Stryker

In a post-apocalyptic future, people have banded together for survival. The key to that survival is water. A woman holds the key to the location of a vast water supply. She's being chased by a roaming gang of baddies hoping to gain her knowledge. Water is power and the baddies want the power. The woman is rescued (multiple times) by a man known as Stryker. Stryker and his friends will battle the baddies for the secret of the water.

Stryker is one of the countless number of films that looked to cash-in on the success of The Road Warrior. Some are good (or at least enjoyable) and some are not so good. Stryker falls into the latter category. There are lot of problems I had with the movie, but the biggest issue I had was Stryker is it's just plain boring. I had the hardest time staying awake. There's little that held my interest. The plot is so unbelievably unoriginal. The filmmakers attempted to take the search for gas in The Road Warrior and replace it with the search for water in Stryker. In addition, the action is repetitive. The good guys save the girl, then they save Stryker, then they save the girl, and on and on it goes. But the biggest bore of all comes in the form of lead actor Steve Sandor as Stryker. Sandor's Stryker is so unappealing and so dull that it's hard to believe he's the title character. You'd be hard pressed to find a lead with less screen presence. What a wretched waste of time!

It's hot.

It's the desert (well, actually, it's a gravel pit in the Philippines masquerading as the desert)

They're fighting over water.

End of story.

Once you get past the fighting over what appears to be only a few gallons of water, the plot of this post apocalyptic grindhouse flick becomes nonexistent, as entire reels of film go by with either not much happening, or several lengthy car chases and explosions and shootouts. Most of the characters here are never even given names, let alone do we ever find out anything about them. It's also rather difficult to learn anything about the characters when there is hardly any dialogue to the film.

Good looking girls in shorts, and good action in the first half hour and at the climax are about all this has going for it. Its climactic battle between the Chuck Norris lookalike leader of one tribe, aided by the Keebler elves, against the other tribe led by one-handed Anton LaVey lookalike was reasonably exciting and well done, but it's a LONG wait for it. If you can turn your mind off and just enjoy the action scenes, this movie might be more watchable for that and the good looking half nude girls, but if you want more than that, look elsewhere. I'm also a fan of William/ Bill Ostrander, so I was disappointed by his somewhat small role in the film, and by the fact that his voice was apparently dubbed for his few lines. Also, this movie looks like it was filmed a year or two prior to its release, as Ostrander looks noticeably younger than he did in Christine, which was released only three months after this.

This movie, though often described as a low budget Mad Max or Road Warrior movie, is more comparable to Wheels of Fire. It is low budget pleasure that features silly or nonexistent acting, crazy choreography, and a wonderful cast of actors and actresses you've probably never heard of. Yet, this little gem is downright action packed fun, 1980s style! The movie is set in a futuristic post-holocaust world that is largely made up of desert, dunes and rocky hills. The largest and most precious commodity in this world is water, and those in control of water sources control the most power. The plot ultimately involves a small community defending a secluded sanctuary - an underground water source - from a wicked tribe of Road Warriorish thugs. Lots of crazy car chases, gun-toting warriors, cheap special effects (pyrotechnics), and stiff choreography during the fight scenes.

One fella stands out as the main character, a roguish silent wanderer named Stryker on a personal mission. He's a satisfying lead, meeting every cliché of the strong silent type. His dialogue is scarce, and his ability to express emotion comes across as forced. But he's extremely suitable for his role, however, given the handful of actors and actress he is working with in this movie. If you're not fond of the strong silent lead, you have a host of typically attractive 1980s female desert warriors, some donned in what appears to be football shoulder pads (sorta like Road Warrior). The main villain, unfortunately, never gets any sort of identity, not even to the point of cliché. He's just a mean thug who can't talk without sounding like he has a mouth full of marbles. The movie tries to build him up as someone foul enough to peak Stryker's persistent and stubborn indifference, yet, as a movie villain, he simply fails to impress the viewer as a credible threat to someone as collected and methodical as Stryker.

