The Bronx Executioner (1989) User Reviews

Spectacular, in its badness

[BigGuy · 2/10 · 22 January 2004]

In the land of bad movies, this movie would be at least a duke. First of all, it is very clear that half of this movie is from stock footage. It is also clear that they used multiple takes of the same scene (or maybe it was actually the same take) a few different times in the movie. Good guy rounds the corner, shoots two bad guy. Same good guy, same corner, two minutes later, shoots two more bad guys. Same corner a few minutes later... Then there are the scenes where you see someone shooting on one set, and blowing someone up on a different set entirely.

Then there was the acting. Even without the movie being dubbed the acting was terrible. It is like watching the first earliest rehearsals of an elementary school play. The only people who don't entirely underact are the ones who entirely overact!

How about the set? With a name like Bronx Executioner, taking place (supposedly) in the south Bronx in the relatively new future, you would expect to see a city. Or at least a run down city. Or at least the ruins of a city. Nope. There are beat up looking factories in the middle of dirt fields. A castle in the middle of the woods. Another scene seems to take place in a quarry... No cities anywhere, a couple of country roads through he middle of nowhere, and a couple of beat up looking factories, that's it.

Also, going to the plot of the movie... This is a movie about the humanoids fighting the androids. Both humanoids and androids are factory reject robots. So of course when they get shot they bled. Okay, some of them spark a little bit, but that is more muzzle flash than anything. Basically they all look human, and act human (alright they act like bad actors trying to act like robots trying to act human) and there is no way to tell they aren't human in the movie. Well, one guy does die and reveal some circuits where the gaping hole in his neck appeared. Of course, you couldn't see a head or a body in that one shot, so it is hard to tell. Also they were really fragile robots. I mean when a human can kill a robot with a couple of karate chops you know they are weak. Also in all the slaughter scenes, there are never any wounded. They are all either dead, or escaped. The only robot to even last a few seconds after they got fatally wounded was a "good guy" robot who got to say something "human".

Personally I hate MST3K, but this movie is perfect for that sort of treatment. Or better yet, redub the whole movie to be a comedy instead. Some of the stuff that happens in this movie is just too funny not to be made fun of. Like the good guy robot goes to the sheriff for help. The sheriff says that he is staying out of it. Both actors just stand there waiting while the earlier soundbite that says he has to help those who ask gets played back. Then he immediately apologizes and agrees to help. "No I can't help you, i can't get involved.... [pause for soundbite]... I'm sorry, I will help you."

This movie is truly spectacularly bad.

No sleep till Brooklyn...

[fmarkland32 · 2/10 · 11 April 2007]

A new sheriff in town helps a good hearted robot battle other cyborgs who are militant and kill crazy, where as some cyborgs are good and civilized, anyway the new sheriff sorts everything out after training with Woody Strode (The film's most famous cast member) in this crummy action flick which is pretty much what you would expect from the bargain bin. Bronx Executioner is one of the 4 titles you can have for the low price of 5 dollars and of course as the old saying goes, if something is too good to be true, it is. So with 4 movies for 5 bucks (6 with tax) This averages out to be a dollar a movie and when I got done watching this clunker, I started wondering if I hadn't paid too much. Another interesting thing is that the DVD promises a Michael Dudikoff introduction which sadly never materializes and instead we witness in horror as Italian actors run around and shoot at each other with no sense of who's really shooting who or for that matter who we should be rooting for. Still as these things go, there is some schlocky fun but it's not nearly as fun as say ROTOR or Future War which offer more bang (Read laughs) for the buck. Still i'm not complaining, after all I have nobody to blame but myself for buying this. And to think I could've used the five dollars to buy myself a Mad Magazine. A pity.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Woody Strode is one good reason to watch this and one other ? Well I'm not too sure.

[move-7 · 3/10 · 24 June 2005]

Being some one who likes to catch a movie that features Woody Strode I decided to get this movie out. Well I could be forgiven for thinking that this was a sequel to THE FINAL EXECUTIONER (1984) that featured William Mang and Harrison Muller and also Margit Evelyn Newton. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085540/ The reason for this looking to like a sequel is because this movie , THE BRONX ECCUTIONER seems to start where THE FINAL EXECUTIONER finishes. But thats not the case at all ! What it is , is actually is footage from THE FINAL EXCECUTIONER has been put into this movie. I have to admit that this is pretty clever how they did it. If someone never saw THE FINAL EXCECUTIONER they probably wouldn't notice it. This in part is due to the storyline being pretty basic and confusing at times. Also with the dubbing you lose a bit of the plot too.

