1990: Bronx Warriors/Review 1

Review of 1990: Bronx Warriors

This Enzo G. Castellari film is basically a reversed version of Escape From New York in The Warriors mode. The law enforcement has abandoned The Bronx, turning the area into a war zone ruled by various gangs. The high class people live in Manhattan. When an arms company leader’s daughter runs from her rich father and finds a new home from The Bronx, they send a man to rescue her, Hammer (Vic Morrow). Except that in this film Hammer is the representative of evil which is the civilization. The noble people live in The Bronx... well, actually it’s just main character Trash (Mark Gregory) and his gang, plus the King of The Bronx, The Ogre (Fred Williamson), that are somewhat noble, the rest of the gangs are bastards.

1990: Bronx Warriors is an entertaining gang and biker flick (but not post apocalypse, as sometimes believed). After the effective first half it loses some of its drive when it starts resembling Walter Hill’s The Warriors too closely. A bit higher budget wouldn’t have hurt either, now we’re left without high scale action scenes. But the attitude is right, no doubt about it. Mark Gregory is okay in the lead role but hardly charismatic. He has obvious problems with walking like an ordinary person, not to mention reacting believably to his own lines (apparently the film was shot with sync sound, in English, a language he couldn’t understand). Therefore it’s in the supporting parts where the more memorable performances are made (Williamson and Morrow especially).

Reviewed by HungFist