L'ultimo guerriero

Earth has been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Well, parts of the Earth, because somewhere in Italy, a band of purebred survivors--those without radioactive contamination--are holed up in a massive mansion surrounded by lush grounds, waiting for the next opportunity to go hunting for those with polluted blood. The Final Executioner is the story of one of their would be victims, Alan (William Mang, who looks, not surprisingly, a lot like Kurt Russell), and his efforts to take down the legally sanctioned hunters, who are led by Edra (Marina Costa) and Erasmus (Harrison Muller Jr. ). Alan has been trained to kill by former NYPD cop Sam (Woody Strode) who mostly hangs around giving his pupil moral support and mooching for tinned meat. Strode is by far the best thing about the film, though he doesn't look at all well and only appears for about a third of the running time. As for the story, it's a blending of elements from better films and stories, including Ten Little Indians, The Most Dangerous Game, and Escape From New York. The Final Executioner moves along at a fair pace and provides reasonable entertainment for less discriminate action fans.

Perhaps I should state first that I'm an incurable sucker for the trashy Italian exploitation & rip-off cinema of the 1980s. I have seen all those "Mad Max" and "Escape from New York" imitations, and I can list several examples of titles that I enjoyed even massively more than the originals they are inspired by, like "Atlantis Interceptors", "2019: After the Fall of New York", "Fists of Steel", "Fighting Centurions 2072", "Endgame", etc. Most of these films are generally considered as worthless and irredeemable junk, but yours truly adores them! So, when I say that a certain title in this genre, say "The Final Executioner" is dull and forgettable, you can rest assured that practically nobody will enjoy it.

"The Final Executioner" combines the contemporary overused post-apocalyptic concept with the (also numerously recycled) idea of hunting human beings for sheer entertainment value. In the apocalyptic wasteland that remained after an all-destructive nuclear explosion, direly illustrated through the same old stock-footage, there are basically just two types of people left alive. The uninfected elite and the infected trash. The elite permit themselves to rape, humiliate, hunt down and kill the infected survivors simply for fun and games. One man fights back, however, and when the elite viciously gang-rape and murder his girl right in front of him, he enlists the help of a former cop for his ultimate plan of revenge. I realize this sound cheesy and cliched enough to be entertaining, but for some incomprehensible reason Romolo Guerrieri ("Young, Violent & Dangerous", "The Sweet Body of Deborah") managed to make it very boring! There are too many long parts of sheer dullness, the lead villains aren't nearly freaky or maniacal enough and the supportive role of Woody Strode is sad and pathetic. The violence and bloodshed are tame and brief, whereas the rape sequence is too long and utterly provocative. There aren't any cool post-apocalyptic set-pieces, vehicles or gimmicks and hero William Mang tries too damn hard to look like Kurt Russell.

Following a nuclear holocaust the upper class hunt the expendable contaminated.

Director Romolo Guerrieri offers a choppy late in the game Mad Max 2 and Escape from New York (1981) cash in, akin to Escape from the Bronx (1983), The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983) to name a few. Compared to the other B-movie Italian film around at the same time this one is pacer than most.

The Final Executioner has all the clunkiness you'd expect from these low budget and Italian productions. Guerrieri delivers a little motorcycle and car action, shootouts, fights, an electronic field with codes, even a training montage. To writer Roberto Leoni's credit it tries to to be a little different borrowing The Most Dangerous (1932) concept of human hunting humans. It also has a hint of The Prize of Peril (1983), predating the Running Man (1987). Cheesy, intruding and odd drum beats aside, Carlo de Nonno's synthesiser score is at times on the money.

Stubbly lead William Mang does his best Kurt Russell and Clint Eastwood impression as Tanner as he picks off the bad guys one by one. The male supporting cast wrestle with the script more than the fight scenes. With a number of actresses, including stunning Maria Romano (Thor the Conqueror's Ina) as Magda doing their best with the thin dialogue, Margit Evelyn Newton (Zombie Creeping Flesh (1980)) appears as Diane and gets naked as the screenplay dictates. Bearded sword wielding Harrison Muller as hunter Erasmus is notable along with memorable Marina Costa as mean sharpshooter Edra. With limited screen time Woody Strode steals every scene as Sam, a hard-nosed mentor type character.

Overall, far from the bottom of the barrel addition to the genre, worth checking out thanks to the concept, cast and score.

This film is absolutely appalling and awful. It's not low budget, it's a no budget film that makes Ed Wood's movies look like art. The acting is abysmal but sets and props are worse then anything I have ever seen. An ordinary subway train is used to transport people to the evil zone of killer mutants, Woddy Strode has one bullet and the fight scenes are shot in a disused gravel pit. There is sadism as you would expect from an 80s Italian video nasty. No talent was used to make this film. And the female love interest has a huge bhind- Italian taste maybe. Even for 80s Italian standards this film is pretty damn awful but I guess it came out at a time when there weren't so many films available on video or viewers weren't really discerning. This piece of crap has no entertainment value whatsoever and it's not even funny, just boring and extremely cheap. It's actually and insult to the most stupid audience. I just wonder how on earth an actor like Woody Strode ended up ia a turkey like this?

I saw this movie way back in 1985, one of many Italian post apocalyptic movies around that time (think Endgame,2020 Texas Gladiators and 2019 After the Fall of New York) A piece of absolute crap, with unsympathetic characters (excluding Woody Strode and William Mang) The rape scene was too much and the depraved lifestyle of the 'rich' was sickening.

The best part in this film was when William Mang's character took his revenge, and on the plus side, Harrison Muller displays some talent in his portrayal as one of the villains. Can't say the same for the other cast members and for the life of me I can't understand why Woody strode even did this film. Give this turkey a miss!