When The Final Excecutioner was released when Woody Strode would have been about 69 or 70 years old. The Bronx Excecutioner was released when Woody was 75 years old. But as I mentioned the footage was taken from The Final Excecutioner so Woody Strode didn't actually take part in this movie in actual terms. Never mind !

The scene where Woody Strode takes on some guys is fairly good and I have to say that for a man of his age probably 69 at the time , Woody could do all of the stuff and go through the motions. He also did his own stunts in the film too. I have to mention again that it was pretty clever how they inserted Woody Strode into the film but thats the main reason that this movie has any sort of worth. Other than that well there is some passable action and a story line thats pretty much senseless but with an occasional surprise . But besides that I have to say that I'd be flat out trying to find anything else good about this film.

Humorous at best

[dreemzkayp · 16 November 2004]

I spotted this gem while browsing the dollar isle at my local discount grocery store. It was between some Smurf air fresheners left over from the 80's and an assortment of kitchen magnets that claimed to be guaranteed for life. After pondering the scenario under which one might possibly send a kitchen magnet back for repairs, I was enticed into picking up this DVD. I was surprised that given the captivating description of a battle between humans and "Robotic Replicants" in a future New York, the price would only be one dollar. "They must be crazy" I muttered, and dashed off to the cashier with my prize. All the way home I envisioned cyborg warriors clashing amidst blood and guts of the weaker humans as they dominated futuristic city landscapes littered with tell-tale trademarks of the once proud NYC. My dream was shattered in the opening scene and never recovered. After a barrage of stock footage that looked like it was designed to lure nerds into joining the audio-video club in high school, my senses were assaulted by what seemed to me to be a typical sunny day in The Big Apple complete with WTC shots and vacation-like panning of NYC architecture. Where were the futuristic landscapes? Shouldn't the city be an apocalyptic shell of itself? Just when I thought things couldn't seem further from the morbid vision of the future I was led to believe I would see, I was switched to a bad video of two guys running through some bushes with all the seriousness of a weekend paint ball tournament.

As the "plot" developed I began wondering if there was any possibility that Smurf air fresheners might one day come back in vogue and if perchance I may have purchased the wrong item. After trudging through scenes of bad actors doing what they do best ... acting badly, I realized that this movie may have been made simply to show off Margit Evelyn Newton's thighs as she sported her seemingly futuristic shiny leather suit. More bad acting was accentuated by action scenes that make Walker Texas Ranger fight scenes look like high-tech special effect wizardly. Then came one of the most grueling and monotonous scenes this side of an Andy Warhol film ... black man (is that really the most inventive name the writers could come up with?) begins training the new sheriff using such futuristic techniques as running through potato sacks and banging a pipe on a railing for what seemed like an eternity while spewing insults that wouldn't motivate a boy scout to rub two sticks together. On to the target practice scene where the new guy shoots at a slide show. More special effect pyrotechnics from the high school AV club!

Eventually I yawned my way through to the rape scene. Yes rape is still a crime in the future and robots are in on the act. For the first time the movie seems to want the viewers attention! Sure they have to resort to the gratuitous naked breast shot and "woman with lustful look of pleasure on her face" shot but after all they know what the public wants. Why would a grubby biker-robot want to rape a human woman? And why would a sexily clad female robot get her rocks off watching it? These and many other questions such as "How does one break a refrigerator magnet anyhow? Can a refrigerator magnet actually wear out?" kept rolling through my head as I stared blankly into the glowing screen before me. More scenes of guys using walkie-talkies that look like shoe boxes with lightning rods attached. Obviously at some point in the future miniaturization of electronic components becomes lame and everyone goes in for the retro look of the 50's. Suddenly everyone is running Willy-nilly through abandon factories with a lot of rusty machine stuff around. Rusty machine stuff is a must-have for any futuristic movie worth its salt so I guess the producers figured they might as well throw it in to take up time in the least expensive way.

