Endgame (1983)

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Kick arse! Big Al Cliver and even bigger George Eastman go head to head (sometimes) or join up to go head to head with others (sometimes) in a film that's like the film Running Man for the first half hour before they get a squad together and take on the visually impaired! Both George and Al are contestants in Endgame, a TV s how where Hunters hunt the prey (usually a Hunter that's volunteered to be the Prey). This time, champion Shannon (Cliver) is the prey and he's got three hunters on his tail. One seems to be a member of Kiss, one is Bobby Rhodes from Demons, and the other is twelve foot tall childhood friend George Eastman. Shannon runs around kicking everyone's head in while it's filmed for TV, but things get complicated when on the set (which is the post-nuclear wasteland of New York – forgot to mention that), Shannon meets Laura Gesmer, a psychic mutant who needs a guide to help her and her son and some other mutants escape the city and the Nazi-style army led by the aged but still pretty ugly George Mitchell.After sparing Eastman's life and bolting from the gameshow which seems to involve him 'dissapearing' back to his caravan where everyone should know where he is, Shannon gets together a crew to help out, including an eye-patch guy, Al Yamanouchi, who kills a guy with his bare hands for no real reason, a guy who looks like a Viking and the guy whose name I can never remember even though he's in about 50% of the Italian films I own (like Mad Dog and Arizona Colt). They set off into the wilderness and almost immediately get into a massive battle with loads of blinds monks, whom you might have guessed can see via a poor telepath they have tied up somewhere.That's what I loved about this film. Gameshow aside, whenever there's a battle there's always about eight billion (give or take) extras willing to be shot, blown up, speared, or knocked off of motorcycles. I also loved how Shannon and co would wait until the enemy had surrounded them before launching an attack. Every battle seems to turn into all out war. That's what post apocalyptic films need more of: the good old fashioned Pagga.As this is an Italian film, you've got mutant fish men drooling on Laura Gesmer, Michelle Soavi turning up in a cameo, and a freaky scene at the end with flying rocks, fire, and one character being forced to blow his own brains out. The soundtrack to this also at time sounds really similar to the soundtrack of Blade Runner while being no where near as depressing as Blade Runner.Some say this is the best of the Italian post-apocalypse films, and I wouldn't argue with those who say that, but I think that Raiders of Atlantis, New Barbarians, Bronx Warriors 1 & 2, 2019: After the Fall of New York are all just as good (and mostly have George Eastman in them). These films are so much fun from start to finish. I can't wait till these films become reality, because I'll be there on my talking motorbike with my hermaphrodite ape man sidekick and a Mohican, ready to wander the wastelands.

Stop me if you've heard this premise before. A telepathic mutant summons up two celebrity gladiator type butt kickers to lead her and her telepathic friends out of the city and into a safe place away from the corrupt government. Endgame actually is about as enjoyable as Z-grade Italian rip offs get, my three star rating then is meant solely for those who know what they're getting since nobody else would rent this in the first place. Endgame actually is true guilty pleasure because it's just so weird and loopy, there are fights against blind monks, a kung fu expert named "Ninja" who helps our hero and weird vehicles and costumes. This is a movie that they just don't make any more and is based on taking Mad Max and adding so many ideas and weird touches that it becomes somewhat enjoyable. The twist ending truly must be seen to be believed and I mean what can I say, I liked it. * * * out of 4-(Good)

