My review was written in January 1985 after a screening at Cine 42 on Manhattan's 42nd St.
"Escape from the Bronx" is a thinly plotted followup by the same Italian filmmakers who made one of Vic Morrow's last features, "1990: The Bronx Warriors". Prospects are quite limited at the nation's action houses.
Mark Gregory returns, circa the year 2000, as Trash, one of the survivors of gang warfare in the sci-fi extrapolation of New York City's problems. Story, heavily indebted to John Carpenter's "Escape from New York", has the General Construction Corp. Hiring Wangler (Henry Silva) to exterminate the residents of the Bronx, while manipulating the press and public into believing that the populace is being relocated to new housing in New Mexico. Scheme is to raze the Bronx and build luxury housing there.
A crusading reporter, Moon (Valeria D'Obici, star of Ettore Scola's "Passione D'Amore") tries to help the Bronx denizens, coming up with the idea of kidnapping G. C. Corp.'s president as a bargaining chip. Master thief Strike (Timothe Brent) is recruited to pull off the caper, but the dull second half of the picture consists largely of nihilistic shootouts in place of plot twists.
Director Enzo G. Castellari's action style is overly heavy on slow motion balletics in place of the exciting chases which made "The Road Warrior" and latterly "The Terminator" hits in this genre. Cast, including a cute son to help out Strike, is merely functional, but pic is aided by acceptable post-synching of English-articulated dialog.