The next scene involves bad robots behaving badly by watching a video tape of the rape scene again. Sort of a cyborg porno group type thing that gives Margit Evelyn Newton a reason to heave her breasts wanting and toss a few more "woman with lustful look of pleasure on her face" shots in ... just in case anyone was still watching. Hitch that to a scene of her undressing, then dressing for bed, then being undressed by a male robot, and you have about the most intense 2 minutes that this movie can pull off

... if you pardon the expression.

It never gets any better, bad gun fight scenes and poorly choreographed fight scenes pepper their way through this mish mash of cinematic slop until I was left begging for it to end and wishing I bought the refrigerator magnets.

Where's the pain killers ??

[CelluloidRehab · 1/10 · 24 June 2004]

Why ?? Why ?? Why ?? This movie starts out bad and ends up bad. It is bad all around. The first 5 minutes of the movie is saturated with images... images of video editing equipment. This is followed by the stock footage Circle Line tour of New York complete with narration (notice the Queensborough bridge panoramic pole shot - classic). There is no reason to watch this movie .. unless it is late night and you can't sleep, or your are completely wasted and want to lose some more brain cells. If this is not enough for you, how about the addition of veteran movie actor Woody Stode (aka black man - in this movie thats what he is referred to) to improve the movie. WRONG !!! It only gets worse. Woody was a pro-football star in his days, too bad he was 70+ years old in this movie. Not only that, but he does his own stunts. I have not seen fight scenes this bad since I watched a Jean-Claude van Damme movie. Truly horrific action. Action so boring, you may want to break out the coffee to stay awake through them. This movie was so cheaply done that they could not even afford fake blood for the death scenes. The sound effects are horrible. The Atari 2600 had better and the soundtrack sounds like it was ripped from a bad porn movie. This movie is so boring, "Margie" actually watches a scene from the movie (Spaceballs - save me). So in that scene we are watching the actors watch their own movie. There are endless scenes of "Dakar" driving and whining on his 2-way radio. There is a 2-second fully-clothed rape scene. And no thats how long it actually lasts - 2 seconds. Incidentally, that is the scene that "Margie" watches later. There are 2 scenes which stand out in my mind - the training of the new sheriff (which involves "white man" shooting at a film projection on a wall) and the sheriff shooting through the castle at the end (think Wild Gunmen for the Nintendo). If you want to watch a better movie ... try just about anything. If you want to see a post apocalyptic Italian exploitation movie about New York .. watch 2019: After the Fall of New York.

-Celluloid Rehab

THE BRONX EXECUTIONER (Vanio Amici and, uncredited, Romolo Guerrieri, 1989) BOMB

[Bunuel1976 · 1/10 · 12 January 2008]

This is another film I happened upon at my local DVD rental outlet of which I had no prior knowledge; having watched a spate of belated Euro-Cult sci-fi outings over the last couple of years, I suspected I’d be in for a ‘so bad it’s good’ ride – but the end result, though certainly unintentionally hilarious, is a wretched piece of junk.

To begin with the plot doesn’t make a lick of sense: little wonder, since it lifted a good deal of footage – including Woody Strode’s entire performance – from THE FINAL EXECUTIONER (1983), a film directed by Romolo Guerrieri (hence his unofficial credit above)! Anyway, here we get a rookie sheriff in a futuristic New York – replacing Strode (dubbed, what else, “The Black Man”) – who has to quell an ongoing conflict between a colony of androids and one comprised of renegade humanoids (the script even makes some dumb comparisons between the latter’s fate and that endured by Native Americans over the years!); incidentally, don’t ask me to explain the difference between each faction of robots, because I sure as hell couldn’t tell them apart!!

As is usual for this kind of film, we’re treated to a crappy electronic score and characters who could best be described as scum; ironically, the would-be hero doesn’t do much of anything throughout (even if he’s relentlessly undermined by martinet Strode during his period of training). As a matter of fact, the lead is actually...er...the leader of the humanoids – a short-tempered beefcake wearing a ridiculously undersized sleeveless shirt and who’s supposedly fallen in love with a human; when she’s raped and murdered by rival androids, he sets out to infiltrate the latter’s castle base (having by this time befriended the cop). Margie Newton (from Bruno Mattei’s equally lamentable HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD [1980]) is the bimbo leader of the villainous robots – who, amusingly, gets an itch for lovemaking just as the final onslaught is about to begin!

