Les Guerriers du Bronx 2

(1983) Escape 2000/ Escape From the Bronx/ Fuga dal Bronx DUBBED SCIENCE FICTION ACTION THRILLER

A dystopian movie cross between "Escape In New York" and "The Warriors" with Italian financing depicting the Bronx as a slums area with the mayors and representatives attempting to kill it's citizens off as opposed to re-locating. Co-written and directed by Enzo G. Castellari with Trash (Mark Gregory) on the run while he and others are being pursued by Floyd Wrangler (Henry Silva) and his extermination Disinfestors squad for the purpose of rebuilding the environment. Ordered by the President to eliminate anyone who is infected. Forgettable but very watchable.

Back in the 80s, several producers in Italy decided to copy whatever was popular in the rest of the world and create some low-tech, low-budget, and low-expectation knockoffs. This is one of those films with a title, plot and characters that have counterparts in "Escape From New York". But overall, its kinda cool.

Mark Gregory returns as Trash who is living the smooth life of being a thung in the slums. But the evil General Construction Corporation have decided that the Bronx needs to rebuilt and decide to save money and time by simply killing everyone who didn't take them up on their offer to move to New Mexico(what's so bad about moving to New Mexico anyway?). The GCC hires an expelled prison warden who loves death(played by Rat Packer Henry Silva) to lead a bunch of "disinfesters" who are guys in silver jumpsuits & bike helmets that carry semi-auotmatics and a bunch of astronauts with flame throwers. Trash is their target and they pursue him and his friends on a long chase sequence under the Bronx.

Worth checking out in its original form or the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.

Enzo G. Castellari definitely is a gifted director of Westerns (such as "Keoma"), Poliziotteschi (such as "Street Law", "Racket") or War cinema ("Deadly Mission"). His extremely trashy 'Bronx' films are definitely no highlights of his career, but they're nevertheless highly entertaining pieces of postapocalyptic exploitation cinema."Fuga Dal Bronx" aka. "Escape From The Bronx" of 1983 is the even trashier sequel to the, already very trashy "1990: The Bronx Warriors" (1982), which was only made to cash in on the success of films like "Escape from NY" or "The Warriors. This is, on the one hand, even sillier than its successor, but on the other hand even more action-packed and entertaining, and a film that Italian Trash enthusiasts should not miss.

10 years after the events in "1990: The Bronx Warriors", the owner of a company is planning to tear down the hellish gangland of the Bronx, in order to build a new Utopian center of New York. Officially, the inhabitants are offered houses in New Mexico, but they are really forced out of their neighborhood by extermination squads lead by the unscrupulous Floyd Wrangler (the great Henry Silva), who has ordered to kill everybody who refuses to leave. Tough biker and former gang leader Trash (Mark Gregory, who played the same role in the first film), decides to fight back...

The story is even more forgettable than in "Bronx Warriors", but the constant violent action in "Fuga dal Bronx" makes up for the moronic plot. It's an enormous number of explosions and violent killings as well as the wonderful trash-feeling that makes this film worthwhile. Although this film was made only 1 year after its successor, Mark Gregory fits in his role quite well now. I didn't like him in the first film, since he still looked like a teenager, and even though the guy is not much of an actor, he fits in the role of Trash quite well now. In exchange for the true stars of the first film, Fred Williamson and Vic Morrorw, "Escape From The Bronx" features one of the greatest icons of Italian genre cinema, Henry Silva, as the villain. All things considered, "Fuga dal Bronx" is certainly no masterpiece, but it is definitely worthwhile for my fellow fans of dystopian exploitation flicks.

This is one of the most entertaining flicks I've seen in a long time. If the cool explosions, slow motion, pyrotechnics, music, and funny dialogue don't satisfy you, then I don't know what will. More deaths than a Verhoeven flick, more slow motion than a John Woo flick, what more could you want? Does not retain the same atmosphere that 1990 THE BRONX WARRIORS had, but is almost never boring. I'm not giving anything away, but watch for the great scene when three rebels are gunned down fleeing a man rigged with a bomb. I've seen the movie a dozen times and it still tickles me!

Who was honored at a special "psychotronic" screening at the

Paris cinematheque. This one came second after a fairly decent

war movie. During Q&A, Castellari did not hide the fact that, for the

first movie, Mark Gregory was hired in a Gym in Roma, for his

physique more than his non-existent acting skills, which he proved

in several movies. Castellari stressed the fact that he was

disappointed with Gregory in this one, since he had lost a lot of

muscular weight (maybe that's why he never looses his jacket ?

And no closes-up, hiding his non-existent acting skills) Anyhoo, it

never was an actor to begin with, that is obvious. Anybody knows

what became of him ? (Castellari is a pretty nice and jovial man,

BTW, very open and straightforward during Q&A) I still think this sequel is better than the original, for what it's worth.

Both had huge releases in Europe, with impressive posters, and

made good money. Now, you have the same with 50 mil budgets,

a few MTV stars and special effects galore… Go figure !