Leofwine_draca And here we have more Italian post-apocalyptic trash for masochistic fans of the genre. Kicking off with some stock footage of nuclear explosions and volcanoes (?), a monotonous voice-over tells us that society has been contaminated by radioactivity. Those free of the contamination now hunt the others for sport. It's an interesting premise and one that undoubtedly helped to influence THE RUNNING MAN.Yes, we're in cheap B-movie territory here, and while this film is indeed poorly-made, it also turns out to be quite watchable and exciting at times. We are introduced to yet another violent society and watch as a group of helpless survivors are massacred in slow-motion by a cruel gang of armed men and women. The slow-motion is obviously intended to give this scene some kind of epic proportions, and manages to be somehow effective. Two survivors remain; our stony-faced hero, and his wife. Inevitably the two are captured, the woman is raped and shot dead, and the man shot and left for dead.Thankfully, though, help arrives in the form of Woody Strode, the black actor who appeared in SPARTACUS all those years ago. Strode is still in fine shape for a man reaching 70 and shows off his mean fighting skills during the film's progress. His screen presence certainly makes the film easier to bear, as he stands head and shoulders over all the charisma-free non-actors filling the rest of the cast (incidentally, they're all a sweaty bunch of losers, I guess nobody really washes in the future).From then on, our hero, played by William Mang, must build up his strength and his cunning to take revenge on the murderers and become the figure of the title. This involves running through a corridor of swinging sacks, crawling along a bridge covered in barbed wire and running through a pipe also filled with barbed wire. What relevance these moments have for later in the film I don't really know; he doesn't encounter any obstacles faintly resembling these at all when he finally takes his revenge. They are certainly amusing though. The latter half of the film sees Mang picking off the scum who did his wife in one by one.The makers of this film ought to have some kudos for making each death scene creative, and not just standard bang-bang fare. One bad guy gets a knife in the stomach, another is blown up and an escapee is blown up by a booby-trapped motorcycle (amusingly the rider of the bike is seen to catch alight BEFORE the bike does!). In the end there are just two of the hunters left, a creepy miserable woman and an extremely flamboyant hunter, played by Harrison Muller, who likes to wear a long white scarf for some reason. Mang fights dirty and Strode turns up to save the day. They all live happily ever after. The end.One thing that you cannot say this film is, is boring. There's plenty of action to keep things moving along, a lot of fist-fights and gun battles. The film is not particularly gory although there is some blood, and there is also a high dose of sex and nudity which seems somewhat surprising considering the genre which this film is in. Okay, so the acting is bad and the music is annoying, but fans of this trash would probably see these as plus points anyway (that includes me, sadly). THE FINAL EXECUTIONER is a fun, light and meaningless film which is a different way to spend an hour and a half, but is also quite forgettable.

Comeuppance Reviews Surely anyone reading this site is familiar with Italian post-apocalyptic movies, and The Final Executioner certainly falls into that sub-genre, but it is a decidedly second (or perhaps even third)-tier entry. Just imagine 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982) or The New Barbarians (1982) crossed with The Most Dangerous Game (1932) with a dash of The Rules of the Game (1939).After the nuclear apocalypse, a class system developed. A privileged, non-contaminated upper class, and the radiation-contaminated masses. Presumably to do double duty as a really entertaining sport as well as cleanse the population of "undesirables", the rich invented a game: "The Hunt", where they let loose the unwashed masses and shoot them for fun. The upper, hunting classes consist of Edra (Costa), Louis (Miracco), Evan (Zinny), Melvin (?) and the flashy, mercenary-style hunter Erasmus (Muller). One day, a disgruntled member of the underclass decides to fight back. After the baddies kill his wife (Bonfantini), Alan (Mang) becomes intent on revenge against the hunters. Being an intellectual and having no fighting background, Sam (Strode), a former New York City cop, extensively trains Alan in the warrior arts. Will Alan and/or Sam wreak vengeance upon those snobby "hunters"? The director, Romolo Guerrieri, was a journeyman-type director, having worked in many different genres over his long career, delivering product to keep pace with the varying trends in Italian cinema. You'd think someone with his filmmaking experience would have noticed the weird, sluggish pace and nonsensicality of what he was directing. Perhaps he DID notice this, so he gave the film a lot of exploitative elements, plenty of sex, nudity, constant violence, shooting, chases, blow-ups and even rape. Amazingly, this film is still boring. It just goes to show, if you have zero character development, the audience cannot become interested no matter how much sleaze and violence you throw at them.Thankfully, this does have most of the hallmarks of the Italian post-nuke world we've come to know and love: absurd dubbing, motorcycles and cars with crazy, "futuristic" appliances on them, unbelievably wacky costumes and the like. Interestingly, this also has a comment on the Italian class system, using the apocalyptic wasteland as a backdrop for it. Perhaps the filmmakers had Salo (1975) in mind, but the end product is junky and uninspiring.But it does have a nice electronic score, and it is worth noting that the movie is called The Final Executioner, and there is a scene with a flamethrower, recalling the two Exterminator movies. Could that be a coincidence? Released by Cannon, the VHS in the U.S. was put on shelves featuring the memorable silver big box. If you're looking for a good example of Italian post-apocalypse movies, this is not a good example to start off with, but the presences of Harrison Muller Jr. and Woody Strode are among its redeeming qualities.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

ShellyM I saw this movie way back in 1985, one of many Italian post apocalyptic movies around that time (think Endgame,2020 Texas Gladiators and 2019 After the Fall of New York) A piece of absolute crap, with unsympathetic characters (excluding Woody Strode and William Mang) The rape scene was too much and the depraved lifestyle of the 'rich' was sickening.The best part in this film was when William Mang's character took his revenge, and on the plus side, Harrison Muller displays some talent in his portrayal as one of the villains. Can't say the same for the other cast members and for the life of me I can't understand why Woody strode even did this film. Give this turkey a miss!

Ruben Kincaid I cannot explain how terrible this movie is. I would normally not waste my time writing a review of something this bad, but people need know one thing: DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE. This is not one of those "so terrible it's funny to watch and make fun of" movies, no siree. Instead this movie is awful in every sense of the word, for not only is the acting, plot and directing awful, but there is one particular scene which nearly made me vomit each time they showed it (3 times). In the scene a girl is raped and killed while people watch on, obviously turned on by this, and we're not just talking males, it is the female leader who commands the man to rape and kill the girl. I've seen and read American Psycho, and that is not disturbing - this is.I really don't know what else to say. This movie should have a much lower rating. Luckily for you, you'll probably never be able to find this god-awful movie, and please don't try. It has no redeeming qualities what-so-ever. None. So please don't try.