While there are some undeniable howlers throughout – particularly the humanoid leader’s dumb monologues – the film is simply too poorly handled (in all departments) to be easily enjoyed; in fact, even if less than 90 minutes in length, I found it virtually unbearable...

So ridiculously bad that it could be funny

[galadriellover · 1/10 · 3 June 2003]

This is a bad movie. It´s set in a futuristic New York City where cyborgs and humanoids are fighting for food. The main character trains to become the sheriff whose job it is to keep order in the Bronx, and he realizes that he might need some help. Why is it bad? Well, the acting is absolutely terrible (many of the actors if not all of them are dubbed), the directing is really bad. This is a low-budget film, an example to indicate that - in the first scene there is a bit of a massacre where you can see the same person get killed several times. I saw this movie with my friends some years ago, more than once! We thought it was a great laugh! So if you´re looking for a good action/sci-fi-movie, don´t see it!!

Some good moments, but there's better "laugh at it" movies to be found

[brainpuddle · 4/10 · 28 November 2020]

Warning: synopsis/spoilers -

In post-apocalyptic NYC: a blonde "hero" wants to be a sheriff, trains under the "Black Man", while competing bad guy androids and humanoids (both played by humans w/o makeup or visual effects) kill one another. Features Dakar (Alex Vitale/Jakoda from the far superior movie Strike Commando) as a love torn android. Really slow in parts and severely abuses reused footage, sometimes in back to back scenes.

Cyborgs vs humanoids in post apocalyptic New York

[lowlandermg · 4/10 · 27 September 2023]

A whiskey stream of consciousness review.

"Time to get busy" Nothing like a fade out into an android crotch. Not sure where this was filmed, but it looks more like a giant quarry outside an Italian villa more than a post-apocalypse Bronx, NY. Machine pistols, .22s, carbines, and nail guns galore! Never will you see more proficiency with the "spray and pray" MAC-10 than how head cyborg Shark uses it in this film. The amount of perfect technique and accuracy he displays with his machine pistol is another example of why we really need to prevent AI from becoming Skynet. By the way, you know you have genius-level creativity when the main baddie is named "Shark"! Woody Strode is pretty good as the intense sheriff of NY. Sadly, he is sorely misused in the film. Dakar (Alex Vitale) the sympathetic hulk of an android with a heart, is a cross between private Pyle and Lou Ferrigno with maybe a dash of "Raw Deal" Schwarzenegger. "You're only an android which is zero!" And the first credit at the films finish is for continuity! Bwahahaha! Ridiculous, almost like the director put it there to say "blame this one!" Continuity aside, how about the editing?! Looks like the editor may have also worked on Troll 2. Seriously. It shows. Could have used better effects and maybe a few gore shockers. Not the best "so bad it's good" film, but enjoyable enough. Especially with a dram of Wild Turkey Rare Breed! Cheers!

The Italians environmental friendly film recycling!

[udar55 · 8/10 · 6 June 2009]

Police officer James (Gabriel Gori) is dropped off in the Bronx in the middle of a war between androids and humanoids. The androids, led by Margie (FINAL EXECUTIONER holdover Margit Evelyn Newton), are the meaner of the two factions and prove it by killing the human love of humanoid leader Dakar (STRIKE COMMANDO's Alex Vitale). James trains with Warren (Strode) for a bit before teaming with Dakar to kill the androids. The end! Recycling enough footage to make Roger Corman and Joseph Lai blush, this one is a masterpiece of manipulation. But some how Amici manages to make it 90 minutes and partially work. How can you not love a movie where one of Woody Strode's first (dubbed) lines is, "I'm the sheriff around here, but everyone just calls me The Black Man." The edited in of old footage really isn't as jarring as one would think and carrying Newton over helps (although her hairstyle does change and it appears she has had a boob job in the ensuing 5 years!). The real highlight is Vitale, who might be the world's most lovable musclebound humanoid (take that Arnold!). Naturally, the new footage was shot entirely in a rock quarry and abandoned factory, which makes it the Italian equivalent of ROBOT HOLOCAUST.