Right after World War III in the year 2025 A.D. nuclear devastation has made the world a really tough place to live in. Murderous marauding hordes of rot-faced scavengers roam the streets, telepathic mutant misfits are harshly persecuted by the ruthless kill 'em all on sight totalitarian government (is this a possible allegory on the Holocaust?), and the masses are kept pacified by a televised gladiatorial bloodsport called Endgame, in which one lone man has to fight to the death with three expert hunters for a shot at the grand prize (I'm sure any similarities between this film and "The Running Man" are purely coincidental. Or are they?). Ron Shannon (the ubiquitous Al Cliver of Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" fame), reigning Endgame champ and butt-whupping warrior supreme, decides to help a group of ostracized mutants get out of the city. Shannon rounds up a crack team of almighty kick-a** tough guys -- lithe Al Yamannouchi as a stoic, silent, swift-kicking kung-fu ace (Al's also the token Asian dude in "The New Gladiators," "2020: The Texas Gladiators," and "2019: After the Fall of New York," which basically makes him the bargain basement Bruce Lee of Italian post-nuke cinema), grizzled Leonard Nimoy lookalike Gus Stone as an aging, crossbow-hefting nomad, burly Mario Pedone as a humongous Viking-like mountain of bullish brutality, and so on -- to assist him and the mutants on a risky, perilous trek across the vast, arid, dangerous desert terrain, fending off such exotic threats as deadly, cowled sword-swinging blind monks (!), predatory apeman freaks on motorcycles, machine gun-sporting government goons in shiny black leather coats, and Shannon's former good buddy turned bitter, venomous rival Karnak (the towering George Eastman in turbo-charged mean, massive and intimidating mode), a cold-blooded SOB with an old score to settle with Shannon concerning who's the one and only Endgame champ (did "Highlander" rip this movie off as well? Could be, man).Although a bit flaccid and meandering (the film would have benefited from tighter plotting and a quicker pace, especially in the rather laborious opening third), "Endgame" still rates as a pretty satisfying, exciting, action-packed, ultra-violent and exceedingly gory Italian post-nuke sci-fi outing. Joe D'Amato's competent direction, the trim script by Terry Hall and Steve Benson, Frederico's lively, smoky, atmospheric cinematography, and Carlo Mario Cordio's spare, shivery, spooky John Carpenteresque synthesizer score make the most out of the movie's low budget. Moreover, the action scenes are plentiful and briskly mounted (lots of screaming, hyperactive extras scurry about firing guns and wielding various sharp implements with lethal, blood-spilling abandon), the tone remains appropriately stark, grim and melancholy throughout, the set and costume designs are fairly lavish, and the sporadic pauses for wistful reflectivity effectively establish audience sympathy for the mutants' sorry plight. The bearded, bushy-haired, solidly built Cliver makes for a credible and commanding action hero: relaxed, taciturn, confidant, and dead serious, a rugged fellow who's fast on his feet and one hell of a fit, physical, kick-your-teeth-down-your-throat ferocious hand-to-hand combat fighter. The stand-out supporting cast includes the ever-lovely Moira Chen (a.k.a. prolific longtime favorite soft-core sexploitation queen Laura Gemser) as a compassionate mutant telepath who gets raped by a fat, warty, disgusting blue-skinned humanoid fish creep, the great Bobby Rhodes (the cool, suave pimp in the flashy "Superfly" threads in "Demons") as a crafty, agile Endgame stalker (Bobby sports both a gleaming Telly Savalas-type bald chrome-dome and a simply snazzy flowing red cape), and stone-faced block-of-granite Gordon Mitchell as the evil, fascistic Colonel Morgan. Michele Soavi was the assistant director and has a cameo as a jerky TV station monitor. Sure, it's not without its flaws, but overall "Endgame" still passes muster as an admirably ambitious, arguably influential and hence above average end-of-the-world sci-fi/action item.

Wow, this is italian exploitation flicks at it's best. Guess this one came because of the post-apocalyptic hype after "Escape from New York" and "Mad Max", and got stuff like "Rollerball" also in it. Of course it's an awful movie full of missing links. But here is simply no need for explanations, this question would be stupid. It's the full atmosphere of 80ies italo exploitation thrash: good explosions (gas!gas!gas! - nothing digital! I reminisce in nostalgica), crazy overacted characters, some bare breasts, a setting full of cheap dirt. Those movies are so honest in their cheasiness and roughness, I love 'em. - And the eighties were best! Italy full ahead! A pitty the video-market got down and what is left is filled by the majors with hollywood-cheapos exploiting themselves with their own cheap ripp-offs which have no life of it's own; a pity, no good exploitation-scene nowadays...And hey, wow, this one has them all in it: Joe d'Amato, Al Cliver, Laura Gemser, Michele Soavi and George Eastmen. - A Fest! Gets a nerdish 7 out of 10!