revered by schlock cinema fans. Here's to Media Blasters for a job well done, along with a wish for more titles from this intriguing sub genre in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Bronx Warriors
Review: The sequel is vastly superior to this cute mishmash of Escape From New york and the Warriors. However The late Vic Morrow and Fred Williamson steal the show.
The standout scene is The Viking funeral sequence, apart from this it is unconvincing early 80s badly dubbed light entertainment. It is about as futuristic as Dr Who!
The sequel has far more violence, better bad guys and the action is better staged.