World Gone Wild

It's 2087, 75 years after the start of the final war. It lasted 15 years and left the world devastated. It hasn't rained for 50 years. Lost Wells is a settlement in the desert that actually has water. The peaceful villagers welcome Derek Abernathy (Adam Ant) and his cult followers. Abernathy immediately massacres and enslave many in the settlement. Ethan (Bruce Dern) rises to challenge him. Ethan takes school teacher Angie Banning (Catherine Mary Stewart) to the big city and find a barbaric world desperate for water. Ethan recruits his old partner George Landon (Michael Paré) and others to battle Abernathy's cult.

This takes the style of 'Mad Max 2' even including the white outfits. They're throwing hubcaps like the boomerang. The plot is pulled from 'Seven Samurai' like many other movies such as Steve McQueen in 'The Magnificent Seven'. However it's nowhere near the same vision or quality. Adam Ant is not the most imposing villain but he fits the low quality camp. I always like some Catherine Mary Stewart and Bruce Dern is one of the great actors of our times. Michael Paré is an oddity of the 80s and I've never understood his leading man appeal. The setup is clunky. The dialog isn't much better. It's a poor production pulling elements from other better movies.

Bruce Dern stars as a hippie who gets his son (Michael Pare) and a bunch of other mercenaries to help fight of Adam Ant (Who starts a church of Charles Manson) in this strange post apocalypse action flick. The thing that makes this weird is the cast which includes Bruce Dern, Michael Pare, Adam Ant, Julias Carry, Catharine Mary Stewart and Anthony James who all are offbeat actors with different styles of acting. All that was missing was Wings Hauser. Still I must admit this was a lot of fun due to it's sheer weirdness. The movie has mutant cannibals, a church of Charles Manson and Bruce Dern as a pot smoking hippie fighter who leads a civilization of flower children. The romance angle between Pare and Stewart is extremely amusing mainly due to the fact that it is just so unlikely. Stewart is of course the resident babe found in these type of movies. Although I was amused to see Stewart scold Michael Pare and Co. for killing mutant cannibals and then laughing about it, to which she goes in a long winded speech about how they are all animals, to which gets (quite understandably may I add) the mercenaries to laugh even harder. The action sequences are for the most part well staged and Adam Ant is really good in the role as the bad guy who is the priest of the church of helter skelter. World Gone Wild is such a bizarre movie one only wishes that this would have turned out to be a television show or at least established some sequels because right here could have been the greatest TV show ever. You could have Pare and Dern protect these villagers every week from some new villain and develop the silliness of the relationship between Stewart and Pare. World Gone Wild is no classic but this is perfect fodder for the B.movie fan who has an appetite for guilty pleasure post apocalypse movies.

* *1/2 out of 4-(Pretty good)

This is a good movie with a lot of great and believable scenes because of the good actors...but, the movie, overall (the script), is something that only a teen like me would like at a Drive-In back in the 1980s!

The premise of this movie is silly - these people, overall, without rain for fifty years have little water, but, those in the 'city' are still walking and having babies; and, have oil and gasoline (and, coolant!?!?) for their vehicles in the midst of a water shortage!?!? And, those who live in the desert all seem to be quite healthy with water and have clean clothing (Bruce Dern with his new t-shirts, and, the motorcycle cult in bright white outfits!?!?); but, where are the crops and animals to maintain this lifestyle in this 'desert?' Also, where are the guns at the beginning of this movie to protect this vital water source and way-of-life that these desert-people have!?!? It makes no sense!?!?

But...it doesn't have to!

If you were a 'Drive-In Nut' as I was in the 1980s, you didn't care about any of these technicalities...you loved to see hot women in B-Movies. Catherine Mary Stewart was among these hot women for teenage boys; but, if there's no water...how is she still so hot!?!? And, if so, with a woman this hot, isn't it stupid to allow more sex-starved men into this camp?

What about the men already there!?!? Two new men to the camp came-on to her, and, one of them tried to rape her...DUH! In a normal world, she's hot! In this world, she's a goddess! She's more rare than the water!

I especially like how Catherine Mary Stewart's character kept a framed-photo of Steve McQueen and said how handsome he is; and, how Michael Paré's character said how that photo of Steve McQueen gave him the creeps!?!? Ha-ha! :D Steve McQueen was the best! :)

This is a good movie that if given a higher budget and a better script, would have been great. The script is awful, but, the acting and certain scenes are great!

I give this Drive-In Classic seven stars! :) I give Catherine Mary Stewart's presence and loveliness 11 Stars! ;)

World Gone Wild is one of those many Mad Max clones produced in the 80s after the success of George Millers first strike, but don't get me wrong, if you want a well written story and some excellence regarding cinematic techniques, or top notch special effects and stunts, World Gone Wild is for sure no movie for you - Mad Max just plays in another league quality wise. But for the right audience (like me) World Gone Wild is fun trash. So what do you get? Besides some action and explosions, the world of World Gone Wild is filled with crazy people and lots of crazy ideas, Hardrock guitars scream in the background, and human life is not worth a sip of water and blood easy spilled. Verdict: tasty cheese this is, touched gently by queen nostalgia, and better than most post-apocalyptic (teen drama) movies we get these days. Exact rate: 4 + 2 for the extra cheese.

Yet another Seven Samurai ripoff--did you notice the picture of Steve MacQueen in Michael Pare's hovel, just in case we didn't get it? This thing has two things to reccomend it--Bruce Dern being more or less as crazy as always, which has been a great thing to watch since The Cowboys at the very least, and Adam Ant proving that he should have done more movies because he is really entertaining. I wonder if they've done it on MST3K.