Dune Warriors

That would be warriors of the wasteland, because the Italians had already cornered the market on bad mad Max films. David Carradine plays his usual lone warrior monk teacher role and this is basically yet another riff on the seven samurai. Rather than oil (see: Stryker and Exterminators of the Year 3000 for other examples), it's water. Of course, and ridiculously, be the town built on a spring is full of farmers who can't fight. Get it? While it is tediously show in parts, it isn't as horrible as some.

The old SEVEN SAMURAI story of heroes defending a village from a marauding gang is one that has been told over and over again in literature and film. Why, just recently we've had Tsui Hark's SEVEN SWORDS which is a simple retelling of this plot line. In 1991's DUNE WARRIORS, the prolific Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago comes up with the idea of mixing a post-apocalypse world straight out of MAD MAX with this classic 'village defence' story, and the result is a typically low-budgeted but action-packed movie which is pretty much one running gun battle.

The film wins no awards for quality and there seems to be a singular lack of originality in the production – even the names of the hero and villain, Michael and William, are among the most uninspired I've come across. The paucity of the budget is evident in the cheap wood-and-cardboard sets and sackcloth costumes. Still, fans of Santiago – are there any apart from me? – will know that the director always gets every penny from his cheap budgets and the film is chock-full of explosions and gunfights that will mildly appeal to any adventure fan. The special effects guys are particularly in their element here, with lots of bloody squib hits and even a severed limb or two.

Despite being made in 1991 – a bit of a latecomer to the post-apocalypse craze, with most of the Italian Mad Max rip-offs having been produced in the early '80s – this film has the cheesy '80s feel to it, as none of the sets look professional for a second. COMMANDO is an obvious influence on the action, which is repetitive but cheesy enough to be interesting. Santiago has amassed a mostly Caucasian cast this time around, with only a few native Filipinos lower down in the cast list. David Carradine (KILL BILL) is the Hollywood draw, and he must know that this is one of the cheapest films he's ever made, because he doesn't put in much of an effort and his hero seems weak and elderly, especially in the embarrassing fight scenes. Far better is Rick Hill, an old hand at this sort of stuff, having appeared in the DEATHSTALKER films. Once he's torn the sleeves off his shirt and grabbed two machine guns, you know you're in for a fun time. Resplendent with cheap bloody fights and a totally gratuitous nude bathing scene, DUNE WARRIORS is an utterly forgettable addition to the post-apocalypse genre but one that plays out its predictability with speed and a somewhat refreshing lack of pretentiousness.

The apocalyptic set up has small peaceful desert compound being attacked and terrorized by marauders lead by William (Luke Askew) for the intention of stealing their water. Motivating a young lady named Val (Jillian McWhirter) to sneak away from her deserted community compound for the purpose of finding some warriors to defend their precious commodity . She succeeds to do this by stumbling onto an expert swordsman, Michael (David Carradine) where he takes her to other remote desert communities to incorporate expert warriors.

Don't get me wrong, but I like David Carradine movies but just not this one. It could be the reason because as a result of seeing so many films, I am yearning to see something 'new' and different which this film does not have. The central theme is a poor and low budget rendition of the "Seven Samurai" the basis for "The Magnificent Seven" to "Battle Beyond The Stars" to "Seven Warriors" and other films that uses the idea of using groups of people. And the action is just as hokey as other low budget apocalyptic movies released during the 1980's and onward, in other words I cannot stop and view it as a cash grab if viewers had not seen the original. Carradine has made much more superior post apocalyptic movies with this one ranked amongst the lowest.

By the power of cheese! Dune Warriors is a most delicious post-apocalyptic trashy Mad Max ripp-off with lots of explosions and killings, evil and ill-spirited dudes - and, last but not least, the mighty David Carradine himself! Dune Warriors looks more like a cheap action flick of the early 80s than a movie of the 90s but anyway, if you expect cinematic and acting excellence this piece is for sure the wrong place to look, but if you want a big slice of cheese, this one will deliver plenty. Recommended if you enjoy to watch flicks like Cyborg, Stryker, Steel Dawn, Wheels of Fire, The Blood of Heroes, Hell Comes to Frogtown and so on. Exact rate is 4 + 1 for the power of cheese only.

DUNE WARRIORS is low on many things. The plot is very sluggish, and hardly discernable, except that there is not much water kicking around, and everybody wants it. There are masked gunmen, dunebuggies(of course), bad dubbing, and silly-looking explosions. (It's quite obvious that its some flammable substance, and not the vehicles, that are shooting flame balls in the air.)

OK. So, its cheap. I like some of producer Corman's other, older films, but this is just a sample of some of the "programmer" material he puts out nowadays. It's not even worth further discussion.