2072, les mercenaires du futur

I bet the almighty Lucio Fulci didn't half realize back in 1984 how progressive and visionary the concept of his film would become. Sure the idea of recruiting death row prisoners as futuristic gladiators and broadcast their battle to live and death live on television is still extremely grotesque but the underlying and less obvious themes of "The New Gladiators" – like the appalling formula of reality-TV and the always-increasing quest for sensationalism – were way ahead of their time. This film is one of the numerous futuristic exploitation ventures that were released in the early 80's, all of them with the intention of cashing in on the huge success of John Carpenter's "Escape from New York". All these movies are incredibly violent, feature grim sets and flamboyant effect and – oh yeah – for some reason they practically all star Fred Williamson! I think Fred actually lived in between the decors and on the sets of low-budget Italian flicks back then. Anyway, Fulci naturally had to participate in this profitable Sci-Fi action trend and it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that his effort is one of the coolest and most sadistically violent of the entire bunch. In their search for the ultimate crowd-pleasing TV-show, slick studio bosses come up with the brilliant idea of reviving the ancient Roman spectacle of Gladiator fights. Death row prisoners from all over the world are recruited to fight in the arena to the death and, just because every show does better with a celebrity on board, the vicious TV-stations owners frame a popular stunt bike rider with murder, just so that he can be put in the battle as well. But with Drake as their leader and the help of a cute and caring computer expert, the Gladiators fight back! Awesome, undemanding and adrenalin-rushing entertainment from Maestro Fulci, "The New Gladiators" offers a spitfire of explosions, macho-showdowns, squeaking bike tires, decapitations, laser beams and revealing manly skirt-outfits! Riz Ortolani delivers one of the best scores of his career (perhaps even second only to his work for "Cannibal Holocaust") and Fred Williamson remains the male role model for utter coolness, despite the fact he plays his supportive role on automatic pilot.

Entertainingly goofy science-fiction from Lucio Fulci. The story takes forever to get started, and the part of the film that may attract most viewers - the recreation of the gladiatorial battles of the ancient Rome - is too short. But, the effects are amusing, the sets almost psychedelic, and the decapitations plentiful! This is a picture that I wouldn't care to see twice, but certainly one viewing is recommended. (**)

After knocking out a succession of gory cannibal flicks and umpteen cheap clones of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, several of Italy's horror directors moved on to the post-apocalyptic genre, bringing fans a tirade of silly Mad Max inspired nonsense with suitably daft titles: New Barbarians; Atlantis Interceptors; 2019: After the Fall of New York; New Bronx Gladiators of the Year 3000 (actually, that one's not real... but you get the idea).

Amongst these iffy, cheap looking and often laughable efforts was Lucio Fulci's Rome 2033 - The Fighter Centurions (as it was known here in the UK), a violent (natch!), cheesy, and amazingly shonky production, made slightly more interesting by the fact that it's plot bears more than a passing resemblance to the Arnold Schwarzeneggar hit The Running Man—which was made three years later!

Jared Martin plays Drake, star of the bloodthirsty show Kill Bike, in which contestants on motorcycles must attempt to slaughter their opposition. However, when the corrupt bosses at TV network WBS decide that they need something even more brutal to help them win the ratings war, they frame Drake for murder and enrol him as a participant in their latest TV spectacular, Battle of the Damned, a fight to the death between condemned criminals in a gladiatorial arena.

There's also some boring nonsense about a super-computer planning to take over the world, and a beautiful WBS employee who attempts to help Drake avoid certain death, but, let's face it, that's probably not why most people will sit down to watch this. So what juicy delights does Fulci serve up for fans in this potential bloodbath?

Well, not that much actually! An early graphic throat slashing turns out to be merely an image projected into the mind of a game-show contestant; much of the motorbike mayhem results in bodies being either blown up or crushed, but with very little gore on display; and the brief decapitation of a gladiator ends with a shot of the neck spurting blood.

For maximum enjoyment, I advise viewers to sit back, forget about the lack of splatter, and just revel in the sheer silliness of the whole thing: the incredibly bad Bladerunner-style cityscapes; the entertaining chariot race featuring really naff-looking, customised bikes; and the fact that, somehow, not only do all of the condemned criminals know how to ride a motorbike, but they can all effortlessly pop a prolonged wheelie!

During his career , Fulci contributed to many different genres. It is a bid sad that he is remembered only for his gore movies, though they are classics.

But Fulci making a sci-fi movie still sounded like a disaster, especially given the low budgets with which Fulci worked during the period when he made "New gladiators". Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with the result. Clearly, one cannot call the movie a good movie. For this, it is far too uneven: It has a fairly good opening, but step by step degrades into plain silliness culminating into Drake swallowing a device which allows him to manipulate all electronic equipment and even melt metal walls. At the end, the movie resumes pace again for a rather satisfying ending.

As often noted, even by Fulci's daughter Antonella, the "New gladiators" is highly reminiscent of "Rollerball" and of other classic American sci-fi-movies such as "Logan's run". Fulci manages to use some of his trademark elements to enhance the familiar motives: First, there is the overall dark atmosphere of the movie. Second, there are some almost surreal sequences such as the killing of Drake's wife. Third, there is the juxtapposition of antique and future Rome. At this point, I would like to mention that the often criticized toy models are filmed quite effectively and help to create an illusion, though not a perfect one. Fulci and the scriptwriters get an extra credit for managing to incorporate a throat slashing with Poe's pendulum into this movie!

All in all, "New Gladiators" is a slightly messed up movie with interesting details to keep you amused. As such, it is much more entertaining than recent Hollywood big budget sci-fis which feature even less story and more silly plot elements than the worst Fulci movie and are completely brainless.

There's some decent ideas in Lucio Fulci's contribution to the Italian post-nuke sci-fi action sweepstakes of the early '80s, but they're rendered somewhat inert thanks to the wooden acting of the Americans, and the horrid dubbing of the Italians. The Lego-Land-with-Xmas-Lights miniatures don't help, either.

And is it me, or did Fred Williamson just disappear from the final scene? He just vanishes. Where did he go? Was he called for reshoots for "1990: The Bronx Warriors?" Was there a summons to loop his dialogue for "Warriors of the Wasteland?" Did he need to attend a Kansas City Chiefs benefit dinner? Who knows?