Endgame (1983)

The Worst Film Ever

Good concept, poorly executed.

Brilliant and touching

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kick arse! Big Al Cliver and even bigger George Eastman go head to head (sometimes) or join up to go head to head with others (sometimes) in a film that's like the film Running Man for the first half hour before they get a squad together and take on the visually impaired! Both George and Al are contestants in Endgame, a TV s how where Hunters hunt the prey (usually a Hunter that's volunteered to be the Prey). This time, champion Shannon (Cliver) is the prey and he's got three hunters on his tail. One seems to be a member of Kiss, one is Bobby Rhodes from Demons, and the other is twelve foot tall childhood friend George Eastman. Shannon runs around kicking everyone's head in while it's filmed for TV, but things get complicated when on the set (which is the post-nuclear wasteland of New York – forgot to mention that), Shannon meets Laura Gesmer, a psychic mutant who needs a guide to help her and her son and some other mutants escape the city and the Nazi-style army led by the aged but still pretty ugly George Mitchell.After sparing Eastman's life and bolting from the gameshow which seems to involve him 'dissapearing' back to his caravan where everyone should know where he is, Shannon gets together a crew to help out, including an eye-patch guy, Al Yamanouchi, who kills a guy with his bare hands for no real reason, a guy who looks like a Viking and the guy whose name I can never remember even though he's in about 50% of the Italian films I own (like Mad Dog and Arizona Colt). They set off into the wilderness and almost immediately get into a massive battle with loads of blinds monks, whom you might have guessed can see via a poor telepath they have tied up somewhere.That's what I loved about this film. Gameshow aside, whenever there's a battle there's always about eight billion (give or take) extras willing to be shot, blown up, speared, or knocked off of motorcycles. I also loved how Shannon and co would wait until the enemy had surrounded them before launching an attack. Every battle seems to turn into all out war. That's what post apocalyptic films need more of: the good old fashioned Pagga.As this is an Italian film, you've got mutant fish men drooling on Laura Gesmer, Michelle Soavi turning up in a cameo, and a freaky scene at the end with flying rocks, fire, and one character being forced to blow his own brains out. The soundtrack to this also at time sounds really similar to the soundtrack of Blade Runner while being no where near as depressing as Blade Runner.Some say this is the best of the Italian post-apocalypse films, and I wouldn't argue with those who say that, but I think that Raiders of Atlantis, New Barbarians, Bronx Warriors 1 & 2, 2019: After the Fall of New York are all just as good (and mostly have George Eastman in them). These films are so much fun from start to finish. I can't wait till these films become reality, because I'll be there on my talking motorbike with my hermaphrodite ape man sidekick and a Mohican, ready to wander the wastelands.

Endgame is a film directed by the notorious Joe D'amato (Anthropophagus, Emmanuelle in America) and written by Joe D'amato and George Eastman. It is a post-apocalyptic movie in a similar vein to Madmax. The setting is post World War 3 and a game being aired on TV is the new thing. The game is called "Endgame" and it is very similar to that of an idea Stephen King came up with. Contestants are set loose in a grubby city and must kill each other until one remains. Two of the contestants are stars "George Eastman" and "Al Cliver". The first half of the movie is the "Endgame" battle. The second half is when Al Cliver runs into a telepath played by "Laura Gemser". She asks him if he could help her and a group of other telepaths to escape from the city. Apparently, escaping from the city isn't easy do to a dictator like government. So, Al Cliver gets together a band of hardcore warriors to set out and get these telepaths out of the city.I must say that Endgame was quite a fun movie. Packed with enough action to keep any Schwartzenneger fan at bay, Endgame truly delivers. We have action about every 5 to 10 minutes and they are long, drawn out action sequences. We have a few moments of gore, but only a few. Laura Gemser even shows off her breast in one scene (what a surprise). Al Cliver is no leading man but is definitely enjoyable in this movie is you like the things he has been in (Zombie 2, Demonia). George Eastman is always an awesome presence and is a good foe for Al Cliver. All in all, Endgame is a fun movie and if you like action check it out. 7/10

