1990: Bronx Warriors Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1982

Italian directors were fascinated with duplicating the successful formulas of American post-apocalyptic and/or gang films for a good part of the 1980's, and 1990: Bronx Warriors was one in a long line of attempts. Although questionable acting and low budgets were par for the course in such movies, some films managed to overcome their flaws and provide some guilty pleasure B-movie entertainment. Does this film reach this level? Read on to find out…

We were born dead. Life means nothing. We live with death every single day. Death walks with us. Death rides and sleeps with us. We carry its smell under our skin. - Trash

The year is 1990 and the Bronx region of New York City has become a wasteland ruled by street gangs and violent criminals. Normal citizens have fled across the river to the Manhattan area and police dare not tread in the crime-infested cesspool.

But apparently not all is well within the privileged sector, because Ann (Stefania Girolami), the heiress to a fortune, has chosen to flee her rich lifestyle and risk the dangers of the Bronx instead. Almost immediately she finds herself surrounded by the Zombies, one of the many street gangs, but before they can abduct her the Riders, yet another gang, rescues her.

Trash (Mark Gregory), the leader of the Riders, is instantly smitten with the young rich woman and decides to take her under his wing. He comes to find out that she's the heiress of the Manhattan Corporation, a dominating business enterprise that controls 60% of the world's arms productions. Within a couple days Ann will turn 18 and become the president of the company, but she doesn't wish to be surrounded by the ruthless corporate businessmen that work within the company.

Here is where one of 1990: Bronx Warrior's most significant plot holes enters the equation. Sure, it's farfetched to believe a woman set to become the next president of a multi-billion dollar company would leave it all behind to romp around with a violent street gang, but we'll go with it. Maybe she fell on her head once too often as a child and has a hard time making rational decisions. Worse, we're expected to believe that a monolithic corporation that has run itself for years will suddenly crumble like a house of cards without the presence of a girl they never needed previously. That one is a little more difficult to swallow.

Moving on! The Zombies kidnap Ann, which makes Trash and Ice (Joshua Sinclair), his right-hand man, decide to declare war on the Tigers. Let me get this straight… the Zombies kidnap his girl, so they have to kick the Tigers' ass!? Okay, let's just gloss over that incredulous turn of events.

Trash realizes that his gang isn't strong enough to handle the other gangs alone, so he must seek out the aid of the Ogre (Fred "the Hammer" Williamson), the recognized "king" of the Bronx. Unfortunately the Ogre's domain is on the other side of the Bronx, so Trash and two compatriots must travel across the neighborhoods of competing gangs such as the Jackals, the Scavengers and the Sharks.

Now I won't summarize the entire journey or 1990: Bronx Warrior's plot here, but I will take a moment to discuss the absolutely wonky gangs that exist in this futuristic (well, futuristic back in 1982!) wasteland. The first gang that Trash encounters on his dangerous journey is a group of cane-wielding tap dancers donning tuxedos and metal top hats! In quick order they smack the tar out of Trash's two gang members, all the while dancing around with constant clickity-clacking. Their leader arrives to negotiate with Trash after this ludicrous scene and she continues to tap dance around him in circles as they speak; believe me, folks, this scene was pulled straight out of the theater of the absurd!

Anyhow, the street gangs are not Trash's only concern, for the Manhattan Corporation has hired Hammer (Vic Morrow) and Hot Dog (Christopher Connelly), two dangerous mercenaries, to retrieve Ann. Behind them is the entire might of the corporation's soldiers and Manhattan law enforcement, and eventually all street gangs and corporate armies will clash in a bloody showdown.

You will get the standard faire that comes with cheap Italian post-apocalyptic B-movies in 1990: Bronx Warriors, so let's start by covering what we expect to be horrible with such movies: the acting.

The star of the film, Mark Gregory, put out an extremely wooden performance, both in speech and movement. There are a couple reasons for this, of course. First, Gregory emits no emotion during his speech, which is because although he is speaking English (and pretty well, considering the circumstances) he was an Italian that didn't understand what he was saying! He was coached on how to say the words, but didn't understand the definitions, so he didn't know when to emote.

Some of his walking and movement is a little stilted too, which is due to the fact that Gregory had to learn how to walk in a macho manner for 1990: Bronx Warriors. You see, he wasn't an actor before this film – he was a 17-year old body builder working as a shoe salesman. Plus he moved in an effeminate manner, so his natural walk was too swishy for the role of a toughened heterosexual gang leader.

Fred Williamson is almost always fun to watch onscreen, and 1990: Bronx Warriors is no different. He struts around with a confident air and kicks butt like no one's business in a series of surprisingly well-choreographed fight scenes. Vic Morrow and Christopher Connelly were also very cool and exciting to watch, and even the inexperienced Stefania Girolami put in a good performance. B-movie legend George Eastman also makes an appearance as Golan, leader of the Zombies.

Most of the main characters were better than the norm for a movie of this caliber – it's the secondary gang actors that put forth wince-inducing performances. Since it's an Italian production some of the vulgarity is atrociously creative and sometimes good for a cheap grin. You'll hear gems such as, "you find what you're looking for, p*sshead?" or the even more groan-worthy entry, "just keep talkin' f*gface and I'll tear your f**king lid off."

The story, although a ripped blend of Escape from New York and The Warriors, is surprisingly deep for a movie of this type, and the fight scenes and special effects can't be faulted considering the budget they had to work with either.

If 1990: Bronx Warriors is to be faulted for anything, it's that its plot was too ambitious for its budget. The movie had a lot of potential, and the scenes shot in New York weren't too shabby at all, but the scenes shot in Rome's inner city neighborhoods that were meant to mimic New York weren't as successful.

So is this a good movie? No, it has too many flaws to be categorized as good. But is 1990: Bronx Warriors worth watching if you're generally a fan of post-apocalyptic flicks and have a tolerance for lower budgets or Italian productions? Absolutely… it's a lot better than putrid attempts such as The New Barbarians.

Movie rating: 6 stars

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