Despite the fact that none of this makes a lick of sense, it's still a fun movie

[tarbosh22000 · 6/10 · 29 August 2017]

In the future, the Bronx is divided into two zones: the one controlled by the humanoids, and the one controlled by the androids. Rather than celebrate how similar they are to each other, they're constantly at war. The androids are led by the beautiful Margie (Newton), and the humanoids are led by the great Dakar (Vitale), a robot/meathead hybrid with a surprisingly sensitive soul. When James (Gori) enters the fray, he yearns to be Sheriff of the Bronx. Why, we don't know, but he must go through an extensive training regimen from Warren (Strode), the old salt who is getting on in years and wants to make James his successor in the profession of keeping the peace between the humanoids and the androids. Dakar, wanting revenge for what his rivals did to his lost love, forges an uneasy alliance with James. Despite the fact that none of this makes a lick of sense, someone will have to be...THE BRONX EXECUTIONER! The Bronx Executioner is a great example of how to make a movie out of nothing. All the Woody Strode footage is from The Final Executioner (1984), and we think some of the Margit Newton footage is too. Director Amici then fashioned some footage to wrap around the rather puzzling remainder, and the result is completely incoherent, but about 80% entertaining. For this type of movie, who needs consistency and continuity anyway? Those things are boring. We'd take The Bronx Executioner - which is like an Italian version of a Godfrey Ho movie - over a lot of other possible choices.

Perhaps the best reason to recommend this movie is Alex Vitale as Dakar. This is a man-mountain who is too muscular for even the most basic shirt. He's practically as tall as he is wide. Yet, he has feelings - call him an "emohead" if you will. Just about everything he says is pure gold, and simply watching him walk is more entertaining than several Seagal movies combined. Vitale appeared in Comeuppance classics such as Hands of Steel (1986) and Strike Commando (1987), but here he really comes out to shine. In the world of 80's Italian action, he truly is a star.

The rest of this mix n'match mishmash of goulash contains dudes on motorbikes popping' wheelies in a rock quarry, lots of bang-bang shooting, great costumes, do-it-yourself tech, guys who twirl before they shoot, guys who twirl after they've been shot, classic NYC footage including the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center towers, Paolo Rustichelli music, and a rather obvious Woody Strode stand-in for when Gabriele Gori is talking to "him", dogs controlled by beeping lights, a Dakar/dog fight, and the time-honored Final Warehouse Fight. There's a lot of other stuff jumbled in, but why list it all? You'll be seeing it eventually, especially because the DVD is available for a dollar in most places where it's sold.

Yes, there are some slow moments, and the movie loses momentum after the halfway mark (we would say it loses direction, but that would imply it ever had one), but if you've ever wanted to see a training sequence where the trainer isn't there, this is the movie for you. It's all wonderfully 80's - they truly don't make 'em like this anymore, and solely for the archival value, The Bronx Executioner is worth watching, if not owning. But, honestly, it's not in the same league as gems like Escape From the Bronx (1983) or 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982), which are movies all of a piece and not cobbled together, so maybe it's an unfair comparison. But you have to love the 80's - Italian-made "Bronx" movies were so hot in video stores, someone thought they would capitalize on that. It truly was a magical time.

Though he did other things in the Italian film industry, most notably as an editor, this is the only writing or directing credit for Vanio Amici. The mind boggles upon thinking what his other projects might have looked like. At least he added to the rich tapestry of 80's video-store movies with his lone offering. While the DVD is dirt-cheap, according to the Video Hound, the VHS version contains an intro by none other than Michael Dudikoff. That might be worth tracking down just to see what he could possibly have to say about The Bronx Executioner - a neglected Italian actioner from a time when coherency was not even close to being king.

Hypnotic!

[Crap_Connoisseur · 26 November 2005]

The Bronx Executioner is truly an hypnotic experience. There is something mesmerising about the film's sheer lack of plot, continuity and credibility. Viewers searching for an intelligent sci-fi thriller should look elsewhere. However, if you enjoy car crash cinema, then this is the film for you! One of the most charming things about this movie is the fact that it is entirely unapologetic about making absolutely no sense.