Fifty years after the Nuclear holocaust of World War Three, New York is one of the few cities still intact. It survives in isolation catering to the craving of it's population for violence. There is live T.V. coverage of the 'Endgame Championship' that is based on the gladiator duels of ancient times. 'Endgame' began in 2012 and is now the most popular show on T.V. The show's host (David Brown) recaps the rules for the listening millions. Three 'hunters' are set loose to track down and kill the 'prey'. All the contestants receive one firearm and two additional weapons of their choice, if they are found with anymore the contestants are automatically disqualified. The 'prey' is given a 30 minute head start and is allowed to surrender but will lose points if he does so.. The 'zone' chosen to hold the contest lies between 22nd and 33rd Street. The hunters this time are Woody Smith (Bobby Rhodes), Kid Hitchkoc (Al Waterman) and Karnak (co-writer George Eastman). The prey is Shannon (Al Cliver). Shannon manages to kill both Woody and Kid. During a fight with Karnak a telepathic mutant named Lilith (Laura Gemser as Moira Chen) helps him to win. The films bad guy, Colonel Morgan (Gordon Mitchell) is a high ranking official in the SS which stands for security service. They see Shannon on T.V. with Lilith who he recognises as a telepathic mutant and wants them both, for some reason I really don't know as it's never explained properly. Lilith introduces Shannon to Professor Levin (Jack Davis) who asks Shannon to lead him, Lilith and a group of telepathic mutants out of New York City and to a rendezvous with a helicopter that will fly them to safety, in exchange for lots of gold. Shannon agrees and assembles a team of men to help. A guy with an eye-patch named Bull (Gabriele Tinti as Gus Stone), a ninja called, well Ninja (Al Yamanouchi), a big fat man named Kovack (Mario Pedone), a guy with really fast reflexes and is quite useful with a knife named Kijawa (Nello Pazzafini as Nat Williams) and lastly a driver called Stark (Franco Ukmar as Frank Ukmar), these guys wouldn't exactly fill me with confidence but there you go. The men and mutants set off. During their travels they come across blind telepathic monks, various general low-life's, deformed mutants, Shannon's old friend Karnak returns for seconds plus Colonel Morgan and his team of heavily armed SS troops! Will Shannon be able to lead the unfairly persecuted telepathic mutants and Professor Levin to safety? Will Shannon be able to stay alive long enough to collect his gold? You'll have to watch it if you want to find out. This Italian production was co-written and directed by Joe D'Amato under the rather unimaginative pseudonym of Steve Benson, and it's easy to see why he wanted his name off the credits as this film is consistently awful. The script by Amato and Eastman as Luigi Montefiori brings nothing new to the genre. It's tediously slow and dull as well as being very unambitious. The film as a whole left me with the impression no one associated with it was the least bit interested in creating a good film. The New York settings look like they were filmed under seedy railway bridges and in abandoned factory's. No effort is made to include any props or even make the locations look like a futuristic Manhattan, I'd be very surprised if this was actually filmed there. Once they leave Manhattan it's just fields and more industrial factory's that look very contemporary! The weapons, cars and costumes are bland and forgettable, once again I just felt very little effort or money was put into the look of this film. There isn't much gore or violence in it, a brief shot of an axe in someones head is about it. There is a sequence where a blue half man/half fish mutant (Pietro Ceccarelli as Peter Brighton) rapes Lilith, while doing so he says "look at me while I rape you damn it!", need I say more about how tacky and cheap this film is. The action scenes are poor to say the least. They basically consist of people shooting guns and then the camera cuts to stunt people falling off motorbikes or just falling over. There is little variety in them and they become extremely boring very quickly. There are a couple of fight scenes but they aren't that well choreographed or particularly exciting. Acting and dubbing is poor all round, Al Cliver makes for a very bland and uninteresting hero and Laura Gemser isn't much better as the leading lady. Big George Eastman is fun to watch though, as usual. And check the ending out, one helicopter lands and about 10 people get inside and take off, after the two pilot's it's a two seater at most and it's tiny! There's no way on Earth that all those people got into it and it took off, absolutely no way. Please do yourself a favour and avoid this, watch Sergio Martino's 2019-After the Fall of New York (1983) instead, believe me you'll be glad you did as it's far superior to this in every department possible. Total rubbish.

Avoid this movie at all costs. It is one of those movies you sit through in the anticipation that something good comes up, and you sit there and hope until it says the end on the screen! The plot summary kind of gives a good impression on the quality of this flick and its all true! the danish magazine M! has made it one of its worst movie pick of the month.Dont go see it!