Warrior of the Lost World (1985)

Pretty Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Whew, what a bad movie! Clearly, Italian cinema was going through a Mad Max rip-off phase, and this is probably the worst of the bunch. The movie opens and closes with a visual technique borrowed (or perhaps stolen) from HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. Immediately after the lone Warrior rides his motorcycle into focus, we're subjected to 90 minutes of some pretty wooden acting on the part of Robert Ginty. Perhaps the director told him to play his part like Clint Eastwood, but half of the time I couldn't understand what Ginty was saying. Dear old Clint made a career out of his famous sneer and grizzled, growling whisper of a voice. Unfortunately, with Ginty it doesn't work. Instead, most of the time he comes across sounding like a whiny little pipsqueak. Equally excruciating is his talking (yes, talking) motorcycle named Einstein. The barely-perceptible story hinges on the Warrior getting involved in some sort of revolutionary movement and doing spectacular motorcycle stunts. All while blandly pursuing and rescuing the daughter of the movement's Jimmy Carter-esque leader. What's astoundingly awful is that there are actual stars: Donald Pleasance, Fred Williamson, and Persis Khambatta (from STAR TREK fame.) However, even they can't save this fiasco. The best way to enjoy this film is with the MST3K guys. However, if you don't have a copy of their episode, get a DVD if you can find it and gather your own brood of funny pals. Remember, it's okay to drink while Ginty is driving!

If the 80s were anything as far as movies goes, it was a decade of imitation. How many imitators did movies like Halloween and Conan "inspire" in the 80s? Another influential movie that would see a number of imitators was The Road Warrior. From Escape from the Bronx to 2019: After the Fall of New York, there were scores of mainly Italian post-apocalyptic rip-offs. Some good, some bad, but Warrior of the Lost World is easily one of the worst of the bunch. Plainly put, it's a dreadful movie. Forget about a plot – the movie doesn't have one. Characters we don't know (much less care to know) drive around on ridiculously modified motorcycles, cars, and trucks shooting at each other while dressed like some sort of Cyndi Lauper/New Wave wannabes. It's pathetic.Warrior of the Lost World "stars" Robert Ginty, Donald Pleasence, and Fred Williamson. Ginty is The Rider – a character with marbles in his mouth who spends most of the movie with his nausea-inducing, talking motorcycle. One of the lone highlights of the movie is when the motorcycle gets crushed by a rather large truck (not to fear – much to my dismay, the motorcycle reappears later in the movie). Pleasence is obviously in it for a paycheck. By the looks of things, his scenes were filmed separately and probably shot in a day at the most. Williamson does what he always seems to do – make goofy faces at the camera. His character, like the rest of the movie, is utterly pointless.There's really only one way to stomach something as bad as Warrior of the Lost World – catch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of the movie. It's not the best episode, but it sure beats watching the movie on its own. While I've rated the movie a 1/10, I'll give this episode a 3/5 on my MST3K rating scale.

According to this craptastic 80's apocalyptic Sci-Fi fest, the future of mankind is endangered, depressing and – most of all - utterly CHEESY! Personally I don't understand why this film receives such an embarrassingly low rating around here, because it's hugely entertaining, grotesque as hell, never boring and not even that bad; really. Most reviewers around here tend to label "Warrior of the Lost World" as a low-grade and shameless imitation of "Mad Max", but I feel it's more like a crossover between the Mel Gibson classic and more specifically the insanely popular TV-show "Knight Rider", because the heroic lead character has goofy interactions with the board computer on his fancy hi-tech motorcycle. That machine is nearly too insane for words, as it shout out phrases like "Beep Bop A Loola", "Bad Mothers! Bad Mothers!", "Whoopee!", etc… This is also one of them films that start with an exaggeratedly long introduction scrolling over the screen, explaining that the earth's population was nearly extinct after a nuclear war, one tyrant took over all leadership and created the Omega Police Force (similar to the Gestapo, in fact) and outside the perimeters of the Metropolitan city it's a wasteland of different gangs and battles for survival. But there's one man, the chosen one, who will rise and bring an end to Prossor's (Donald Pleasance in yet another demented villainous role) dictatorship. All this is information is provided in the intro, so you almost start to wonder why you should even bother to watch the rest of the film. Robert Ginty, who starred in another early 80's favorite of mine called "The Exterminator", plays The Rider and he's obviously very aware of the script's questionable quality, as he doesn't have the energy to speak one of his lines convincingly. But, the professional actor he is, Ginty reluctantly does what he has to do and that includes fighting a truckload of crazed people (S&M freaks, mutants, midget lumberjacks, geeks), playfully argue with his squeaky board computer, fall in love with the Wiseman's daughter and destroy the tyrant empire. The script is entirely derivative, notwithstanding there's a surprisingly ingenious (at least, according to me) twist near the end that I honestly didn't see coming. There's zero building up tension, but the action sequences are pleasingly OTT, with multiple types of vehicles (and people) exploding to pieces and virulent gang showdowns. It was also nice to see Donald Pleasance's still fits in his Ernest Blofeld outfit! His character is the mirror image of the notorious Bond villain, only without the scar around the eye. This was a very amusing film and it's really too bad most people only remember the MST3K version.

I have seen "Manos Hands of Fate" and "Lazerblast" and just about every MST3K lampooned movie. This is the worst one. The main character (the Paper Chase guy, Ginty) can't act. When he isn't mumbling, he's just wooden and emotionless. The actions of the characters don't make any sense. Seriously, MST3k makes bad movies into funny-bad, but they couldn't save this one. His "supersonic motorcycle" isn't much better than a regular cycle and certainly doesn't go that fast. And the apocalyptic world he lives in looks no different than our world today (trees and grass and all that good stuff). I couldn't even laugh at the badness because it looked like the creators tried to make this one bad.