Wheels of Fire

I only write reviews of movies with low rating, which actually are not that bad. Give them a chance!

At first I thought that this is ''yet another Mad Max wannabe'', but this is THE BEST Mad Max wannabe! The main character looks the same as Max, they all drive similar vehicles, live in dessert... almost everything is the same, but still, it was great to me! I love post- apocalyptic movies, and if you like them too, make sure to watch this one! Don't expect something spectacular, this still is a rip-off, but the best one of all, at least for me.

6.5/10

Yet another in the assembly line of low budget "Mad Max" / "Road Warrior" ripoffs actually isn't bad at all, even if it IS derivative. Give credit to the extremely prolific producer & director Cirio H. Santiago: he takes the script by Frederick Bailey and just hits the ground running. He offers very little in the way of let-up, and plenty of action. Our hero could have used a touch more charisma, but he's passable, and the bad guys are such loathsome scum that it's satisfying to watch them come to their ends.

Gary Watkins ("The Long Riders", "Johnny Dangerously") stars as "Trace", a lone wolf in a post- apocalypse future. His kid sister Arlie (Playboy Playmate Lynda Wiesmeier) ends up abducted by the villainous Highway Warriors led by a power crazed goon appropriately named "Scourge" (Joe Mari Avellana, a familiar name to you if you've watched enough Filipino exploitation). With the help of a killer named "Stinger" (Laura Banks) and a young clairvoyant girl named "Spike" (Linda Grovenor), he takes on the scores of minions that come his way.

"Wheels of Fire" is going to be too nasty and hard-edged for some tastes. It will never be mistaken for a feminist statement. But those of you who love a bit of sleaze to go with your brainless futuristic thrills should be more than satisfied. Wiesmeier is made to go topless a great deal of the time, and at one point is tied spread eagle across the hood of a car. There's no excessive gore to concern more squeamish viewers, but that DOESN'T mean that this isn't still plenty violent. For example, Trace has a flamethrower mounted on his vehicle and he just LOVES to set guys on fire.

Performances are all perfectly suited to the material. They won't win Oscars, but who cares? Watkins is okay, and the ladies look just fine. Fortunately, both Banks and Grovenor get to be fairly heroic themselves and handle themselves capably in fight scenes. Avellana is a decent villain, Joseph Zucchero is amusing as a dude named "Whiz", and Jack S. Daniels is a hoot as a wretched piece of excrement named "Scag".

Acceptable genre entertainment gets its biggest boost from the rousing, full orchestral score by the talented Christopher Young ("Hellraiser").

Seven out of 10.

Yes, this is a Road Warrior Rip off. The Vehicles, the bad guys, the good guy (who is pretty damn indestructible and, once again proves, never leave an enemy behind alive, as the bad guys do). The stunts are horrifically bad, the acting ranges from OK (Linda Weismeier's breasts, but she isn't a bad actress at all, by the standards of this pretty so bad it's good movie). The story is really non-existent, and the constant use of a flamethrower by the hero on bad guys didn't bother me at all (After all they were murderous rapists), but it did make me think of George Carlin's comment that Flamethrowers prove that someone really wanted to set a bunch of people on fire, but just couldn't reach them! My big question about this is, if it's the future, how come only muscle cars and automatic weapons seem to have survived? And how the hell did German MP-40 machine pistols survive into the future? Either way, this was way more enjoyable that Exterminators of the Year 3000, Rats: Night of Terror, The New Barbarians, After the Fall of New York and the totally atrocious, Warriors of the Wasteland. Worth a view.

The only bad thing about this movie is the editing. There a few times when they cut out stuff that you really needed to see. This is definitely worth watching.

Rating Breakdown Story - 0.75 :: Direction - 1.00 :: Pacing - 1.00 :: Performances - 1.25 :: Entertainment - 1.00 TOTAL - 5/10

There is a peculiar joy in the anarchic wreckage of a post-apocalyptic action flick. It is the joy of twisted metal, dust-cloaked antiheroes, and vehicles welded together by madmen. "Wheels of Fire" rolls onto the cinematic wasteland like a scavenged husk of "Mad Max", kicking up dirt but never quite igniting.

The plot is simple. How far will a man go to save his sister? All the way to the end credits, it seems. Our hero, the uninspiringly named "Trace," embarks on a quest to rescue his kidnapped sibling from a gang of wasteland barbarians. Along the way, there are enslaved prisoners, desert mystics, and gunfights shot with the elegance of a bar brawl filmed by a cameraman with heatstroke.

Surprisingly, the film does not shy away from true dystopian depravity. The usual grimy, leather-clad villains twirl their nonexistent mustaches, but here, the depths of human degradation go even lower. This is not thought-provoking cinema, but it commits fully to its vision of societal collapse.

The actors do far more than the script or direction deserve. No one expected Shakespearean gravitas, yet they take their roles seriously, even when spouting dialogue that sounds like it was scribbled on a diner napkin. Their performances prevent the film from sinking entirely into oblivion, though I did find myself reorganizing my bookshelf during some of the slower moments, a damning sign for an action flick.

Cirio H. Santiago's direction is serviceable but uninspired. The genre thrives on striking imagery, lonely highways, blazing sunsets, the sheer emptiness of ruin, but here, the visuals never rise above functional. A better sense of pacing and atmosphere could have elevated "Wheels of Fire" beyond mediocrity.

And that pacing, oh dear. A post-apocalyptic action film should not feel pedestrian. There should be a rhythm of chaos and calm, tension and release. Instead, "Wheels of Fire" idles when it should be revving. The action sequences are a mixed bag, sometimes visceral, sometimes sluggish.

So, is "Wheels of Fire" worth watching? If you relish straight-to-video dystopian destruction, you might enjoy it. If you seek the operatic brilliance of "The Road Warrior," best keep driving. This is a film that could have been more, could have done more, if only it had a little more fuel in the tank. As it stands, it is a curiosity; watchable, occasionally intriguing, but ultimately disposable. The kind of movie you put on when it is raining outside, there is nothing better on television, and you feel like spending an hour and a half in the apocalypse, just not the good apocalypse.