I rate this movie 9 out of 10 because for a low budget flick, it packs a lot of action, shoot outs, and car chases. One serious drawback to the movie, however, is the extremely boring set - desert. Probably 95% of the film was shot outdoors in what appears to be nothing but deserts and dunes. After watching this setting for about 5 minutes, the movie gets very claustrophobic and you get the distinct impression that all the different filming locations were done within a 5-minute walk of each other. But the movie is really a little unpolished gem. You have to love low budget antics to give this movie an entire viewing. It's one of those movies you'll either love or shut off after the first five minutes.

This movie is rated R for violence and nudity.

In a post-apocalyptic world the world's water supply has dried up, but woman holds the location of the last springs being guarded by a group of female warriors. Stryker and company, along with the warriors go about stopping a warlord and his 'Road Warrior' gang.

Director Cirio H. Santiago's Stryker is another Mad Max 2 copy but with an American Western feel than most of the post apocalyptic films of 1983 including the similar, Escape from the Bronx, The New Barbarians, Exterminators of the Year 3000, End Game, 2019: After the Fall of New York to name a few.

The late TV actor Steve Sandor (with a handful of film screen credits, also the excellent voice of Darkwolf in Fire and Ice (1983)) looks the part as rugged, gun toting, cowboy hat wearing Stryker. Bandanna sporting William Ostrander is notable (incidentally also the voices Taro / Larn in Fire and Ice) as Bandit. Warrior women wearing old football shoulder pads and leather knickers, including Julie Gray, Monique St. Pierre and Andria Savio are all notable. Mike Lane's villain Kardis with hook hand is menacing but his minions have more interaction with the hero.

Howard R. Cohen's sparse script and Santiago's story is packed with slow motion shots, there's little people, 'Amazon' women, gangs, a tank, a tanker, cars, motorcycle chases, smoke grenades and shootouts across rugged terrain. The writers also pop in some flashback for good measure to try and flesh-out Stryker. The editing is disjointed and Ed Gatchalian's score, is more classical than synth, mostly piano and drums which is used sparingly throughout. Even though Sandor and Ostrander along with some of the female cast are highly watchable, in terms of production this probably on the lower end of scale of the post apocalyptic offerings.

Overall, if you enjoyed the aforementioned there's no reason not to indulge.

Here's yet another Mad Max inspired post apocalyptic outing from the glorious 1980's that depicts a parched and barren world inhabited by leather clad gangs (an odd choice of material to attire oneself with considering the scorching temperatures!) who drive around recklessly in armour plated cars and on motorcycles searching for the most precious commodity remaining on earth: water.

Yes, fans of the genre may recognise the above plot as exactly the same as Giuliano Carnimeo's Exterminators Of The Year 3000 which was also released in 1983. In fact, the miraculously fortuitous ending in both films is exactly the same to! (I don't know which one was released first but considering the derivative nature of the Italian movie industry in the late 70's and 80's I would hazard to guess that Carnimeo's film was most likely 'heavily inspired' (ahem) from the film being reviewed here.

Back to the film and oddly, it would appear that the producers of this, neglected to hire two always vital contributors in any film making process, namely a screen writer and a script writer (!!!) - well at least one could be forgiven for assuming this to be the case as this film has virtually no logical plotting nor character development (or even character definition for that matter!) and has scarcely any dialogue throughout! The end result is a somewhat confusing affair with scene after scene of seemingly pointless car chases and shoot outs revolving around a (VERY HOT!) woman who is being pursued by just about everyone she encounters (including the films beefy hero).

To be fair, as the movie progresses a plot of sorts is disclosed and there's even the trappings of a love story that begin to blossom! On the plus side, the action sequences are competently handled throughout with some fair stunt work on display in a number of scenes and as previously mentioned, - males rejoice, for the heroine along with all of the other females in the cast, is absolutely gorgeous (and spends the entire film in some seriously sexy leather shorts!) Wey Hey!!! For fans of the genre this is certainly worth a watch but it has to be said that this is far from the best of its kind.