Il giustiziere del Bronx

I'm the post-apocalyptic Bronx, evil androids and humanoids engage in a war for supremacy.

Director Vanio Amici's Bronx Executioners, released in 1989 but feeling like a B-Movie from 1982, extensively uses footage from the 1984 film The Final Executioner. The Bronx setting, despite claiming a post-apocalyptic vibe, bears little resemblance to the actual Bronx. It lacks the fun, futuristic elements, and coherence found in films like 1990: Bronx Warrior, Rats: Night of Terror, and The New Barbarians, among others. The gunplay, dog attacks, staged fights, and severed heads contribute to the film's chaotic mix.

Woody Strode's reused footage as Sam from The Final Executioner now portrays the character Warren, while Alex Vitale, previously the Russian in Strike Commando, plays Dakar, aspiring to be human. Margit Evelyn Newton, known for Hell of the Living Dead, is the only actor from the first film with new scenes in the second. The inclusion of saxophone in the last act attempts to evoke a Blade Runner vibe. Notably, Paolo Rustichelli's music, borrowing much from The Terminator (1984), stands out as one of the film's highlights.

Overall, Bronx Executioners feels like a poorly assembled remake of 'The Final Executioner,' lacking coherence. It may appeal to those who enjoy sporadic scenes of men rolling and falling around.

A new sheriff in town helps a good hearted robot battle other cyborgs who are militant and kill crazy, where as some cyborgs are good and civilized, anyway the new sheriff sorts everything out after training with Woody Strode (The film's most famous cast member) in this crummy action flick which is pretty much what you would expect from the bargain bin. Bronx Executioner is one of the 4 titles you can have for the low price of 5 dollars and of course as the old saying goes, if something is too good to be true, it is. So with 4 movies for 5 bucks (6 with tax) This averages out to be a dollar a movie and when I got done watching this clunker, I started wondering if I hadn't paid too much. Another interesting thing is that the DVD promises a Michael Dudikoff introduction which sadly never materializes and instead we witness in horror as Italian actors run around and shoot at each other with no sense of who's really shooting who or for that matter who we should be rooting for. Still as these things go, there is some schlocky fun but it's not nearly as fun as say ROTOR or Future War which offer more bang (Read laughs) for the buck. Still i'm not complaining, after all I have nobody to blame but myself for buying this. And to think I could've used the five dollars to buy myself a Mad Magazine. A pity.

* out of 4-(Bad)

In the land of bad movies, this movie would be at least a duke. First of all, it is very clear that half of this movie is from stock footage. It is also clear that they used multiple takes of the same scene (or maybe it was actually the same take) a few different times in the movie. Good guy rounds the corner, shoots two bad guy. Same good guy, same corner, two minutes later, shoots two more bad guys. Same corner a few minutes later... Then there are the scenes where you see someone shooting on one set, and blowing someone up on a different set entirely.

Then there was the acting. Even without the movie being dubbed the acting was terrible. It is like watching the first earliest rehearsals of an elementary school play. The only people who don't entirely underact are the ones who entirely overact!

How about the set? With a name like Bronx Executioner, taking place (supposedly) in the south Bronx in the relatively new future, you would expect to see a city. Or at least a run down city. Or at least the ruins of a city. Nope. There are beat up looking factories in the middle of dirt fields. A castle in the middle of the woods. Another scene seems to take place in a quarry... No cities anywhere, a couple of country roads through he middle of nowhere, and a couple of beat up looking factories, that's it.

Also, going to the plot of the movie... This is a movie about the humanoids fighting the androids. Both humanoids and androids are factory reject robots. So of course when they get shot they bled. Okay, some of them spark a little bit, but that is more muzzle flash than anything. Basically they all look human, and act human (alright they act like bad actors trying to act like robots trying to act human) and there is no way to tell they aren't human in the movie. Well, one guy does die and reveal some circuits where the gaping hole in his neck appeared. Of course, you couldn't see a head or a body in that one shot, so it is hard to tell. Also they were really fragile robots. I mean when a human can kill a robot with a couple of karate chops you know they are weak. Also in all the slaughter scenes, there are never any wounded. They are all either dead, or escaped. The only robot to even last a few seconds after they got fatally wounded was a "good guy" robot who got to say something "human".

Personally I hate MST3K, but this movie is perfect for that sort of treatment. Or better yet, redub the whole movie to be a comedy instead. Some of the stuff that happens in this movie is just too funny not to be made fun of. Like the good guy robot goes to the sheriff for help. The sheriff says that he is staying out of it. Both actors just stand there waiting while the earlier soundbite that says he has to help those who ask gets played back. Then he immediately apologizes and agrees to help. "No I can't help you, i can't get involved.... [pause for soundbite]... I'm sorry, I will help you."

This movie is truly spectacularly bad.

Why ?? Why ?? Why ?? This movie starts out bad and ends up bad. It is bad all around. The first 5 minutes of the movie is saturated with images... images of video editing equipment. This is followed by the stock footage Circle Line tour of New York complete with narration (notice the Queensborough bridge panoramic pole shot - classic). There is no reason to watch this movie .. unless it is late night and you can't sleep, or your are completely wasted and want to lose some more brain cells. If this is not enough for you, how about the addition of veteran movie actor Woody Stode (aka black man - in this movie thats what he is referred to) to improve the movie. WRONG !!! It only gets worse. Woody was a pro-football star in his days, too bad he was 70+ years old in this movie. Not only that, but he does his own stunts. I have not seen fight scenes this bad since I watched a Jean-Claude van Damme movie. Truly horrific action. Action so boring, you may want to break out the coffee to stay awake through them. This movie was so cheaply done that they could not even afford fake blood for the death scenes. The sound effects are horrible. The Atari 2600 had better and the soundtrack sounds like it was ripped from a bad porn movie. This movie is so boring, "Margie" actually watches a scene from the movie (Spaceballs - save me). So in that scene we are watching the actors watch their own movie. There are endless scenes of "Dakar" driving and whining on his 2-way radio. There is a 2-second fully-clothed rape scene. And no thats how long it actually lasts - 2 seconds. Incidentally, that is the scene that "Margie" watches later. There are 2 scenes which stand out in my mind - the training of the new sheriff (which involves "white man" shooting at a film projection on a wall) and the sheriff shooting through the castle at the end (think Wild Gunmen for the Nintendo). If you want to watch a better movie ... try just about anything. If you want to see a post apocalyptic Italian exploitation movie about New York .. watch 2019: After the Fall of New York.

-Celluloid Rehab

THE BRONX EXECUTIONER begins with lots of electronic / computer stuff going on, letting us know that we're in "the future".

This movie is a conglomeration of elements and particles from other movies that were actual hits, unlike this misbegotten stew of misery. There are bits of ROBOCOP, BLADE RUNNER, and THE TERMINATOR, with a pinch of THE ROAD WARROR tossed in for the hell of it.

How could this not be the most exciting movie ever made?

A woman named Margie (Margie Newton) is head of an army of killer-biker androids. They lead an assault on mankind that is sheer, chunky cheddar ballet! Bullets fly as people flip, flop, and twist about in slow-motion! All while Margie runs around in her red, leatherette mini-dress and dog collar!

The dialogue is poetically pathetic, and constitutes the greatest strength of this cinematic smegma..

Enter Warren (Woody Strode), who's in this movie for reasons unknown. Fights occur. More people fly around. Motorcycles ride through a blasted landscape. There are musclemen. A rape / murder scene exists only to show pointless nudity, and to give the viewer something to be angry about other than the emptiness of this nonsense. A battle takes place. Margie decides to shed her clothes as well. Etc.

A stupendously skull-flattening experience...