Phoenix The Warrior
Phoenix The Warrior (1988)
Image From IMDB
There’s a long list of post Mad Max movies and if I have my way i’ll eventually watch them all. This one is Mad Max with nothing but bikini clad girls ruled by a Mamma Palpatine who wants to devour children… so naturally, I really enjoyed it.
Phoenix the Warrior is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all males have died off and the remaining females fight to survive. Thankfully, Mamma Palpatine does have some remaining ‘seeds’ that she uses for her Breeders so the occasional kid is still born. When one escapes and gives birth to a male child Mamma Palpatine must capture the kid in order to regain her youth and power. The hunt is on.
Phoenix the Warrior has everything a good/bad/insane exploitation flick should have. A rip-off premise of a popular movie. Attractive stars. Nudity. Violence. Dune buggies. A gladiator arena full of carpets made to look like rocks. Children in bird cages (fucking hilarious imagery) Miss India. Playmates. Awful action… and plenty of it. And best of all, TV worshipping zombies? (I’m not quite what they were but they were amazing)
It’s a simple chase premise at heart but who needs anything more than that with the list of assets above. The geography of the movie is insane as they’re constantly on the run but never more than a mile away from where they started it seems, and for a future without males there seemed to be a fair few of them. (2, but still)
The action is weak in the best possible way, although there are some fantastic dune buggy sequences that I loved. The girls are all scantly clad throughout the whole film and the first time a man turns up they instantly talk about raping so that gives you an idea of what type of movie it is. (they don’t, but only because they think he’s broken)
The TV zombie people who tie the girls up like aerials in order to sacrifice them to the Gods of the Dick Van Dyke show and the Flintstones are fantastic and I want more of them. And I did like the fact that Miss India constantly fucks up and isn’t punished. Mamma Palpatine is way more lenient than her son.
Its exploitation all the way, but there is some world building and attempt to tell their own story (despite going as far as to have the Mad Max music box) Obviously no one can really act as they were all cast for other reasons, but the movie does go at a decent pace and there’s always something going on. Fans of exploitation movies will love it. Everyone else, probably best to skip it.
