World Gone Wild

It's 2087, 75 years after the start of the final war. It lasted 15 years and left the world devastated. It hasn't rained for 50 years. Lost Wells is a settlement in the desert that actually has water. The peaceful villagers welcome Derek Abernathy (Adam Ant) and his cult followers. Abernathy immediately massacres and enslave many in the settlement. Ethan (Bruce Dern) rises to challenge him. Ethan takes school teacher Angie Banning (Catherine Mary Stewart) to the big city and find a barbaric world desperate for water. Ethan recruits his old partner George Landon (Michael Paré) and others to battle Abernathy's cult.

This takes the style of 'Mad Max 2' even including the white outfits. They're throwing hubcaps like the boomerang. The plot is pulled from 'Seven Samurai' like many other movies such as Steve McQueen in 'The Magnificent Seven'. However it's nowhere near the same vision or quality. Adam Ant is not the most imposing villain but he fits the low quality camp. I always like some Catherine Mary Stewart and Bruce Dern is one of the great actors of our times. Michael Paré is an oddity of the 80s and I've never understood his leading man appeal. The setup is clunky. The dialog isn't much better. It's a poor production pulling elements from other better movies.

Bruce Dern stars as a hippie who gets his son (Michael Pare) and a bunch of other mercenaries to help fight of Adam Ant (Who starts a church of Charles Manson) in this strange post apocalypse action flick. The thing that makes this weird is the cast which includes Bruce Dern, Michael Pare, Adam Ant, Julias Carry, Catharine Mary Stewart and Anthony James who all are offbeat actors with different styles of acting. All that was missing was Wings Hauser. Still I must admit this was a lot of fun due to it's sheer weirdness. The movie has mutant cannibals, a church of Charles Manson and Bruce Dern as a pot smoking hippie fighter who leads a civilization of flower children. The romance angle between Pare and Stewart is extremely amusing mainly due to the fact that it is just so unlikely. Stewart is of course the resident babe found in these type of movies. Although I was amused to see Stewart scold Michael Pare and Co. for killing mutant cannibals and then laughing about it, to which she goes in a long winded speech about how they are all animals, to which gets (quite understandably may I add) the mercenaries to laugh even harder. The action sequences are for the most part well staged and Adam Ant is really good in the role as the bad guy who is the priest of the church of helter skelter. World Gone Wild is such a bizarre movie one only wishes that this would have turned out to be a television show or at least established some sequels because right here could have been the greatest TV show ever. You could have Pare and Dern protect these villagers every week from some new villain and develop the silliness of the relationship between Stewart and Pare. World Gone Wild is no classic but this is perfect fodder for the B.movie fan who has an appetite for guilty pleasure post apocalypse movies.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

Yet another Seven Samurai ripoff--did you notice the picture of Steve MacQueen in Michael Pare's hovel, just in case we didn't get it? This thing has two things to reccomend it--Bruce Dern being more or less as crazy as always, which has been a great thing to watch since The Cowboys at the very least, and Adam Ant proving that he should have done more movies because he is really entertaining. I wonder if they've done it on MST3K.

Ok It's true, the only character in this film experiencing any magic is Bruce Dern's, but it really is a fun trip. And if you can get over the cheesy music, and lame graphics in the opening credits, you will probably enjoy some of the bizarre humor it offers. The characters are memorable, and almost invite you to laugh along with them.

The Seven Samurai serie B version in an apocalyptic future.

It's honest, unassuming, old school, fun and politically incorrect.

I recommend it to those nostalgic for 80s cinema.