Dune Warriors

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.

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.

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.

In another of his numerous 80s / 90s B movie assignments, David Carradine plays Michael, a lone wolf in a post-nuke desert. One day, he encounters a young woman (Jillian McWhirter, "After Midnight") who hopes to hire some warriors to defend her community of "Chinle". The main bad guy is a warlord named William (veteran movie bad guy Luke Askew, "Rolling Thunder"), and Michael's been yearning to destroy William for vengeances' sake.

The script (by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver) and direction (by Filipino exploitation icon Cirio H. Santiago) are very routine, but "Dune Warriors" is still sufficient entertainment for undemanding viewers. One has to respect any movie that dispenses with exposition regarding the current state of planet Earth and dives head first into the action right away. Here, we're treated to a plethora of explosions, nasty gunshot wounds, and a couple of good fire gags. Basically, "Dune Warriors" is an "action for its own sake" type of deal. But giving the story some interest is the fact that it's yet another variation on the old "Seven Samurai" formula (except that the number of warriors assembled here is five, not seven).

Carradine is okay - no more, no less - as he and the always solid Askew, his nemesis from the fantasy flick "The Warrior and the Sorceress", face off. The supporting cast is fun: Rick Hill ("Deathstalker") as Carradine's sidekick, Blake Boyd ("First Kid") as the handsome Dorian who takes a fancy to McWhirters' character Val, Joseph Zucchero ("Naked Vengeance") as the cowardly Reynaldo, Henry Strzalkowski ("Equalizer 2000") as Vals' weaselly fiancee, and especially the enticing Maria Isabel Lopez ("Kinatay") as warrior woman Miranda.

A collective dubbed "The Score Warriors" did the music, and it's pretty good; the end credits song is also quite enjoyable.

This is a decent mindless diversion for fans of the post-nuke genre.

Six out of 10.

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.