2020 Texas Gladiators

I find it very interesting that the at times Mega-Sleaze merchant like Aristide Massaccesi can knuckle down and make a pretty good action PA movie delivering tense atmosphere, well choreographed shoot-outs and some real forward-thinking between character relationships but all the while also keeping the sickening depravity (mostly) off the screen. For these reasons, if say you love Jesus Franco's latter movies that just seem to degenerate into pawn then you probably won't like 2020 Texas Gladiators that much. One of the interesting things about the movie is when one central character gets killed off and then the focus changes to another character then suddenly the situations tend to take on progressive changes in perspective, if that made any sense. The budget of the movie is obviously low, but the resourceful effects like the animated electricity on the futuristic riot-shields brandished by the enemy soldiers sometimes let you forget the shield frames are cardboard on close inspection. Because there are not many faces attached to the actors here at IMDb I forget the character name of the enemy boss, he was kind of a neo-Nazi type, not the best actor but he looks creepy and was funny at times. In conclusion, I liked this a lot more than any Mad Max film, it is definitely way better than Fury Road, so it is well worth seeking out.

Yes you heard right! One UPS Delivery Truck ...full of neo Nazis led by the "black one" (or as I like to call him "the bald one").

After an "atomic war" was shattered civilization, rouge gangs of bikers, green mutants and one brown UPS Delivery truck full of neo Nazis aim to take over the world... well not exactly the world, just the state of Texas. It is a good thing Dubya hasn't seen this movie, or he might declare war on the UPS corporation for harboring neo Nazis terrorists in their delivery vans! This movie is simply unimaginable! How any of the actors kept a straight face during filming is beyond me! Most everything in the previous comments about this movie's plot is accurate and there isn't much I can add. The plot, if there is one, is void of anything - other than the countless rape scenes (that left me sick to my stomach), a lot of cheesy gun battles and the "black one's" sinister laugh is to die for! Even more funny is how the lowly Texians are trapped in their makeshift fort fending off a highly trained army...kinda reminded me of the Alamo Battle! And don't forget the brilliant portray of the American Indian, priceless ...or maybe not.

What is even more ironic about this movie is how violent it is! When I was 13 years old - I rented this movie! Yes - I walked into a video store and rented the movie with no questions asked! I recently obtained a copy of the movie off Ebay.com - simply to add to my collection of Cold War/End of the World movies.

I rate this movie a 5 out of 10 ...only because the UPS Delivery like truck full of neo Nazis and the "black one's" sinister laugh will have you laughing your butt off until doomsday does us all in!

My review was written in November 1985 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

"2020 Texas Gladiators" is an incomprehensible action pic, made during the 1982-83 boom in Italian takeoffs on "Mad Max" and similar films. New Line Cinema mulled a theatrical release last year (under new title "Sudden Death") for this item from Helen Sarlui's Continental Motion Pictures banner, but instead it is going direct to home video by MHE release.

Absent any Texas location establishing footage, this made-in-Rome property opens with a telltale scene of post-nuclear war marauders attacking a priest and nuns. A group of "rangers" (our heroes) defeat the baddies, but one ranger Catch Dog (Daniel Stephen) tries to rape heroine Maida (Sabrina Siani) and is banished from their group by nominal leader Nisus (Al Cliver).

Without any exposition, next sequence is apparently several years later, with Nisus working at a petroleum refinery and Maida taking care of a cute little girl (revealed to be her daughter several reels later). Catch Dog shows up leading a bunch of marauders on 250-cc. Motorcycles, riot police arrive in a battletruck and are protected by bullet-repelling thermal shields, and a Nazi-styled leader named Black One (Donal O'Brien) tries to set up a new order.

Though action sequences are directed adequately, film totally lacks connective tissue and makes no sense whatsoever. Only laughs are provided by guys dressed up like cowboys, wielding whips presumably left over from the 1960s pasta oaters craze, and very fake Indians riding to the rescue. In a shaggy dog joke, Catch Dog carries around a weird-looking, multi-barreled prop gun, which he finally tries to shoot in the final reel -it doesn't work, so he tosses it away in disgust unfired.

