BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Hulkeasexo
it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
Micah Lloyd
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Michael_Elliott
2020 Texas Gladiators (1982) ** (out of 4)A post-apocalyptic Texas is the setting for this Joe D'Amato film, which has a group of good guys (led by Al Cliver) going through and cleaning up the rougher parts of the city. One of their members, a real nut case, decides to try and rape a woman so he is beaten and kicked out of the group. Sure enough, he forms his own bad guy group and soon he's attacking our good people.I'm purposely using lame terms like "good guys" and "bad guys" because the film is pretty darn simple like that. There's really not too much of a plot but I'm sure you already know that and especially if you're familiar with these Italian MAD MAX wannabe films. This here is yet another film like that but I must say that I think John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK had an influence on many films from this genre, including this one.D'Amato, Cliver and several of the crew members also did ENDGAME, another post-apocalyptic film an that one there is slightly better but this one here has a few good things going for it. The highlight of the film are obviously the various action scenes, which certainly show their low-budget nature but at the same time the scenes are at least fun and there are a couple nice kills throughout including one man who gets his chest pretty much brutally attacked. There's even a scene where a nun cuts her throat (twice!?!) to try and avoid the bad guys attacking her.Performances are pretty much what you'd expect out of a film like this but when is Cliver (ZOMBIE) not worth watching? He makes for a good lead and certainly helps keep you entertained in what you're watching. As you'd expect, all of the women are quite beautiful so that's always a major plus.2020 Texas GLADIATORS isn't a film that's going to win any major awards but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching if you're a fan of D'Amato or the genre.
dmdb
I only write reviews of movies with low rating, which actually are not that bad. Give them a chance!This is not something I would recommend to everyone, but if you like apocalypse and post-apocalyptic movies then you may enjoy this one too. Not great, bot not that bad either - solid movie. It is boring in some parts, but still watchable, but I repeat, only if you really like apocalypse. I watched German dub version and that was great because of Future-Nazi soldiers that are in movie, I wonder how it sounds in English...5/10
Coventry
Joe D'Amato, mostly known for his sleazy and downright nauseating horror flicks like "Buried Alive", "Anthropophagus" and "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals", joins his contemporary Italian colleagues in making over- the-top cheesy and ridiculous post-nuclear Science Fiction movies! The trend started elsewhere, mostly with the Australian "Mad Max" and John Carpenter's "Escape from New York", but the Italians exploited the success of these films shamelessly and endlessly! Lucio Fulci had "The New Gladiators", Sergio Martino had "After the Fall of New York", Ruggero Deodato had "Atlantis Interceptors", Enzo G. Castellari had "The Bronx Warriors" and our good pal Joe D'Amato has both "Endgame" and this "2020 – The Texas Gladiators". It's a deliciously cheesy hodgepodge of semi-processed ideas and blatantly stolen sequences from other movies, and if you're a fan of this sort of trash, you're guaranteed to love it in spite of all the awfulness. The movie starts, as to be expected, as a bunch of chaos! Texas is entirely destroyed by nuclear warfare and hoodlum gangs randomly run amok in the streets. Luckily there's a quintet of courageous beefcake warriors parading around to protect the weaklings. During a fight in a monastery (there's a nun who cuts her own throat
TWICE!), one of them is banished for trying to rape a girl and another one leaves voluntary to marry and live in a community that tries to rebuild civilization. The evil Nazi-inspired Black One violently invades this community, however, and makes a widow out of the warrior's wife. The tree remaining buddies pick up the girl in a sleazy bar and decide to help her in defeating Black One and his evil lieutenant, who's also an old acquaintance of them. Mind you, this is just a very brief and shortened plot description. There's a whole lot more going on in "2020 – Texas Gladiators". Too much to mention, actually, as there are authentic traditional Indians, enslaved mine workers, Russian roulette sequences that are stolen straight from "The Deer Hunter", Nazis with amours of steel and one tremendously cool Asian fighting expert! Unless, of course, you have no idea what the early 80's Italian rip- off/exploitation business is all about, you simply cannot dislike "2020 – Texas Gladiators". Whilst slightly less outrageous and entertaining as "Endgame", this is another over-the-top flamboyant smörgåsbord of sleaze and violence. Donald O'Brien is fantastically stereotypical, in a totally deliberate fashion, and the battle sequences are hysterical. Imagine: hi-tech weapons can't perpetrate through the armor of the Nazi soldiers, but old-fashioned Indians with their primitive arrows and spears wipe them out in a matter of seconds! D'Amato's film is full of similar nonsense like this, and more. A real treat for demented exploitation dorks, like myself.
HaemovoreRex
Yet another in a seemingly infinite list of post nuclear war flicks to emerge from Italy in the 1980's, this was directed by none other than top sleaze/horror master Joe D'Amato who also brought us the similarly themed Endgame, a film which also used a number of the same cast members here including Al Cliver and Al Yamanouchi.Whilst this film is certainly the lesser of the two, it does nonetheless deliver some pretty satisfying action throughout.The story concerns a group of Rangers who it seems have taken it upon themselves to clean up the scummier elements of the post apocalyptic society in which they find themselves. Early on, whilst performing one such clean up session, one of their members, Catch Dog tries to rape a beautiful woman (the supremely sexy Sabrina Siani). His comrades however, walking in on this immoral act quite rightly give him a good beating and promptly banish him from their ranks. Needless to say, this is not the last we see of the said miscreant for he later turns up again with reinforcements in the form of an army of Nazi like soldiers led by the sinisterly named 'Black One' who is viciously enforcing his 'New Order' across the land.For fans of the genre, this should certainly provide a decent enough fix and it even boasts a number of fairly exciting action scenes. Added to this there's a rather cool score that accompanies the proceedings and even a few minor gore scenes to help matters along. Certainly well worth a look.6 out of 10