The New Barbarians (1984)

I love this movie so much

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I only write reviews of movies with low rating, which actually are not that bad. Give them a chance!Yes, they tried to make another Mad Max and yes, they failed. But, the movie is still watchable and good in some parts. Vehicles are SO BAD that they actually look like the apocalypse happened! Nothing can be perfect when you have nothing! So I find this great! :) Acting is OK, Fred is great choice. Fighting scenes are bad, but if we look at the budget... Don't expect much and you will watch it to the end, especially if you like post-apocalyptic movies as I do.5.5/10

Once I quite strangely had the opportunity to encounter both director Enzo G. Castellari and star Fred Williamson in the same room. It was at a INGLORIOUS BASTARDS retrospective at the Chinese Theater here in Hollywood. I handed them both the DVD of this movie to sign and they traded a lot of snickers and knowing glances at each other, which confirmed suspicions that this movie was basically the result of some lucky grown men playing around with toys (dune buggies and exploding arrows) in a sandbox (abandoned rock quarry) for a couple weeks somewhere in early 1980's Italy.This film really is quite childishly bizarre to the point where it's difficult to imagine anyone ever taking seriously, so I wonder why there barely is a sense of humor to it. It comes so close but never quite goes far enough over-the-top to enter Monty Python territory. Imagine MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR as written by English-as-a-second-language 3rd Graders and on a budget barely adequate to secure some muddy film stock, a trip to the Salvation Army (or Italian equivalent) for costumes, and a couple old dirt bikes and golf carts rigged up with needless piping and tubing to make it all look futuristic. I don't know if the actors were even paid or just showed up when they felt like it to have fun running around in the dirt between scenes on the other, better movies they were working on.With such a low budget, it's tempting to say this film doesn't offer much as far as entertainment as it's bereft of the ability to really sell us on anything. The sets and locations fail to convey any sense of futurism, the prop cars are too slow and weak to give the chase scenes any thrills, and the actors look a mixture of bored and embarrassed as they wander around opening and closing their mouths, hoping their post- looped dubbed dialog will make more sense than the script pages they were given. What this film does have is a highly pleasing over-the-top level of violence and mayhem, featuring exploding bodies, body parts, severed heads, and even an eyebrow-raising, totally un-asked-for rape scene right in the middle of things.What this film must have been was a lot of fun to make. The women are pretty, stunt men get to jump and fly around, and actors get to punch each other while driving in the mud. The only ones who suffer here are the audience, who have to endure "pew pew" sound effects (even when extras fire contemporary assault rifles) and what surely must go down as Claudio Simonetti's worst score of his career. Musically, things really are quite toxic, and even a cleaned-up, full quality DVD presentation with the bass bumped up does this film no favors.Castellari redeemed himself somewhat with his other two pseudo- apocalyptic action movies BRONX WARRIORS 1 & 2 made around the same time. There's enough decently handled stylish slow motion gunplay and pyrotechnics in here buried deep below the juvenile silliness, but one gets the idea that Castellari would be just as well remembered as Sam Peckinpah or John Woo had he ever been given enough time or money to do what he really wanted to do.

In the year 2019, after the nuclear holocaust, an evil band of marauding evildoers called The Templars want to be the ultimate "Warriors of the Wasteland". These amoral baddies will stop at nothing to achieve their evil ends, but, unluckily for them, there are still heroes left in this harsh, unforgiving world. Scorpion (Prete), Nadir (Fred) and a young tot who's handy with cars as well as a slingshot - making him a post-apocalyptic Dennis the Menace (Frezza) band together to fight the Templars and their leader One (Eastman). Will our heroes prevail - or will the Templars rule the ruins? Find out today! The 80's post-apocalyptic boom was in full force here - both in Italian production studios and shortly thereafter in video stores. With the usual suspects both in front of and behind the camera - director/co-writer Enzo G. Castellari, writer Tito Carpi, producer Fabrizio DeAngelis and most noteworthy of all, music by Claudio Simonetti - they probably figured "plot? Who needs plot? Let's go out to the countryside and just see what happens." And while you think that might not work, it totally does, because of all the creative inventions on show. By inventions we mean the outfits, props, hairstyles, vehicles, weaponry and all the little innovations in between. Thankfully, the untraditional approach of making the movie more about the inventions than anything else paid off.Differentiating itself from the previous year's 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982), The New Barbarians is a rural post-apocalyptic escapade, while 1990 is a grimy urban tale. There are plenty of "pew pew!" lasers on show here, as well as plenty of flamethrowers, blow-ups, and of course the prerequisite torture scene. Additionally, it seems a lot of time was spent of the sound effects, which go a long way. Visually, there are many cool shots in the movie, and the beauty of the photography is clearly evident on Media Blasters' DVD. Sadly, a lot of this was butchered on the Warriors of the Wasteland VHS released by Thorn EMI back in the day.While Fred Williamson doesn't seem to actually say very much in this movie, it's okay, because he lets his bow and arrow with exploding arrows do most of the talking. The movie is filled with crowd-pleasing effects and moments: don't you wish you had a button in your car that would make a door fly off just in case someone happened to attach a bomb to it? Man, those post-apocalyptic weirdos thought of everything! So don't get so angry and frustrated you rip a bible in half with your bare hands - just watch The New Barbarians tonight! For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Despite the 'wasteland' tag, there's dozens of people alive and apparently well travelling in self sufficient tribes, minding their own business until George Eastman and Enio Girolami (aka Thomas Moore) turn up in their rocket-propelled dune buggies to rid the earth of man's seed as payback for the apocalypse. Spurned former bad guy Timothy Brent travels the wilderness in search of wrong-doing, preserving what he can of the former world, supported by the self-proclaimed invincible warrior Fred Williamson (comically named "Nadir" in spite of his alleged prowess). Predictably, Eastman and Brent don't get along too well, and their eventual stand-off is widely anticipated.Brent is bland and serious, whereas Williamson at least affects some emotion in his unusual role of the black archer whose explosive-tipped arrows ensure he never misses even when he misses. Former Miss Italy, Sicilian beauty Kanakis has a nude silhouette moment, but otherwise the "R" rating is for mannequins being blown apart or clumsily decapitated by whirring rotary blades and other contraptions of the ilk. Czech beauty Zora Kerova ("Woman from Deep River", "The New York Ripper") has a very minor role early in the film for those who know where to look.Plenty of light heartedness and humour, particularly Frezza as the pre-pubescent child mechanic-inventor who's an ace with the shanghai and just as sharp with the tongue. Some cool cinematographic angles, sound effects and editing make it an audio-visual experience, but the stunt-work lacks precision and overall the production looks cheap and rushed. Fun, mildly entertaining with colourful characters and campy special effects (watch the decapitation dummy crumple in a heap), but it's mostly repetitive and predictable sci-fi fodder.