Let us travel back to a time when all you needed to make an action movie was Robert Ginty and a kickin' VHS cover...
How do I even begin to describe the sheer awesomeness that is Warrior of the Lost World? Do I start with the amazing Robert Ginty, who mumbles his way through every scene with his “hip”-talking motorcycle in tow? How about Donald Pleasence as the villain Prossor, who even though clearly bored out of his mind still manages to be Donald fucking Pleasence? Or maybe the trashy, low-budget mishmash of genre elements from films made in the decade prior that sees the movie tackle everything from zombie mutants to S&M nightclubs to full-on, George Miller-style freeway chases between every vehicle known to man? Make no mistake: Warrior of the Lost World is that rare gem of a film - an awful, low-budget B-movie that actually lives up the fun promised on its overblown VHS cover. Suffice to say, Warrior of the Lost World is awesome.
One of the many post-apocalyptic rip-offs following hot on the heels of Mad Max and its sequel, Warrior of the Lost World follows the adventures of the nameless Rider, played by Robert Ginty and who’s totally not based on Max Rockatansky. The Rider has a supersonic speed-cycle named Einstein to get him from one street (strewn with a few old wrecked cars to make it look dystopian) to the next. While being attacked by a bunch of teenagers who clearly have just seen A Clockwork Orange, the Rider is thrown off his course and drives his supersonic speed-cycle into a wall. After one of many jarring jump-cuts, we find the Rider in a cave somewhere in the care of Fred Williamson and the rejected god extras from Clash of the Titans, who magically fix the Rider’s wounds with flashlights hidden up their sleeves. They explain their plight to the Rider, how their leader the Professor has been captured by the fascist villain Prossor (wait- what?) and are looking for just the right aimless Warrior of the Road to break into his fascist city and free him. The Rider blows them off, letting know in his dry monotone that he doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself (and possibly his supersonic speed-cycle buddy). Then Persis Khambatta (best known as the bald chick from Star Trek: The Motion Picture) shows up, and the Rider has a change of heart. What follows is a surprisingly competent array of stunts and set-pieces as the Rider and his army of misfit gangs (based on everything from droogs to Amazons to Nazis) take on Donald Pleasence and bunch of souped-up vehicles.
The eighties were a special time: a decade where a guy like Robert Ginty could headline a movie. Possessing no real acting talent and not especially handsome, it’s hard to see what the producers and directors of the various B-movies he was cast in throughout the decade saw when they hire him. But thank god they did, as Ginty here is kind of amazing in the title role - reaching a level of badness that is somewhat awe-inspiring to watch. As mentioned before, Ginty mumbles his way through all of his dialogue, no matter what emotions the scenes call for - whether he should be scared or intimidating or yelling through his helmet so his intelligent speed-cycle can hear him, Ginty keeps his performance on the same, mumbly plane. Ginty must have put himself through hours of meditation to achieve the Zen-like levels of badness he musters up here. Either that, or he took heavy Quaaludes each morning.
The rest of the cast benefits from acting off of Ginty, as average performers like Khambatta and Williamson* come off as master thespians in comparison. The movie also has an actual master thespian in Donald Pleasance, who seems to be drunk or bored in most of his scenes. Despite this, Pleasance still manages to make a threatening presence out of the threadbare villain - even when phoning it in, he’s still suitably fantastic. The rest of the cast consists primarily of dubbed-over Italian actors, and although I have a high tolerance for Italian exploitation, by the time the eighties rolled around whatever talent pool the institution had going was starting to slip away as the miniscule budgets began to shrink even further.
Writer/director David Worth says that once he was hired, he was shipped to Italy and told to write a script based on little more than a poster the producers commissioned. Although essentially B-movie trash, Worth embraces the aesthetic whole-heartedly. He knows exactly just what kind of movie he’s making, and although the budget is low and much of the talent is iffy, Worth seems to be having a blast behind the camera in creating his alternate world. Helping to overcome the movie’s shortcomings are impressive action and stunt scenes, which are competently shot and executed and manage to be a whole lot of fun to watch. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression - there’s nothing here even close to something like The Road Warrior - but I was pleasantly surprised throughout that the action was handled so well, whether it’s a helicopter chase halfway through or the Rider blowing punks away with dual automatics while astride his speed-cycle.
If you once spent hours in front of a TV watching VHS trash and hoping that one would finally live up to the promise of the cover, then you know what I’m talking about. Warrior of the Lost World just might be the ticket for you, too.
* Worthy of note if Fred Williamson is a selling point for you on the movie: he’s barely in it, so much so that he basically says “I think I’ll sit this one out,” when the Rider storms the city at the end.
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