“After the Oil Wars”,
Corlie (Annie McEnroe) escapes the clutches of the post-apocalyptic warlord,
Straker (James Wainwright) and his armor-plated truck. She takes up with a motorcycle-riding loner
named Hunter (Michael Beck), which sends Straker in a tizzy. He then sends his goons after Hunter and they
proceed to get their butts whipped.
Warlords of the
Twenty-First Century isn’t the worst of the post-apocalyptic action movies that
came out in the wake of Mad Max, but it definitely belongs on the lower rungs
of the genre. I will praise director
Harley Cokliss on the camerawork, which is often quite good, especially during
the high-speed chase scenes. Too bad the
rest of the movie is so slow moving and not very exciting.
It doesn’t help that Hunter
isn’t much of hero. Beck isn’t given
much to do, except to ride around on a motorcycle while wearing a goofy helmet.
He isn’t bad or anything, it’s just that
he gets lost in the shuffle of his own movie.
If anything, Warlords of the Twenty-First Century is just further proof
that Beck isn’t much without someone like James Remar (or heck, even Olivia
Newton-John for that matter) backing him up. The flick also suffers from the oddly low key
villain turn by Wainwright, who underplays the character’s wickedness a bit too
much.
As far as
motorcycle-themed post-apocalyptic action flicks go, I’d say you’re better off
with something like Warrior of the Lost World than this dull, lethargic, and
forgettable programmer.
AKA: Battle Truck.
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