Fulci gathers an ensemble cast and almost but not quite gives us yet another Italian post-apocalypse style movie. Is this one post-apocalypse? If so, they missed all those Roman landmarks.
This time round, we've got some guy from Dallas, Al Cliver (The Devil Hunter, House of Clocks), Fred Williamson (Black Cobra 1, Black Cobra 2, Black Cobra 3), Claudio Cassenelli (Flavia the Heritic, Hands of Steel, sporting a very strange haircut), Donald OBrien (Mannaja, Emmanual and the Last Cannibals) and Al Yamanouchi (House of Lost Souls, Endgame). George Eastman? He's not here man! Still, with a cast like that you'd think you'd be in for something totally awesome, right? Well, it starts off pretty well, with our Hero (Dallas guy) being a big TV star in some show called Killbike. The thing is, Claudio is an exec for some rival show and wants to up the stakes by having gladiators go toe to toe, to the death, but needs Dallas guy as he draws the big ratings. Three guys turn up and murder our Hero's wife, leading him to kill them in revenge (or does he?). Voila – instant convicted killer TV show type thing. Roll on the carnage! This is where the film stumbles a bit. Instead of Big Fred driving about on a bike chopping heads off people, we get our Hero trying to escape the prison, fighting other prisoners, going up against the guards, and both him and one of the TV exec girls tyring to find out who killed those guys who killed his wife. Plus, an awful lot of strobe effects. And I mean loads.
You do get to the action eventually though, and although you'd be expecting blood and gore from Fulci, he's kind of restrained here. There are severed heads flying about the place but The Beyond this is not.
Fulci also continues his headache inducing camera techniques he used in the far better Conquest, as, along with all the strobe effects, he has demented visual effects, lights fading on and off, lens flashes and the like. I did like the bikers driving through futuristic Rome and thought perhaps he was making some reference to that scene in Fellini's Roma? Anytthing's possible in Italian cinema.
So, New Gladiators is, as they say, not one of Fulci's best. It's not bad, but compared to the sci-fi Joe D'Amato and Enzo Castellari were throwing at us at the same time, it's second tier stuff.
Forgot to mention: Al Cliver is dubbed by Nick Alexander, for a change.
This time round, we've got some guy from Dallas, Al Cliver (The Devil Hunter, House of Clocks), Fred Williamson (Black Cobra 1, Black Cobra 2, Black Cobra 3), Claudio Cassenelli (Flavia the Heritic, Hands of Steel, sporting a very strange haircut), Donald OBrien (Mannaja, Emmanual and the Last Cannibals) and Al Yamanouchi (House of Lost Souls, Endgame). George Eastman? He's not here man! Still, with a cast like that you'd think you'd be in for something totally awesome, right? Well, it starts off pretty well, with our Hero (Dallas guy) being a big TV star in some show called Killbike. The thing is, Claudio is an exec for some rival show and wants to up the stakes by having gladiators go toe to toe, to the death, but needs Dallas guy as he draws the big ratings. Three guys turn up and murder our Hero's wife, leading him to kill them in revenge (or does he?). Voila – instant convicted killer TV show type thing. Roll on the carnage! This is where the film stumbles a bit. Instead of Big Fred driving about on a bike chopping heads off people, we get our Hero trying to escape the prison, fighting other prisoners, going up against the guards, and both him and one of the TV exec girls tyring to find out who killed those guys who killed his wife. Plus, an awful lot of strobe effects. And I mean loads.
You do get to the action eventually though, and although you'd be expecting blood and gore from Fulci, he's kind of restrained here. There are severed heads flying about the place but The Beyond this is not.
Fulci also continues his headache inducing camera techniques he used in the far better Conquest, as, along with all the strobe effects, he has demented visual effects, lights fading on and off, lens flashes and the like. I did like the bikers driving through futuristic Rome and thought perhaps he was making some reference to that scene in Fellini's Roma? Anytthing's possible in Italian cinema.
So, New Gladiators is, as they say, not one of Fulci's best. It's not bad, but compared to the sci-fi Joe D'Amato and Enzo Castellari were throwing at us at the same time, it's second tier stuff.
Forgot to mention: Al Cliver is dubbed by Nick Alexander, for a change.