This next review is for another slice of Italian produced Action, this time from famed director Enzo G.Castellari, director of the original Inglorious Bastards and 1990: The Bronx Warriors. I don't why I'm watching all these Italian movies all of a sudden, maybe it's because Richard review for Baba Yaga has re-ignited my interest in the films from Italy's great years as exploitation kings. Well here's my review for Escape From The Bronx....
Sticking with the
Italian post-apocalyptic action genre after my review of Ruggero
Deodato's Raiders Of Atlantis, I decided to watch Escape From The
Bronx aka Bronx Warriors 2. The film, directed by Italian legend Enzo
G.Castellari (Bronx Warriors, New Barbarians), ups the ante on the
first film which was a cross between Mad Max and The Warriors. With a
bigger budget and the addition of Henry Silva, the scale of the film
got bigger. Usually this can harm sequel, but Escape From The Bronx
is just as good if not better than it's predecessor.
I'm not the biggest fan
of Italian genre cinema in all honesty, I feel they recycle the same
thing over and over again but sometimes my eyes are opened to
something special, something I can get my teeth into. Having seen
both The Bronx Warriors and New Barbarians from Castellari along with
his classic WW2 movie Inglorious Bastards, all three of which I
enjoyed immensely, I realised that I hadn't seen the second film in
old Enzo's apocalyptic trilogy, Escape From The Bronx which goes by
about 14 different titles of which I knew it as The Bronx Warriors 2.
Well I thought the first film was a great mash up of Mad Max and The
Warriors that had some really great set pieces and one of the
funniest looking Main heroes i'd seen in a movie. By that I mean the
star, Mark Gregory, had that stature of a gladiator but the face of
12 year old which was kind of weird and it wasn't until I started
researching this film that I found out that Gregory (Marco Di
Gregorio) was only 17 when he made the first Bronx Warriors film
which would explain the fresh face look that our hero, named Trash,
had.
Anyway, the sequel
takes place a few months after the events in the first film, Trash is
on the run from an evil corporation who plan to rebuild the Bronx.
The rest of the Bronx gangs, well the remaining members of each of
the gangs, have gone underground to escape the death squads that have
been sent in to exterminate anyone in the area. The death squads
dress in motorbike helmets and silver boiler suites that could be a
futuristic sort of hazmat suit, less militaristic than the ones worn
by the Army in George A. Romero's The Crazies, they're more like the
disco military, well they're eradicating all the low lives with
machines guns and flamethrowers. Two of the squads victims are
Trash's parents and this put Trash over the edge. He joins the Bronx
gangs in their underground base (like Hoth only a bit warmer and less
Taun Tauns) where he joins forces with a crazy female activist, a ten
year old explosives expert and an absolute badass called Strike, a
sort of inner city Rambo, to kidnap the president of the evil
corporation to try and stop the death squads, led by a psychotic
Henry Silva, and save the bronx, their home.
In a film like this,
the plot comes second to the sheer mayhem on display. People get
torched, gunned down, blown up, thrown off buildings, beaten with
baseball bats and so on, Trash even manages to blow up a helicopter
with just a six shooter and it's all handled really really well, the
stunt work is fantastic and Castellari's direction is very good, the
film was shot in 2.35:1 aspect ratio in the widescreen format and the
cinematography by Blasco Giureto (Cinema Paradiso) captures
everything. The version I saw was the Shameless screen entertainment
release that had been re-cut by shameless to it's most complete form
and remastered in an anamorphic 16/9 widescreen transfer that looks
great. This is the one to buy if you're looking for a great release
of this film.
The performances are
all ok, Henry Silva is hamming it up big style as the ruthless
Wengler, Mark Gregory is a lot better than he was in the first film
but he's not the best leading man and Antonio Sabata (Sr) is have
great fun in his role as Dablone. The only problem I have with the
cast is Valeria D'Orbici as Moon Grey, the female activist that
Trash hooks up with, I found her character incredibly annoying.
Escape From The Bronx
is great fun from start to finish. Castellari has crafted a great
trilogy of post -apocalyptic action films and even though the
presence of Fred Williamson is sorely missing from this film, he does
return in New Barbarians. Overall I can't recommend this enough.
Great entertainment and just a joy to watch even with the at times
god awful dubbing. I'm going to lay a big fat 4 stars on this sucker.
No comments:
Post a Comment