This is signalled from the very first sequence in which an ancient looking computer bleeps. For about 2 minutes. From there we get a confusing voice-over about a trainee sheriff, James, and warring humanoids and androids. Before you can say, "what the?", our stony faced trainee has been given a sheriff's badge - after completing an obstacle course and doing a few chin-ups.

The film then shifts almost entirely away from James, to the leader of the humanoids, Dakar. Dakar spends most of the film driving around in his jeep, screaming incoherently into his walkie talkie. When Dakar realises that Margie is behind the rape and murder of his girlfriend, he finally puts the damn walkie talkie away and joins forces with James to bring Margie down.

The characters of Dakar and Margie are truly hilarious. Dakar looks like a WWE escapee, while Margie runs around in a red leather dress and at one stage sports a truly fetching peroxide blonde mullet. Both actors are fabulously awful. In all fairness, lines like "the only thing I love is death" and "why do those damn androids hate us so much?" really didn't give them much to work with.

Other moments or jaw dropping incompetence include the rape of Dakar's girlfriend, who is apparently violated in 5 seconds while fully clothed and a sub-plot involving killer dogs and green lights on a computer monitor that makes no sense whatsoever.

This film is definitely not for everyone, but fans of camp 80s Euro-action films or car crash cinema could do a lot worse than spending 90 minutes of their time on "The Bronx Executioner".

Wrote the plot while filming

[brebitzer · 10/10 · 13 November 2018]

Still unsure of what I watched. Really had nothing to do with the Bronx. Just several scenes shot at an abandoned quarry. Lots of death and action. When is the sequel?? 🤣

"The Last Chapter Of The Evolution Of The Species Has Been Written!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 4 June 2021]

THE BRONX EXECUTIONER begins with lots of electronic / computer stuff going on, letting us know that we're in "the future".

This movie is a conglomeration of elements and particles from other movies that were actual hits, unlike this misbegotten stew of misery. There are bits of ROBOCOP, BLADE RUNNER, and THE TERMINATOR, with a pinch of THE ROAD WARROR tossed in for the hell of it.

How could this not be the most exciting movie ever made?

A woman named Margie (Margie Newton) is head of an army of killer-biker androids. They lead an assault on mankind that is sheer, chunky cheddar ballet! Bullets fly as people flip, flop, and twist about in slow-motion! All while Margie runs around in her red, leatherette mini-dress and dog collar!

The dialogue is poetically pathetic, and constitutes the greatest strength of this cinematic smegma..

Enter Warren (Woody Strode), who's in this movie for reasons unknown. Fights occur. More people fly around. Motorcycles ride through a blasted landscape. There are musclemen. A rape / murder scene exists only to show pointless nudity, and to give the viewer something to be angry about other than the emptiness of this nonsense. A battle takes place. Margie decides to shed her clothes as well. Etc.

A stupendously skull-flattening experience...

Dogs, guns, staged fights and lobbed off heads.

[amesmonde · 20 November 2023]

I'm the post-apocalyptic Bronx, evil androids and humanoids engage in a war for supremacy.

Director Vanio Amici's Bronx Executioners, released in 1989 but feeling like a B-Movie from 1982, extensively uses footage from the 1984 film The Final Executioner. The Bronx setting, despite claiming a post-apocalyptic vibe, bears little resemblance to the actual Bronx. It lacks the fun, futuristic elements, and coherence found in films like 1990: Bronx Warrior, Rats: Night of Terror, and The New Barbarians, among others. The gunplay, dog attacks, staged fights, and severed heads contribute to the film's chaotic mix.

Woody Strode's reused footage as Sam from The Final Executioner now portrays the character Warren, while Alex Vitale, previously the Russian in Strike Commando, plays Dakar, aspiring to be human. Margit Evelyn Newton, known for Hell of the Living Dead, is the only actor from the first film with new scenes in the second. The inclusion of saxophone in the last act attempts to evoke a Blade Runner vibe. Notably, Paolo Rustichelli's music, borrowing much from The Terminator (1984), stands out as one of the film's highlights.

Overall, Bronx Executioners feels like a poorly assembled remake of 'The Final Executioner,' lacking coherence. It may appeal to those who enjoy sporadic scenes of men rolling and falling around.