Knock Off Movies: Warriors of the Apocalypse

This movie takes you on an insane journey, starting out as a pretty straight forward apocalypse movie and ending up, well just watch the clip below:  

But the real reasons you should watch: I mean, laser-eye battle! And there's a whole group of people that keep getting killed only to come right back to life! But I'll let the description from the back of our bootleg totally legit DVD sell you:

     The world, now 150 year into the future, is ravaged from atomic war, and all that remains are groups of savage nomads, fighting for survival. A fierce and ferocious fighter lead one such group to the secret of eternal live - the Voodoo Mountain, ruled by the telepathic and voluptuous Princess Sheila from her rocket launcher-equipped throne, and her shapely Amazonian maidens clad in fur bikinis. 

How can you go wrong?: The above description makes 100% more sense than this movie ever does. This movie absolutely refuses to make sense while finding all kinds of new ways to be exploity and problematic.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

We watched this movie two nights in a row because we couldn't contain our excitement for Mad Max: Fury Road. It's kind of amazing how well The Road Warrior holds up over time, but that also accentuates the parts that don't.

What we still love: The action is still intense, the stunts aren't restrained by the budget, and they are shot with a cinematic eye. They over turn a semi, they flip a guy off his motorcycle end-over-end, and they flip/roll/blow-up every moving vehicle on screen, but they also pause to let the massive landscape saturate the screen.* There's amazing updates to Max's wardrobe and vehicle designs. There's more female leads. The action is wall to wall. Many movies would try to emulate Mad Max 2 for years to come, and most all would fall short in many, many ways.

What doesn't stand the test of time: Our friend said it best during our second viewing: “I HATE HER HAIR” (referring to the female lead who looks like she walked out of a Whoville aerobics class). The lead female warrior isn't much better with her crimped mane held out of her face with a leather strap. And of course theres a totally unnecessary rape scene. The only other thing that stands out in this film as a misstep is the blinding whiteness. There's not a person of color to be seen anywhere in this post apocalyptic outback, despite indigenous populations residing throughout the Australian desert, and the non-white population throughout the country.

Over all, watching this movie two nights back to back truly set our expectation bar in the exact right place for watching Fury Road. (And so far we've seen that twice, and hopefully we'll get to enjoy it a few times more before it's out of theaters! ...And hopefully at the drive-in... and the dollar theater...)

*100% worth the blu-ray upgrade.