America 3000

I was in this movie. Can't say this one is an intellectual challenge, but it was fun to do. It's a bit silly, with bad acting, but those girls go! I think this movie must have been a tax shelter for a relative of the producers.

It is fun, on several levels, and speaks to the excesses of the 80's.

America 3000 is quite possibly the pinnacle of achievement in the post-apocalyptic genre. Yeah, right.

But, it's a silly film from a silly genre, so we can't be judgemental now, can we?

I especially liked the writers/producers/whoever the hell dreamed up the lousy script's attempts at futuristic 'slang' with words like "Nagy" and "Cold/Hard" meaning strange things.

See this movie. You will laugh.

And be sure to respect the "Prez-ee-dent", kids.

I don't know exactly what to make of this. It's pretty obvious that you're not supposed to take it seriously, yet for a comedy it has far too much mayhem and not enough laughs. It's all quite stupid, really, and you might be tempted to shut it off even before the opening credits have finished rolling. But it has at least one charming sequence (when the female leader discovers for the first time what a "man" is), and some of the final scenes, showing the aftermath of a devastating battle, with fields littered with corpses, have a surprising impact. Be warned, however, that the movie DOES feature a shaggy mutant called "Aargh The Awful"! (**)

This totally wacky post-apocalypse comedy lets the viewer know right away NOT to take it seriously, and it provides a lot of good-natured humour in what is basically a tale of war between the sexes. Feisty Amazonian babes rule the planet in the 31st century, keeping some men as slaves and others as "seeders", or sperm donors. One of the men is Korvis (studly Chuck Wagner), who stumbles onto some pretty big discoveries when he finds an underground bunker. He encourages his male buddies, including Gruss (William Wallace) to think differently about the roles played by men and women. He also finds out how much fun it is to play prez-ee-dent.

The nutty dialogue is often hysterical; after a while you do pick up what certain words and phrases mean. This dialogue is delivered with the utmost sincerity by a great looking cast of guys and gals. The movie was filmed on location in Israel by those always reliable folk at the Cannon Group. It does lose its momentum, but regains it for an action packed finale. The actors and actresses are dressed sexily but never reveal anything, nor is the violence ever overly bloody. (This *is* rated PG-13.) Writer / director David Engelbach (who'd penned "Death Wish II" a few years previous) is having fun here, and that feeling is infectious. Some of the biggest laughs are delivered by a shaggy Bigfoot like character named Aargh the Awful (played by Steve Malovic); the final freeze frame involves Aargh and it's a howler.

The audience may find themselves in tears, or rolling their eyes, at the abundance of silliness here. It's very much the kind of thing you'd watch with beers and friends. It's also well worth watching for any Laurene Landon fan, as she looks absolutely fantastic as always. Also supplying eye candy are Galyn Gorg ("RoboCop 2") as Lynka and Camilla Sparv ("Downhill Racer") as Reya. Shaike Ophir is endearing as put upon character Lelz.

Accompanied by a quite appropriate cheese ball rock music score by Tony Berg, and effectively lit and photographed by David Gurfinkel, "America 3000" is overall just too hard to resist. It may not be "quality" stuff, but it sure as hell is entertaining.

Seven out of 10.

While America 3000 MAY be one of the ALLTIME grade-Z movies, a great deal of comments made by the other person to review this film are wrong. First off, the hairstyles. Since the film takes place 900 years AFTER World War III, and in the radioactive wild of Colorado, how could anybody be "suffering from "bad '80's style haircuts?" Moron. The hair is typical of a bunch of people stuck in the wild, with the intelligence of a lower primate with no vanity. Just wild, unkenmpt hair. Specifically, mine. I played Young Korvis, (the good looking one.) The film is narrated by Mr. William Wallace, who plays my grown up sidekick, Gruss. It could have been worse. Chuck Wagner of TV's "AutoMan" (who's a GREAT guy, if you ever get a chance to meet him) could've narrated, which would have been a mistake. While he has physical presence, vocally, he may be lacking. And this is odd, considering the amount of stage he's done before and since this film. Compared to the last Mad Max film, this movie is downright inspirational, even if filmed on a 3 million dollar budget. The Director (David Englebach) went on to develop "Over the Top" with Sly Stallone. Yeah, I barfed too, but it wasn't half bad. Last comment (since this is hardly a review, but more of a defense of a terrible flick..) This movie never made it to MST3K....I checked. What am I doing now? I shoot music videos for up and coming rock bands. If you're in the Los Angeles Area Friday, march 5 2004, come to Johnny Foxx's, and see Flying Venus, the hottest group from Northern California destined to become the next big thing. That's what us grade Z actors are doing now. And the winner is.............