Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent but underrated film

A Major Disappointment

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Every time cinema has a game-changer (in this case, 'Mad Max' and the entire genre of 'post-apocalyptic dystopia movies'), it's fascinating to watch how various countries and cultures react to the instant knowledge that 'something new is out there that can bring in for us a lot of money'. For this Italian effort, which needed very little in the way of budgeting for either actors, set design or costumes, it's not bad.Director Castellari brings to it an action-packed flow which never flags for a moment. (The 87-year-old Rome native--God bless him--is directing 'Keoma Rises' at the moment, his first film in six years, and it is slated to be released later this year.) I have previously only seen his spaghetti-western 'Keoma', which I adore. He throws in two instances of nice gratuitous sex in a heartened attempt at 'character and plot development', but I really don't have a problem with that, especially with great Italian beauties like he has at his disposal here. There's a bizarre homoerotic undertone, particularly to a scene in which Scorpion is being tortured, but it's not problematic. Fred Williamson is the only star I recognized, and he continues his credo of 'getting the girls and winning the fights', which he stands by in his movies. The electronic score is dated but not bad, though it's inferior to those of, say, either Tangerine Dream or Goblin.All in all, it was a 91-minute span of time I don't regret in the slightest--I even watched it with a plate of spaghetti and glass of red wine at hand to further exemplify the Italian experience.

In the near-future (2019, to be precise), the Earth has been reduced to a barren wasteland where pockets of desperate survivors try to avoid being wiped out by The Templars, a crazy cult dedicated to eradicating the last vestiges of humanity. Patrolling the nuclear-ravaged wilderness in his gadget-laden vehicle—a cross between Mad Max's V8 Interceptor, a Bond car, and 'The Homer' from The Simpsons episode 'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?'—fearless warrior Scorpion (Timothy Brent AKA Giancarlo Prete) tries his best to stop The Templars from achieving their dastardly goal, much to the annoyance of their supreme leader, The One (George Eastman).Following a routine pit-stop to have his car serviced by 'Young Mechanic' (played by Giovanni Frezza, that irritating blonde kid from The House by the Cemetery, who is just as annoying here), Scorpion continues his good work, rescuing post-apocalyptic glamour girl Alma (Anna Kanakis) from a Templar attack. After a night of rumpy pumpy with the grateful gal in his inflatable see-thru tent, Scorpion is ambushed by the enemy, but escapes with a little help from ally Nadir (Fred Williamson), a bow-and-arrow toting bad-ass who sports a fetching black leather and gold lamé outfit.With an injured shoulder, Alma requires urgent medical assistance, and so the trio seek help from a nearby group of Christians led by bible-basher Father Moses (oh great… religion survives the holocaust: the Earth is well and truly doomed!). There, Nadir hooks up with sexpot Vinya (Iris Peynado), who clearly isn't quite as devout as her friends. Scorpion, worried that his presence will only bring trouble from The Templars, decides to leave the compound and is promptly captured and buggered by The One in front of an appreciative crowd (I should have guessed from their outfits: shoulder pads have never been bigger!).Leaving several of his men to finish off Scorpion (kill him, that is), the One and the rest of his crew depart to attack the bible bashers, who put up zero resistance. However, thanks to a colossal level of incompetence by the guards, Scorpion is able to escape death, and after a little recuperation and some motivational talk from Nadir ("you are a coward with no courage"), sets out to liberate the religious wimps from The One and his men. Clearly still affected by his ordeal with The One, Scorpion dons the campest gear imaginable to do battle—transparent perspex armour and a codpiece—and wreaks a fitting revenge by tearing the Templar leader a new ass-hole with a gigantic car-mounted drill-bit.Directed by spaghetti schlockmeister Enzo G. Castellari, the New Barbarians is, as you have probably guessed, a derivative piece of z-grade garbage completely devoid of technical merit, but it still manages to be a rather entertaining experience thanks to the laughable costume design (which is bad, even for Italian exploitation), the woeful dialogue, the unconvincing gore, and the absolutely dire action sequences involving embarrassingly bad post-apocalyptic/futuristic modes of transportation (some of the crap golf-cart/milk float vehicles in the Road Warrior-inspired chase scenes reach speeds of over twenty miles per hour!!!).5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the unconvincing but satisfyingly excessive exploding body effects.

The summary above is quite appropriate--even though it's what my wife said to me late one night as I sat watching this film. This is because "Warriors of the Wasteland" featured a pulsating and VERY repetitive musical soundtrack and the same fake laser sound again and again and again--like some sort of 1980s video game--which my wife assumed I was playing because of the cheap sound effects."Wariors of the Wasteland" is a cheap knockoff of "Warlords of the 21st Century"--which is a cheap knockoff of "The Road Warrior". This is NOT an impressive pedigree! However, instead of being made in New Zealand (like "Warlords"), it's made in Italy. The film is set in the dystopic future where society has disintegrated and people are living in the desert--killing each other and driving around in crappy looking cars and motorcycles. The film is practically plot less--consisting of baddies with horrid punk rock snarling, shooting their crappy lasers and terrorizing the dozen or so extras you see during the course of the film.If you like badly acted and plot less films with lots of action, then you are in for a treat. However, if you aren't and actually demand quality from a film, then keep looking. Pretty crappy.

This film concerns two mercenaries who try to help wandering caravans after a nuclear holocaust where there is nothing but vast wasteland all around. The Templars are a cult of radical wayward men who roam the ruins of the world exterminating any living person that interferes with their way of living. Scorpion (Giancarlo Prente) and Nadir (Fred Williamson) are vigilantes who make it their mission to put an end to the Templar cult and extinguish them from the face of the earth. After viewing this film you begin to realize that the only men who are interested in women are Scorpion and Nadir who meet up with some very charming gals who were traveling with the caravans. The Templars would rather kill woman than make love indicating they were all a bunch of homosexuals. There are scenes of decapitation and cars that have all kinds of buttons to press like in the James Bond Films. This is a very B film and a big waste of time to watch, more like a comedy.