I predatori di Atlantide

RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS is one of the biggest genre duplicators to come out of early 80s Italian action cinema. If something was an international hit, it is most likely to be found at some point in here. One need merely look at the US box office reports from 1979-82 to find the workings of this Ruggero Deodato flick. Assorted ingredients include THE ROAD WARRIOR, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE WARRIORS, FIRST BLOOD, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, FLASH GORDON, SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, and even a little NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

But this is part of the fun of RAIDERS (and most Italian films from this era). Picking out what bit came from where is like a cinematic version of "Where's Waldo?" For example, the group of survivors encounters a formally dressed family hiding out in an abandoned house. Hmmmmm? NOTLD perhaps? Of course, Deodato one ups his sources in some cases and has the family immediately become graphic gang fodder. This mishmash approach also allows you an opportunity to see which films had a huge impact on Italian cinema (let's just say George Miller and John Carpenter should be pleased).

The cast is led by Christopher Connelly, who looks like a more energetic Jurgen Prochnow here. Connelly is clearly having fun in the role and even doing some of his own hazardous looking stunts. He is partnered with Tony King, whose character Washington is always insisting on being called Mohammed and delivers some funny lines. For example, when the group land on Atlantis someone says, "If you ask me, we're just heading around in circles." To which Washington…uh, I mean Mohammed replies, "What's wrong with circles?" This type of head scratching dialogue is abundant. Rounding out the cast are low budget familiars Ivan Rassimov, Bruce Baron and George Hilton doing his best "Clark Kent" as a nerdy professor. If you don't blink, you can also catch appearances by future filmmaker Michele Soavi and Deodato himself.

The budget is obviously low (watch for miniatures that would make Sid & Marty Kroft shake their heads) but enough bullets, explosions and mayhem (including a gruesome decapitation) is supplied to help you quickly overlook that fact. Plus, the film opens with the soooooo out of place but incredibly catchy disco theme "Black Inferno" by Oliver Onions (the pseudonym of the De Angelis brothers). Deodato seems to have completely thumbed his nose at the conventional rules of cinema, jumping from day to night and back to day in scenes that are supposed to continuous. Hell, what do I know, maybe things are like that in Atlantis?

Some scientists team up with a duo of Vietnam vets to fight make-up wearing biker punks from the lost city of Atlantis which reemerges from under the water due to a sunken Russian submarine's radioactive missiles. Just typing that previous sentence makes my brain hurt and I haven't even gotten to the more nonsensical stuff. Ha.

OK, the plot is ridiculous and the film itself doesn't make a lick of sense, but this b-movie is amazingly fun and doesn't let up on the action. Think of it as a cross between Assualt on Precint 13, and mad max. If you loved those films, are willing to keep and open mind, and can turn your brain off for the duration of the film, you'll like this one a lot as well.

My Grade: A-

Side note: This movie can be found on side A of Disc 2 of the Grindhouse Experience 2 four DVD set, alas it's from an old VHS dub and the picture is far from optimal. Hopefully this unsung b-movie classic will be re-released in a remastered form (ok, probably not, but one can hope)

Raiders of the Lost Ark ripoff, crossed with a Mad Max ripoff, and a disaster/ horror movie ripoff, with sunken artifacts ripped off and thrown in for added randomness.

An incomprehensible mish mash of strange ideas and action vignettes, this has a sudden hurricane(?) sinking the oil rig carrying scientists who are attempting raise a Russian sub from the ocean floor. After being picked up by a trio of thieves on a boat, they stumble onto the mythical island of Atlantis (raised by the radiation of the Russian nuclear sub(? again)) and its violent, biker gang inhabitants. Who even knew there were bikers on Atlantis? After being attacked by said violent biker gang inhabitants, the group breaks into the island's conveniently heavily armed, abandoned police force, and declare war.

Things get even more confusing after that, but that's irrelevant. There's no sense in even trying to decipher the story, because it's obvious that there isn't one, they were just making it up as they go along. The purpose of this movie was clearly just the action, and there's plenty of that: they're making their getaway on a stolen bus when a helicopter filled with Atlantis' biker gang launch an attack. But our heros don't bother to shoot the helicopter. Instead, they let the thugs jump out of it and onto the roof of the van, where a fistfight ensues not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES, before they climb out of the windows and onto the roof of this moving bus to shoot the helicopter. The bus crashes though a barricade and barely makes contact with two other cars, but they immediately explode and burst into a ball of flames.

And there's that stone statue thingie that shoots lasers out of its glowing red eyes.

This can actually be fun, if you turn your mind completely off, and enjoy its absurdities, hilariously awful (and completely nonsensical) dialogue, and overly dramatic death scenes; many of the deaths are accompanied by yells of "Ay ayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

A disclaimer in the closing credits reads: "All events and characters depicted in this photoplay are imaginary and any resemblance to actual persons and events is unintentional and purely coincidental". Imaginary?

This is one of the dumbest Italian films I've ever watched, but don't let that put you off – It's brilliant! The plot, what there is of it, concerns the ancient lost island of Atlantis somehow being brought up from the sea bed by the radiation from a sunken nuclear sub, causing either the Atlaneans or local humans to turn into Mad Max style killers and before you know it you've got everything being destroyed and everyone being killed – but don't worry. We've got a list of Italian exploitation vets out there willing to pick up a machine gun and blow these mental sub-aquatic upstarts to hell.

You've got mercenaries Christopher Connolly (Strike Commando) and Tony King (The Last Hunter), professor George Hilton (Devil with Seven Faces), pilot Ivan Rassimov (Eaten Alive) dubbed by Nick Alexander (every Italian movie ever) in a double whammy of greatness, Michele Soavi (Blade in the Dark) and even Mike Monty (Zombi 3). These are the folks I'd be calling if the apocalypse loomed (even though at least four of them are no longer with us)! The head bad guy? Bruce Baron of The Ultimate Ninja fame! I'm getting faint just typing all that out.

After meeting up on Connolly's boat after some lab is destroyed in a storm, our heroes head for the mainland and from then on it's a toe to toe battle with our ridiculous looking antagonists involving shotguns, loads of petrol bombs, machine guns and even some electrical wire (which chops off some guy's head).

I love the way that Connolly and co lay waste to hundreds of Atlanteans over the course of the last hour of the film. Sure, he's no good at protecting people, especially when he promises three scared people they'll be fine shortly before they're all killed, but I reckon he was just fobbing them off anyway as they were distracting him from mowing down dozens of bad guys. There's a slim plot about a lady who can decipher all these languages getting drawn to Atlantis in some plot to free the Atlanteans (which confused me regarding who all the bad guys were), but just strap yourself in a let the contant sound of gunfire roll over you.

I said this film was dumb, and I mean it. Soavi's character states at one point, when they're all trapped in a building, that he's going to scout around for a way out, then he walks out the front door and gets captured. Check out the Atlanteans – their costumes are like rejects from the Bronx Warriors! And what's with the echoey voices? And what purpose does it serve to have Tony King's character as a recent convert to Islam? It's this kind of stuff that draws me back to Italian films again and again.

It's a Ruggero Deodato film, so there are fleeting bits of gore (decapitations, a woman being shot through the mouth with an arrow etc), and this is so much more a guilty free pleasure than Cannibal Holocaust – no animal cruelty here, thankfully. Get in! I loved this one.

Ruggero Deodato's 1983 classic is one of the most entertaining B movies I have ever seen, the story might be out there, but this is one film where the actors and action drive the narrative. Christopher Connelly and Tony King make a great double act and director Deodato was obviously having a good time directing something more entertaining than his previous film THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK. Find this film and enjoy, because they don't make them like this anymore!