"Mad Max" meets "Seven Samurai" on a Micro Budget
Added 11/1/2009
Some time ago, The Road Warrior gave rise to a sub-genre of cinema that has appealed predominantly to filmmakers of reduced means and no real place to shoot: the post-apocalyptic desert action film. Defined by lackluster gunfights and martial arts, dreary cinematography, bring-it-yourself set designs and costumes, and an occasional grandiose backstory that's often better than anything in the film itself, these titles include the likes of Richard Norton's Raiders of the Sun, Albert Pyun's Knights [VHS], and Dolph Lundgren's The Last Warrior, but "Dune Warriors" - the early-90s offering of Filipino B-movie king Cirio Santiago - serves just as fine of an example of the genre as a whole, with the added bonus that it stars the late, great David Carradine.
The story: in New California, 2040 A.D., a small oasis town is terrorized by a legion of raiders led by a ruthless tyrant (Luke Askew, Easy Rider). A brave young woman (Jillian McWhirter, The Dentist 2: Brace Yourself) escapes to find help, which presents itself as a traveling swordsman (Carradine, Kill Bill - Volume Two) who recruits a handful of other warriors to protect the village...and fulfill a personal vendetta on the pirate leader.
The good guys' team includes Rick Hill (Death Stalker [VHS]), a fairly young Blake Boyd (First Kid), and Filipino stars Dante Varona and Maria "I was starting to feel crusty" Lopez...none of whom have neither the talent nor presence of Carradine. The acting as a whole falls on its face: most of the supporting cast would be fit for a high school production for their complete lack of subtlety, and even David Carradine sells explosions going on right behind him as though he were listening to the radio. This is further offset by questionable editing evident when characters' dialogue is abruptly cut off by changing shots and obvious splicing during action scenes. Speaking of action scenes, it might have been a good idea if Santiago had stuck entirely to fisticuffs and shootouts and let the martial arts be: everybody who throws a kick in here looks like he's about lose balance and fall over.
With that being said, "Dune Warriors" does have soon neat/weird parts to it: when Jillian McWhirter goes out for help, she's promptly chased by a tribe of aboriginal midgets (who are promptly chased away by Carradine, the big scary dude) and later taken to a sort of hero's haven where men in football pads joust on motorcycles. Later still, a hand-to-hand fight breaks out and uplifting orchestral music plays, as though there's something significant about the beating. Oh, and almost everybody in the film uses a sword; nobody's particularly good with `em, and the final blade-to-blade showdown between Carradine and Luke Askew is a joke, but it's a nifty little touch nonetheless.
I'm tempted to give this film three stars for the amount of heart it has going on...but then I think of how the barricaded constructed by the villagers looked like cardboard, how the absurd knife fight was lifted from the Beat It music video, and how completely ungrounded the Rick/Maria sex scene was, and I remember why most movies like this never saw the inside of a theater. It's not the worst of its kind by a long shot and can, in a pinch, be fun if you've got enough beer and a like-minded buddy around, but sober minds will be hard-pressed to consider this a must-have, including Carradine fans.
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Poorest Carradine Post-Apocolyptic Warrior movie of his career...(Pls. read on)
Added 8/1/2006
Second time Luke Askew v. Carradine in desert
Warrior film, first was 1984's Warrior and
the Sorceress. Carradine still used the cape
and outfit in this movie as well! In 1989's
gem, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II, sequel
to 1985's Bo Svenson's Wizards of the Lost
Kingdom, Carradine's fight scenes from 1984's
W.A.T.S. were spliced in here. Jillian Mc-
Whirter, once co-starred with Carradine in
1989's Nowhere to Run. Warlords and W.O.T.L.K
II were way better than this below average
cheapie!
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An excellent B-movie treasure
Added 6/24/2005
I originally got this movie because I have been a fan of Rick Hill since before his B movie days. And I like David Carradine. So I checked it out. Another Seven Samauri remake, basically. Yeah, their budget was about $4 and there's some pretty scary acting in it, but overall it's actually a lot of fun.
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Post-Apocalypse Seven Samurai
Added 1/8/2000
David Carradine straps on his "Warrior and Sorceress" robe yet again in this derivative post-apocalyptic action thriller. The plot is the same-old isolated community in the desert seeking rootless warriors to defend them against ruthless bandits who are after their water. The post-apocalyptic culture in this movie is acceptably well done for this genre, and the obligatory scenes in which the warriors de-glamorize themselves around the campfire are handled with the appropriate solemnity. The battle scenes have some thrills to them, but some technical weaknesses and continuity flaws hold it back. The wrap-around box illustration and title grapics are obviously meant to evoke "Dune," the David Lynch movie based on the Frank Herbert novel, but there is no relation at all (though it is a nice box). The more interesting things this film offers to this genre include a motorcycle joust, a town with a happening nightlife, politics within the beleagured community, Carradine's sword fighting, and a mysterious back story regarding Carradine and the leader of the bad guys. David Carradine's performance and the other adequacies in the movie keep it from being a total bomb, but folks who are not completists in the genre could probably find better ways to spend their time. Trivia: the costume and sword David Carradin wears was first seen in "The Warrior and the Sorceress" and later in "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II."
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