I guerrieri delle dune

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.

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 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.

Yeah, because no Carradine ever made a bad movie, right? LOL!

This movie is awful, even by Cirio H. Santiago standards and I've seen a lot of his work. When watching this marvel of film-making it's quite obvious to any viewer, who has more than three brain cells, at just how little care and effort (let alone passion or enthusiasm) was put into it. The films "hero" is a middle-aged, sword-swinging, David Carradine... but temper any expectations you might have, because he looks and sounds completely bored with the movie and no doubt just showed up to get paid.

Just to cover some of the films short-comings (and there are many), you have the indifferent and uninspired direction of Cirio H. Santiago (he put more effort into his earlier PAW films, one strongly gets the since he was just bored while making this). The acting is mostly lame and flat, with some occasional over-the-top moments. The films dialogue is remarkably boring and cliché-ridden and generally delivered with zero enthusiasm. The sets are insanely cheap, even for Cirio H. Santiago standards, which is really saying something. On several occasions you can plainly see the flimsy, paper-thin sets shake from the concussion of the pyro-charges during the films action scenes.

I won't waste time explaining the plot, it's just not worth mentioning. There's precious little in the way of vehicular stunts (most, if not all good PAW flicks are loaded with them), even the gun fire and explosions sound weak and muffled, the films soundtrack is modestly effective - but generic as hell. As I said Santiago's earlier PAW films are better, especially WHEELS OF FIRE! However by 1990 when this crap-heap of a movie was made, Cirio H. Santiago must have been bored out-of-his-mind with these types of films.

From experience I can say that Dune Warriors is the kind of movie that literally saps you of your energy, as you sit there waiting and wishing for it to be over souring any semblance of a good mood you might of had, due to sheer boredom and disappointment. I hated every minute of Dune Warriors and I was lucky enough to see the "Directors Cut" which is even longer and more boring. Having seen many movies of this type I can say with confidence, that NO ONE should waste their time or money with what is a complete dud of a movie. Dune Warriors flat out sucks!

From what I've seen of his work from this time period, it's pretty obvious at this point, that Carradine was a middle-aged burn-out and was simply making a living, ambling from one lame, low-budget, production to the next - in a state of chronic mediocrity. David Carradine seemed to except ANY script that was handed to him - not unlike Bela Lugosi decades earlier. What other conclusions can one draw. If you've seen Future Force and it's sequel (or several others Carradine flicks from that era) that only strengthens my point. Sad to say, but Future Force is actually a slight up-grade from this movie...... just plain pitiful.

Lastly let me leave you with this quote: "Yep, if your movies terrible enough David Carradine will magically appear." - Michael J. Nelson