This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

The greatest movie ever made..!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

You know what this film reminded me of? The Cabin in the Woods. If you've seen that, you'll know what I mean when the film totally takes you out of the 'moment' and twists things up a bit.Keir Dullea wakes up somewhere with no memory except a card in his pocket that tells him how many people he's killed. Not that he reads it mind. His other buddies at the time do, but by the time the plot gets going most of them are dead.He finds himself in some sort of Cowboy world where life is cheap and terrible clothes are even cheaper, but who can he trust? Probably not Jack Palance. And is this world even trustworthy anyway? It's a very early take on Virtual Reality, this one. But then it's another film where you shouldn't really reveal much of the plot, because that's where the enjoyment lies. P'ting

I'm sure WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY sounded like a great idea on paper. It's part western, part science fiction, and the filmmakers managed to snag Jack Palance and Keir Dullea for the main roles. A meager budget may have been the reasons for the cheap sets and costuming, but it was poor writing that resulted in such a dull waste of time. It's unclear where and when this movie is set because it jumps right into the action, but I got the impression that it opens in Japan where our "hero" Lewis (Dullea) is taken by police. Things around him seem chaotic but it's never made clear why because once Lewis is taken we immediately cut to him awakening in the desert surrounded by a group of confused strangers. All of them are in blue jumpsuits, none of them have any memory of who they are (outside of their names), and they've each got a card in their breast pocket identifying them as killers. Understandably, they're all shaken and confused. Everyone except for Lewis, who treats these bizarre circumstances as a joke. He's completely unfazed by his mysterious arrival in the desert and takes every opportunity to crack wise, even when angry hillbillies have a shotgun in his face. When one of the new arrivals tries to intervene in the rape of Martine (Hollis McLaren, the only woman in the new arrivals) by one of the hillbillies, he's shot down in cold blood and Lewis, again, has to crack jokes.That's our hero, everyone. Thoroughly unlikeable from the moment we meet him. The group is soon approached by Frendlander (Palance), who leads them into Blood City and explains the rules. New arrivals are slaves; they will be chosen by a member of the community and put in a year of service before being given the opportunity to join the town as a regular civilian. New arrivals that refuse to acquiesce are fair game to be murdered. There is a contingent of people in Blood City who wear black outfits with red crosses affixed to their chests. These people are straight killers who have risen above the regular folk through murder. The more people you kill, the higher your rank and the more power you hold over the town. Frendlander is the current record- holder with over 20 kills and he's basically the town's overseer. Honestly, the whole thing is sort of a confusing mess and I'm not entirely sure how the society in this town operates. How do civilians become black-suited killers? By killing them? There are still rules and laws to follow in Blood City but killing is all right in certain circumstances? I'm not 100% on the details. Regardless, Blood City isn't real. We discover early on that it's a computer simulation and everyone in town is wired in. It's some sort of government program designed to weed out the weak and pinpoint the most adept killers to be used in the real world as government assassins. I guess?The project is overseen by two scientists, the only important one being Katherine (Samantha Eggar). Katherine is immediately keen on Lewis and wants to ensure he makes it through the program. She becomes straight-up infatuated with him, going so far as to insert herself into the simulation to assist him and…eventually…sleep with him. So, obviously this is the most unregulated government program ever. While she obsesses over Lewis, Lewis is obsessing over Martine. Martine being a pretty young woman, the entire town has its eyes on her. Everyone wants to claim Martine as their slave for obvious raping purposes. There is a surprising amount of rape and rape intention in this film, and it's all targeted at poor Martine. The risk of rampant rape is so bad that Frendlander decides to lock her away for her own safety until a citizen can claim her. Eventually, Frendlander decides he wants Martine all for himself and all the promise of a cool sci-fi/western is flushed away as it becomes a dull 90-minute "save the girl" tale. And it's very, very dull. It feels like nothing happens for long stretches of this movie. The beginning and ending are pretty interesting but everything else is a snooze. Combine the motionless plot with a bunch of characters you most certainly won't care about and WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY is an avoidable mess. I love a good slice of Z-grade cinema cheese but this movie makes every effort to keep it from becoming too much fun.

An initial look at the storyline of Welcome To Blood City screams :'Westworld rip-off!' As it happens, it's not really much like Westworld at all. Welcome To Blood City has a few good ideas and a decent score by Roy Budd, but is rather hampered by lacklustre handling.A number of strangers, all suffering some form of amnesia, wake up in a barren desert wasteland. They cannot remember how they got there or where they came from, but in their pockets they carry an unusual card which tells them how many people they have killed (even though, as far as they're aware, they have never killed anyone in their lives). The bewildered group start hiking in search of food, water and shelter. Soon they find themselves in Blood City, a violent town which seems to be based on an alternate wild west. The leader/sheriff of the town, Frendlander (Jack Palance) explains to them that, as newcomers, they can either choose to become slaves for one year (if they choose this, they will be protected from being killed) or they can refuse to become slaves and go it alone (this is a much riskier choice, as they will be fair game to be killed by another citizen). It turns out that Blood City has its own complicated laws and rules, with credits awarded for fair-fight killings, and immortality awarded to anyone who can successfully carry out twenty fair killings. One of the newcomers, Lewis (Keir Dullea) is determined to fight the system, and sets about striking back his own way. Meanwhile, it is made clear to us, the audience (though not to the inhabitants of Blood City) that the entire thing is an artificial reality – a game, almost – in which various people are being tested for their mental and physical resolve under dangerous circumstances, so that the best ones can be employed as government agents and assassins back in the modern world.Certainly weird, Welcome To Blood City unfortunately fails to be similarly wonderful. It's a near-miss more than anything else, a good idea which doesn't quite make the transition into a good full-length film. The concept of a virtual reality scenario in which human guinea pigs are put unknowingly through a dangerous game is quite intriguing, and there are interesting moments throughout the film. Dullea is OK as the 'hero' and Palance does his usual shifty-eyed, furtive, twitchy turn as the sinister sheriff. Samantha Eggar is rather wasted in a dual role as one of the citizens of Blood City and a laboratory technician in the 'real' world overseeing the experiment. The promising plot doesn't really develop into anything unfortunately – it's an idea that never really gets beyond the 'idea' stage. The resulting film that stems from it doesn't reach the heights of cleverness, thoughtfulness or excitement that one might have hoped for. Worth a look for its intriguing possibilities, but ultimately Welcome To Blood City is a bit of a disappointment.

The untouchable Jack Palance leads a pack of virtual reality cowboys in this shameless high-concept ripoff of Yul Brynner's WESTWORLD. Several amnesiacs awaken in a dusty old west town, where they are immediately forced into slavery. Their only hope of social advancement is to murder other denizens of Blood City, gaining all-important street cred and working their way up to a face-off with the schizophrenic sheriff, valiantly played to the straight-faced hilt by Palance. The prematurely revealed would-be `twist' is that all the amnesiacs are actually in suspended animation, merely passing a computerized aptitude test in the technologically manufactured west, uh.world. And if you've rented BLOOD CITY in search of blood, there's not a drop to be seen. This constantly deflating film co-stars sci-fi veterans Keir (2001) Dullea and Barry (SPACE:1999) Morse, and was also released as WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY.