Endgame - Das letzte Spiel mit dem Tod

My review was written in January 1986 after watching the movie on Cinemax.

"Endgame" is a rather weak entry in the crowded post-WW III series of Italian action films made circa 1983. Emanating from the Helen Sarlui pic stable (though she does not take a screen credit), item was mulled for a while as a New Line theatrical release but went instead to pay-tv and home video.

Misleading opening reel establishes a tv game in the year 2012 called "Endgame", quite similar to Robert Sheckley's concept used in the classic "The Tenth Victim" (and recently updated in another Italian pic, "The Final Executioner"). Al Cliver toplines as a successful warrior in the killing game who is recruited by a telepathic mutant Lilith (Laura Gemser) to help her band of mutants leave the city (where they are subject to extermination by storm trooper-styled soldiers) to set up a new community.

The tv game is over in 20 minutes, with the remainder of the film given over to fights en route to delivering the mutants. Action scenes are perfunctory, with none of the thrills to the model for this genre, "The Road Warrior".

Given the poor dubbing of these pictures, "Endgame" benefits from its telepathy gimmick, which allows many dialog scenes to have staring faces with no lips moving as the thoughts are voiced-over on the soundtrack. Acting is stilted, with the ubiquitous husband-and-wife team of Laura Gemser and Gabriele Tinti both credited with different "real" names, Moira Chen and Gus Stone, respectively. Freeze-frame non-ending is poor.

Endgame - Bronx lotta finale (1983)

** (out of 4)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Ron Shannon (Al Cliver) is a warrior who has won a television show, which puts one strong man against others for a title. He is asked by a group of mutants (led by Laura Gemser) to guard them and transport them to a location where they can live on. Shannon takes the job and recruits some other men but soon it's clear that Col. Morgan (Gordon Mitchell) will stop at nothing to make sure all the mutants die.

ENDGAME - BRONX LOTTA FINALE is another Italian film that rip-offs MAD MAX. Who knows how many of these films were made but this one here comes from cult director Joe D'Amato and for the most part it's mindless entertainment and you should find it somewhat entertaining as long as you don't take it too serious.

In all honesty, the plot it somewhat of a mess and it's probably more complicated than it should have been. The biggest problem with the movie is the fact that the dialogue scenes are so deadly boring that you can't help but wish they had been edited out all together. After all, how many people come to a movie like this to hear any sort of talk? The film's entertainment comes from the non-stop action and this is where people can have some fun. There are all sorts of action scenes with shoot-outs, fights with blind people and more non-sense. The action is pretty fast and furious and makes for a much better time.

Genre fans will certainly enjoy the cast that they have lined up even though the dubbing, as you'd expect, was pretty bad. Cliver might always be remembered for his role in Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE but he's always fun to watch. Gemser had already made several film with D'Amato but she really isn't given too much to do here and yes boys, she keeps her clothes on throughout the film. George Eastman also appears in a small role and when you add in Mitchell you've got four likable actors.

D'Amato does a pretty good job in the director's chair and in fact I was surprised to see how well he handled the action scenes. These scenes are what makes the film so ENDGAME - BRONX LOTTA FINALE will appeal to fans of the genre.

Wow, this is italian exploitation flicks at it's best. Guess this one came because of the post-apocalyptic hype after "Escape from New York" and "Mad Max", and got stuff like "Rollerball" also in it. Of course it's an awful movie full of missing links. But here is simply no need for explanations, this question would be stupid. It's the full atmosphere of 80ies italo exploitation thrash: good explosions (gas!gas!gas! - nothing digital! I reminisce in nostalgica), crazy overacted characters, some bare breasts, a setting full of cheap dirt. Those movies are so honest in their cheasiness and roughness, I love 'em. - And the eighties were best! Italy full ahead! A pitty the video-market got down and what is left is filled by the majors with hollywood-cheapos exploiting themselves with their own cheap ripp-offs which have no life of it's own; a pity, no good exploitation-scene nowadays...

And hey, wow, this one has them all in it: Joe d'Amato, Al Cliver, Laura Gemser, Michele Soavi and George Eastmen. - A Fest! Gets a nerdish 7 out of 10!

A grizzled veteran of a futuristic battle game who is undefeated for 22 matches, is hired by a group of telepathic humans to take them to a safer location out of New York where they won't be persecuted. He gets together a band of five skilled warriors to act as their bodyguards, and they set out on the trail. Along the way, they have various encounters with perverted mutants and blind warriors, along with a army general and his platoon who is determined to find out just what the hell is going on. Can anyone save these poor bedraggled creatures from a life in a laboratory? Their saviour may yet turn out to be (surprise, surprise) a five year old boy with an extraordinary talent.

You can either take 'Endgame' one of two ways: as a reasonably effective post-nuke thriller with passable action scenes and a half-decent plot, or as a laugh a minute B-movie filled to the brim with laughable dialogue and bad special effects. Either way, it works. Me? I sit somewhere in the middle, there were some moments where I got quite involved in the action, and others where I could have almost slapped my forehead at the cheesiness of the whole affair. (Best moment: Our hero says goodbye to his sort-of girlfriend at the end with a true howler of a line: "Lillith, look inside me. You are the future, I am the past!" YUCK! Suddenly he doesn't seem to tough..) It certainly isn't a masterpiece but if you take the film for what it is I'll bet you'll find it quite enjoyable. There is just one thing that confuses me though..

One battalion of mutants that accost our protagonists on their way deserves further discussion. To all intents and purposes, they look the same as any other bunch of freaks: tattered clothing, old-fashioned weapons, inability to speak proper English. But check this out: mounted on their leader's tank like a couple of war trophies is TWO TOPLESS GIRLS. Now, usually this wouldn't be a problem, I love a bit of random nudity. But these ladies are UGLY. The kind that originated the phrase Coyote Ugly. (You know, when you'd chew your own leg off to get out of bed with them..) You'd think being the boss of these mutants he would have his pick out of a million pretty ladies, and he chooses those two trollops. Unbelievable. The radiation from his mutation must have fried his brain. Anyway, just thought I'd get that off my chest.

What? You're wondering why I bothered wasting a whole paragraph on that? Listen sister, this is my review, and if I wanted to discuss the Stock Exchange while discussing the finer points of E.T, it's my decision. SO THERE! *Blows raspberry at invisible critic and walks off in a huff* 5/10

In the year 2025, a nuclear holocaust has left New York City ruined, inhabited by persecuted telepathic mutants. Keeping the people pacified is the reality television program Endgame, where a new hero must save a group of people and fight to the death.

Directed by Joe D'Amato (under the pseudonym Steven Benson) Endgame (Bronx lotta finale) is one of the better executed Italian post apocalyptic B-films. The action seems endless especially in the closing act as scavenger packs and telepathic mutants fight it out with hunters, gladiators and military elite. There's an unnecessary rape scene, this aside the majority of D'Amato's Max Road Warrior meets Beneath the Planet of the Apes is very watchable especially if you enjoy the likes of Rats: Night of Terror, Warriors of the Wasteland and Bronx Warriors.

The locations and costumes deserve a mention. Carlo Maria Cordio's music working best when it's borrowing cues from Vangelis' Blade Runner score.

Interestingly, the TV game concept (even though not fully explored) predates The Running Man a good four years before Arnold Schwarzenegger's scifi romp and was made around the same time Stephen King's pseudonym book was published.

Overall, not too shabby at all.