2020 Texas Gladiators (1982) ** (out of 4)A post-apocalyptic Texas is the setting for this Joe D'Amato film, which has a group of good guys (led by Al Cliver) going through and cleaning up the rougher parts of the city. One of their members, a real nut case, decides to try and rape a woman so he is beaten and kicked out of the group. Sure enough, he forms his own bad guy group and soon he's attacking our good people.I'm purposely using lame terms like "good guys" and "bad guys" because the film is pretty darn simple like that. There's really not too much of a plot but I'm sure you already know that and especially if you're familiar with these Italian MAD MAX wannabe films. This here is yet another film like that but I must say that I think John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK had an influence on many films from this genre, including this one.D'Amato, Cliver and several of the crew members also did ENDGAME, another post-apocalyptic film an that one there is slightly better but this one here has a few good things going for it. The highlight of the film are obviously the various action scenes, which certainly show their low-budget nature but at the same time the scenes are at least fun and there are a couple nice kills throughout including one man who gets his chest pretty much brutally attacked. There's even a scene where a nun cuts her throat (twice!?!) to try and avoid the bad guys attacking her.Performances are pretty much what you'd expect out of a film like this but when is Cliver (ZOMBIE) not worth watching? He makes for a good lead and certainly helps keep you entertained in what you're watching. As you'd expect, all of the women are quite beautiful so that's always a major plus.2020 Texas GLADIATORS isn't a film that's going to win any major awards but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching if you're a fan of D'Amato or the genre.

Just one of many trashy, low-budget Italian flicks to gleefully rip-off George Miller's classic Mad Max movies, 2020 Texas Gladiators is set against a typically barren, post-apocalyptic landscape and sees a brave band of warriors fighting back against the evil fascist regime that has been enslaving their people (with a little help from a gang of dirt-bike-riding, bare-chested punks in S&M gear).Directed with very little style or finesse by Joe D'amato, and featuring a cast clearly chosen for the definition of their pecs or willingness to expose their tits rather than actual talent, the film is low on genuinely gritty exploitational content, the absence of any really nauseating gore or outrageous sleaze—both specialities of the director—being particularly noticeable.Despite the welcome presence of smoking' hot blonde Sabrina Siani, and the inclusion of such blatant silliness as futuristic soldiers armed with electric bullet-proof shields (which have ***important plot point*** massive holes in them!), the derivative nature of the plot, D'amato's lifeless treatment, the lacklustre stunts, and the unremarkable performances (with the notable exception of Donald O'Brien as Black One—that guy is hilarious) all go to make this a frustratingly dull affair as a whole.

Yet another in a seemingly infinite list of post nuclear war flicks to emerge from Italy in the 1980's, this was directed by none other than top sleaze/horror master Joe D'Amato who also brought us the similarly themed Endgame, a film which also used a number of the same cast members here including Al Cliver and Al Yamanouchi.Whilst this film is certainly the lesser of the two, it does nonetheless deliver some pretty satisfying action throughout.The story concerns a group of Rangers who it seems have taken it upon themselves to clean up the scummier elements of the post apocalyptic society in which they find themselves. Early on, whilst performing one such clean up session, one of their members, Catch Dog tries to rape a beautiful woman (the supremely sexy Sabrina Siani). His comrades however, walking in on this immoral act quite rightly give him a good beating and promptly banish him from their ranks. Needless to say, this is not the last we see of the said miscreant for he later turns up again with reinforcements in the form of an army of Nazi like soldiers led by the sinisterly named 'Black One' who is viciously enforcing his 'New Order' across the land.For fans of the genre, this should certainly provide a decent enough fix and it even boasts a number of fairly exciting action scenes. Added to this there's a rather cool score that accompanies the proceedings and even a few minor gore scenes to help matters along. Certainly well worth a look.6 out of 10

I caught some of this ultra-cheese rip-off on Joe Bob's MonsterVision. I laughed, I cried. I squirmed during the tense and moving roulette scene because of Chris Walken's portrayal of... oops, wrong movie. I was engrossed by Mel Gibson's portrayal of a hollow loner surviving in the post-apocalyptic wastes... oops, wrong movie. I endured what I could and flipped to Starz, where they were showing "Playing God," with Agent Mulder and the Falcon (or was it the Snowman?), which wasn't much better. So, I just poured another drink and flipped between the two, and made it a truly memorable Saturday night in front of the cathode-ray opiate.