Le camion de la mort

"Battletruck" is yet another umpteenth rip-off of "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", only this time fabricated in New Zealand! Apparently not only the Italians but also their own neighbors, the Kiwis, were trying to cash-in on the cinematic success of the Aussies. Can you blame them? I guess not, because flamboyant post-nuclear vehicles were THE cinematic hype during the early 80's. This is a fairly enjoyable post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi flick, as long as you don't expect to see anything groundbreaking or mind-blowing. These post-apocalyptic flicks practically all feature the exact same elements. They take place during the aftermath of WWIII, when approximately 90% of the earth's population has been wiped out and oil products have become extremely scarce. They generally also feature only three types of main characters. Mad-raving psychopaths with bombastic vehicles on a murderous rampage looking for gas, Samaritan community members trying their best to re-build some sort of prosperous civilization and one (or maximally three or four) handsome outcast roaming the wastelands. In "Battletruck", the malignant General Straker overthrows the cute community of Clearwater because they gave shelter to his beloved runaway muse Corlie. Unfortunately for him, the lone rebel Hunter comes speeding in on his dirt bike to rescue the wench and save the day. Not very original, but good enough to guarantee an hour and a half of brainless entertainment. The obvious aspect to love about "Battletruck" is the titular 18-wheeled war machine. General Straker and his band of dim-witted crazies move around in a heavily armored truck that cheerfully runs over protective fences and people's houses. No wonder Straker is continuously on the lookout for fuel, as this thing must at least consume 17 gallons per 60 miles! The truck is undoubtedly the star of the movie, and thus director Harley Cokeliss aims all of his cameras on it as much as possible. The truck looks cool from all angles and especially in close up. The action sequences in "Battletruck" are somewhat disappointing. There's not a whole lot of cruelty and bloodshed (at least not compared to the Italian counterparts) and there weren't even any hints at sleaze or perversion! The acting performances are extremely weak and hammy, especially from lead couple Michael Beck (Swan of "The Warriors"!) and Annie McEnroe. Evil man James Wainwright, who looks like a crossover between Daniel Von Bargen and William Shatner, is okay but still not psychotic enough.

"Warlords of the 21st Century" aka "Battletruck" (as it is known to me) was a movie that I saw once when I was about eleven years old. It came on late night television and it left an extremely good impression on me.. Since then I've been trying to obtain the film on VHS for nearly eight years. It was so hard to get, even when I was in New Zealand I couldn't get my hands on it, as it was only for rent and no one would sell it to me.

Seeing it again it didn't give me the same rush as I was little, but still, it was very entertaining. This low budget "Mad Max"-like action flick is no blockbuster, nor is it surprising since the storyline is very straightforward.. But the battletruck itself looks scary, the music is a little creepy and the acting performances are good enough.. Great for an evening on the couch with some friends, IF you can get your hands on a copy.. 7/10

Reading the comments about this movie, for one, their not trying to sound like Americans, they are speaking New Zealand, thats the way we sound except for the odd over acted lines. i remember this being made and even seeing the land rover series one come to our school.knew the truck driver who drove the Mack, and even where most of the scenes where filmed. Alexandra right in the heart of central Otago. one scene where he is being chased though pines trees is 30 seconds out of Alexandra, heading north from Alex to Cromwell looked left and there you have it!! Back in the 80's this was great but now in the 2000 looks abit cheap. the original tidal was Battletruck but I see they changed to it warlords, Battletruck is better. Just finished watching again, been 24 years since i last seen it... brings back memory's!! But man as kids did we have fun with our toys after watching this!! Same with the movie Convoy....cool!

I watched this film mostly just because I am a fan of Michael Beck and his films. This film I think he did pretty well in. His character seems a bit dark and knows what he's doing kind of guy. So the story is pretty simple.

It's about a futuristic war in the 21st century is looking for a new age in technology. That's about how the film is. I am not so interested in the film, but like I said, i'm a Michael Beck fan. His character's name is Hunter and tries to stop the terrorists. It isn't bad for it's time, but now it's not so great. I give it 5/10 stars.

Also, I would have gave an R rating for this film. I mean it has swearing in certain parts of the film, and there are lots of killings in this. I mean a PG rating? It's not really that nice in the film. Just saying.

Another post-apocalyptic sci-fi, recently released on a DVD alongside Deathsport. Likewise, this one is very lowly rated (4.1 at the moment). I can understand that about Deathsport, but I think Battletruck (aka Warlords of the 21st Century) is downright good. I think the problem is that it's very similar to George Miller's The Road Warrior. Some IMDb reviewers even refer to it as a rip-off, but it was being made before The Road Warrior was ever even released, and, at least in most places, it was released almost at the exact same time (in the U.S. both were released in April of 1982). Compared to The Road Warrior, okay, Battletruck isn't nearly as good. But I won't hold that against it. The Road Warrior is all kinds of awesome. Battletruck is merely good, with a less ambitious story, though still probably too ambitious to completely succeed with the small budget it had. But still, it's pretty good. Michael Beck of The Warriors stars (though he doesn't appear for a good while into the film, which is a cool touch) as a lone wolf in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. He rescues Annie McEnroe (a character actress whom you might recognize from Beetlejuice and many other films), who has escaped her villain father (James Wainwright), but is left stranded in the middle of nowhere. Wainwright drives around in the titular truck raiding whatever settlements he can find and stealing all the oil and gasoline he can find. Beck takes McEnroe to a democratic settlement called Clearwater (among whose citizens is John Ratzenberger, who probably has more lines in this movie than any other before he started working with Pixar). They aren't all too trusting of Beck, who does some business with Clearwater but lives out on his own somewhere, and some of the citizens fear McEnroe's presence. That proves insightful when Wainwright comes along looking for her (and fuel). The action sequences in the film are well done, and the scenery is nice (it was filmed in New Zealand). Too bad it was shot in Academy ratio (or perhaps only still exists in that format).