Multinational cast is okay, with ubiquitous leading lady Sabrina Siani styled to resemble Daryl Hannah this time out.

2020 Texas Gladiators (1982)

** (out of 4)

A post-apocalyptic Texas is the setting for this Joe D'Amato film, which has a group of good guys (led by Al Cliver) going through and cleaning up the rougher parts of the city. One of their members, a real nut case, decides to try and rape a woman so he is beaten and kicked out of the group. Sure enough, he forms his own bad guy group and soon he's attacking our good people.

I'm purposely using lame terms like "good guys" and "bad guys" because the film is pretty darn simple like that. There's really not too much of a plot but I'm sure you already know that and especially if you're familiar with these Italian MAD MAX wannabe films. This here is yet another film like that but I must say that I think John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK had an influence on many films from this genre, including this one.

D'Amato, Cliver and several of the crew members also did ENDGAME, another post-apocalyptic film an that one there is slightly better but this one here has a few good things going for it. The highlight of the film are obviously the various action scenes, which certainly show their low-budget nature but at the same time the scenes are at least fun and there are a couple nice kills throughout including one man who gets his chest pretty much brutally attacked. There's even a scene where a nun cuts her throat (twice!?!) to try and avoid the bad guys attacking her.

Performances are pretty much what you'd expect out of a film like this but when is Cliver (ZOMBIE) not worth watching? He makes for a good lead and certainly helps keep you entertained in what you're watching. As you'd expect, all of the women are quite beautiful so that's always a major plus.

2020 Texas GLADIATORS isn't a film that's going to win any major awards but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching if you're a fan of D'Amato or the genre.

Joe D'Amato, mostly known for his sleazy and downright nauseating horror flicks like "Buried Alive", "Anthropophagus" and "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals", joins his contemporary Italian colleagues in making over- the-top cheesy and ridiculous post-nuclear Science Fiction movies! The trend started elsewhere, mostly with the Australian "Mad Max" and John Carpenter's "Escape from New York", but the Italians exploited the success of these films shamelessly and endlessly! Lucio Fulci had "The New Gladiators", Sergio Martino had "After the Fall of New York", Ruggero Deodato had "Atlantis Interceptors", Enzo G. Castellari had "The Bronx Warriors" and our good pal Joe D'Amato has both "Endgame" and this "2020 – The Texas Gladiators". It's a deliciously cheesy hodgepodge of semi-processed ideas and blatantly stolen sequences from other movies, and if you're a fan of this sort of trash, you're guaranteed to love it in spite of all the awfulness.

The movie starts, as to be expected, as a bunch of chaos! Texas is entirely destroyed by nuclear warfare and hoodlum gangs randomly run amok in the streets. Luckily there's a quintet of courageous beefcake warriors parading around to protect the weaklings. During a fight in a monastery (there's a nun who cuts her own throat … TWICE!), one of them is banished for trying to rape a girl and another one leaves voluntary to marry and live in a community that tries to rebuild civilization. The evil Nazi-inspired Black One violently invades this community, however, and makes a widow out of the warrior's wife. The tree remaining buddies pick up the girl in a sleazy bar and decide to help her in defeating Black One and his evil lieutenant, who's also an old acquaintance of them. Mind you, this is just a very brief and shortened plot description. There's a whole lot more going on in "2020 – Texas Gladiators". Too much to mention, actually, as there are authentic traditional Indians, enslaved mine workers, Russian roulette sequences that are stolen straight from "The Deer Hunter", Nazis with amours of steel and one tremendously cool Asian fighting expert!

Unless, of course, you have no idea what the early 80's Italian rip- off/exploitation business is all about, you simply cannot dislike "2020 – Texas Gladiators". Whilst slightly less outrageous and entertaining as "Endgame", this is another over-the-top flamboyant smörgåsbord of sleaze and violence. Donald O'Brien is fantastically stereotypical, in a totally deliberate fashion, and the battle sequences are hysterical. Imagine: hi-tech weapons can't perpetrate through the armor of the Nazi soldiers, but old-fashioned Indians with their primitive arrows and spears wipe them out in a matter of seconds! D'Amato's film is full of similar nonsense like this, and more. A real treat for demented exploitation dorks, like myself.