Fuga del Bronx

Enzo G. Castellari definitely is a gifted director of Westerns (such as "Keoma"), Poliziotteschi (such as "Street Law", "Racket") or War cinema ("Deadly Mission"). His extremely trashy 'Bronx' films are definitely no highlights of his career, but they're nevertheless highly entertaining pieces of postapocalyptic exploitation cinema."Fuga Dal Bronx" aka. "Escape From The Bronx" of 1983 is the even trashier sequel to the, already very trashy "1990: The Bronx Warriors" (1982), which was only made to cash in on the success of films like "Escape from NY" or "The Warriors. This is, on the one hand, even sillier than its successor, but on the other hand even more action-packed and entertaining, and a film that Italian Trash enthusiasts should not miss.

10 years after the events in "1990: The Bronx Warriors", the owner of a company is planning to tear down the hellish gangland of the Bronx, in order to build a new Utopian center of New York. Officially, the inhabitants are offered houses in New Mexico, but they are really forced out of their neighborhood by extermination squads lead by the unscrupulous Floyd Wrangler (the great Henry Silva), who has ordered to kill everybody who refuses to leave. Tough biker and former gang leader Trash (Mark Gregory, who played the same role in the first film), decides to fight back...

The story is even more forgettable than in "Bronx Warriors", but the constant violent action in "Fuga dal Bronx" makes up for the moronic plot. It's an enormous number of explosions and violent killings as well as the wonderful trash-feeling that makes this film worthwhile. Although this film was made only 1 year after its successor, Mark Gregory fits in his role quite well now. I didn't like him in the first film, since he still looked like a teenager, and even though the guy is not much of an actor, he fits in the role of Trash quite well now. In exchange for the true stars of the first film, Fred Williamson and Vic Morrorw, "Escape From The Bronx" features one of the greatest icons of Italian genre cinema, Henry Silva, as the villain. All things considered, "Fuga dal Bronx" is certainly no masterpiece, but it is definitely worthwhile for my fellow fans of dystopian exploitation flicks.

This post-apocalyptic film is a barrage of non-stop action and cheese. A ruthless corporation decides to exterminate inhabitants of the Bronx. In the future. In the year 2000. The said inhabitants from the future, strangely resemble every conceivable type of pop star from the early 1980's; from synth pop futurists to New Wave cheesemongers to heavy metal poodle-permers. Funnily enough, it only appears to be 'the future' in the Bronx - on the streets of Manhattan it clearly seems to be 1983. Confused? You should be; this is after all an 80's Italian sci-fi actioner.

Bronx Warriors 2 is full of action and stupidity. It's a lot of fun. It's chock-full of silly characters. The star Mark Gregory makes for a ridiculous hero. Antonio Sabato is hilariously OTT as a character inexplicably called Toblerone. Henry Silva phones in a performance of a man shouting on a phone.

You can never truthfully be bored with this movie. It's action from start to finish. And there are some hilarious details to enjoy. For instance, the model of the redeveloped city - in it, not only have they went to the trouble of hilariously depicting the Bronx buildings in crumbling detail but if this is true to scale then the Bronx is only three blocks big! This film would make a great double-bill alongside Bruno Mattei's equally trashy post-apocalyptic movie, Rats (1984). That would be a good night of fun for the Italian Z-Movie aficionado. Ciao!

Outstripping its predecessor by 3 score and ten this little beauty ranks with Hard Boiled for relentless, brutal action.

Depending on which copy of this film you own it is either "a few" or "ten" years after Bronx Warriors and another sinister corporation (or it may be the same one with a different name as Thomas Moore is the boss again, but he has a different name too) is diddling with the denizens of the Bronx, this time by "burning and gassing the last remnants in order to build the city of the future". Understandably pissed off at this "the murdering warrior gangs unite to defend their homeland sewer by sewer" from the silver suited sadists that are roaming around wielding bombs, machine guns and flamethrowers. Henry Silva is leader of The Disinfestors and when knocking out several squads fails to halt the clean up, Trash and a crusading but hideous reporter Moon, decide to kidnap the GC Corporation president as a bargaining tool. A final assault involving The Disinfestors against everyone else rounds off the show.

Removing the loathsome martial arts from the first flick and also the tiresome expostion this move almost never relents and has an orgasmic final 15 minutes involving so many dead bodies that it defies belief. Trash (unarmed) taking on 3 heavily armed men with a helmet plus the scene where he trips up a couple with a conveniently placed drainpipe are cartoon-like in their energy and ludicrousness.

Mark Gregory has lost the mincing gait this time and looks like he really means it when he offs people (check his expression as he burns Disinfestors).

The only other bona fide returning character from part one is Carla Brait in a cameo as the Iron Men leader although the lack of continuity isn't a big deal as this film was quite clearly meant to stand alone and was only called Bronx Warriors 2 in the UK.

The theme score is cracking and hits home all through the set pieces. It seemed that a loose plot was formuated and Enzo Castellari decided daily to create ever more ambitious set pieces to fill time. The first ambush on a clean-up squad, the hostages rigged with bombs scene, Clark's kidnapping and the final scrap are pure energy.

It's not high art, it's dubbing is shite but it has a good-looking, hard as nails hero, a body count that is in the hundreds and easy-to-hate loathsome villains.

Negative points: The ease with which they kidnap Clark; Little Strike; Trash's high explosive bullets.

Positive points: Everything else

Joy!

Ten years after "1990:The Bronx Warriors" life is still a pure hell for the Bronx warrior street gangs.A sinister Manhattan Corporation with plans for the region sends in death squads named 'The Disinfestors' to eliminate the remaining inhabitants,and only the man called Trash can stop them.Mark Gregory is back as Trash in this cult follow-up to "1990:The Bronx Warriors".This is surely very fast-paced and violent flick with tons of action.Of all the early 80's post apocalypse movies,"Escape from the Bronx" looks like it has one of the higher budgets,mostly spent on spectacular flame-thrower effects and effective explosions.The acting is terrible,although it's always nice to see Lucio Fulci's regular Paolo Malco in the small role.The soundtrack by Francesco De Masi of "The New York Ripper" fame is also quite good.Check it out.6 out of 10.

Who was honored at a special "psychotronic" screening at the

Paris cinematheque. This one came second after a fairly decent

war movie. During Q&A, Castellari did not hide the fact that, for the

first movie, Mark Gregory was hired in a Gym in Roma, for his

physique more than his non-existent acting skills, which he proved

in several movies. Castellari stressed the fact that he was

disappointed with Gregory in this one, since he had lost a lot of

muscular weight (maybe that's why he never looses his jacket ?

And no closes-up, hiding his non-existent acting skills) Anyhoo, it

never was an actor to begin with, that is obvious. Anybody knows

what became of him ? (Castellari is a pretty nice and jovial man,

BTW, very open and straightforward during Q&A) I still think this sequel is better than the original, for what it's worth.

Both had huge releases in Europe, with impressive posters, and

made good money. Now, you have the same with 50 mil budgets,

a few MTV stars and special effects galore… Go figure !