Road Wars (2015) User Reviews

Sad Max...

[Rob_Taylor · 3/10 · 19 September 2015]

This is another Asylum knock-off and it shows. Which brings me to a little story...

See, a little while ago a friend took me to task over my singling out Asylum for these sorts of films. He went so far as to point out that popular movies have always attracted plagiarism and opportunistic attempts to cash in on them. He even used Star Wars as a prime example, and rightly so.

But then I pointed out that the difference between movies like for instance, Starcrash, which was made to cash in on Star Wars, is that they came out well after the blockbuster they attempted to ape. With Asylum, that is not true.

Asylum movies usually arrive just before a big movie opens, promising the same thrills as the AAA movie, but delivering something entirely horrible instead.

In this case, Road Wars was released on 5 May 2015. Fury Road on 7 May 2015. Can you see how their nefarious opportunism works now, friend? They turn out movies before, or at the same time as the movie they have mimicked. All of their marketing and promotional material is essentially paid for by the bigger movie.

I suppose I should admire them for their gall, but all the process really does is just paint them with a very large brush. And it is a brush that has been used to clean toilets with.

Anyway, enough ranting. Is Road Wars any good at all as a movie, despite being the product of Asylum? Well, no, of course it isn't. The budget is non-existent for things like car stunts, though the cars are reasonably well done in and of themselves. There are no crashes, no smashes, and no hits. In fact, most of the time you get little more than scenes of aimless driving. Scenes of aimless talking and... well... that's about it, really.

Even if none of the Mad Max movies had existed this would still be a sub-par, boring movie that even the 80's VHS era would have been embarrassed to field. The acting is very weak here indeed and the story is simplistic and almost pointless.

Do yourselves a favour and give it a miss.

SUMMARY: Rip-off Asylum at work again! No fun, no real action, cars that don't get damaged. Acting at a high-school drama level. Not worth the effort.

Not even entertainingly bad

[jmgindiana · 2/10 · 8 July 2015]

Slow, boring, stupid. I understand the filmmakers didn't have a huge budget to work with, but they could still come with something better than this. Yeah, it's a Mad Max ripoff, but there has been a bunch of those, and at least some of them are entertaining! This one has nothing going for it, with the exception maybe of the cars, which look nice (the "hero" car is horrible, though), but what's the point of a Mad Max clone where NONE of the cars get trashed? There are no car stunts, either!

Guys, those cars were supposed to be ruins on themselves, don't tell me you couldn't destroy at least one or two for your "epic" movie! I guess the cars were rented from real-life fans who built their own "Fury Road"-like vehicles, since most of them have working tail-lights (a necessity when you are driving through the wasteland, I suppose) which suggest that the cars were street-legit, which wouldn't make sense for this kind of vehicles.

I have seen other Asylum titles just for the fun of watching an unintentional bad movie. This one is just bad, not funny. Avoid like the plague. If you really want to see a Mad Max movie, grab the old ones or go see Fury Road.

flat B-movie

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 12 August 2018]

A man approaches a group of survivors in an apocalyptic world. They wing him with a shot and are surprised to find him a normal human suffering from amnesia. Water is scarce. It hasn't rained since forever and the group guards the only known source of clean water. The world is overtaken by viral zombies which come out at night to attack. The amnesic man may actually be immune from the zombie virus and possibly the salvation of the human race. Nakada has smuggled in her infected boyfriend Kevin.

This is a Road Warrior wannabe. It's noticeable that I don't know many of their names. These characters are one dimensional and expandable. It's a cheap exploitation B-movie done without the fun exploitation. Somebody dressed up a few vehicles and had some fun playing Road Warrior. It isn't much more than that.

Road "Kill"

[mkealey · 1/10 · 6 May 2015]

Mark Atkins directed, editor, writer? What happened, did they withhold your paycheck? This isn't even a comical event of errors. Cars driving in the background at the mining city, new trucks parked in front of buildings, (i guess the owners wouldn't move them unless they were paid) and what happened to Dallas,(Spoiler?) the lead actor? Forgot him at the end? (maybe he was in the trunk!) This is not even worth a B movie category. Shame on yourself Mark Putting Mad Max and 28 days in the same review as this movie is a disgrace. Better off watching Doomsday with Rhona Mitra. The only person who closely represents a professional actor is Cole Parker, but even he should stick with stand up comedy. The beginning of the movie, at the gas station, actually started out OK, but then rapidly disintegrated. This is the type of movie you keep watching, thinking it might get better. If you want to watch a slightly better caliper theme, turn on Z-Nation on SYFY. At least that is only a 43 minute show and the acting is better. then again, almost any acting is better than this trash.

A total waste of 90 minutes.

[johnhdavison · 1/10 · 4 May 2015]

I often wonder how these movies ever get made ,let alone why studios pay to have them made. This movie takes place in an abandoned California Gold mine town, there is a loose story, and I mean loose. In fact I would say someone has watched a Mad Max movie and a Zombie movie and come up with a really bad Script involving Weird people, Zombies, Guns, flamethrowers and Average /bad actors. The only good thing about this film was the ending, It was over and No more time was wasted watching Garbage. Also the music by Ilir Zenili was pitiful and performed by Peg leg something. Head banging garage band stuff. So in reflection, don't waste 90 minutes of your time watching the rubbish,wait for the new Mad Max Fury road.

week old road kill... just a smelly patch of flatness

[olivegarky · 1/10 · 16 June 2015]

yes I watched this last night , found an online copy. it wants to be mad max 2/road warrior meets resident evil. this is just my op. ... it fails miserably on both accounts. weak soundtrack, weak hook... by hook i mean, in the first five minutes a movie -or book- should hook the reader/viewer, so they want to continue. my ratings hinge on re-watchability... i had to fast forward through most of the movie-- weak acting-- weak dialogue-- weak story line-- the movie quality is good, the filming. but everything else is "b" movie grade. the cars , the acting etc.

I wish i hadn't watched it in the first place, if fast forwarding is even watching. It will not be re-watched. there is a lot of sitting in the desert, driving in the desert. pointless dialogue and stuff that doesn't make sense.

I have no doubt that someone will say "this movie is epic", well, to that , i say ... every turd has its punchbowl. hey , i am gonna use that in my thread from the sandbox message board entitled "the poop group". check it out.

comment , bring all your poop slinging to my poop group in the sandbox message board I thought you said you weren't insane anymore?

Cheap but not poor

[tigerrenko-14442 · 5/10 · 3 August 2015]

B-movie? Try D. This flick is cheap, lower than low budget with serious issues with scenography (brand new trucks against supposedly post- apoc buildings), costumography (neatly trimmed, fresh looking actors in supposedly post-apoc world).

However, despite bad acting the movie has some good points. No CGI, all is done with cool MadMax-esque vehicles. Attempt at Aussie accents is also sort of a bonus (for being an homage) if not a slight comic relief.

The best in this movie is the story. It doesn't have a beginning. Audience is waking up into a nightmare (just as main character does). It doesn't have an ending either. What kind of ending is there after the end of the world? In between the moment lights come in and lights come out, we see an authentic, believable story about survivors. they have hopes, doubts, they have issues, they love beyond death, they are just trying to do their best to survive. I the end, they are defeated. Again, by love...

One hellish road

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 2 April 2018]

Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of The Asylum's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, The Asylum do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

'Road Wars' is a mock-buster of 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. Although one of its year's most positively reviewed films critically, like several acclaimed films it seems it's garnered some at times vitriolic hate. If those that disliked 'Fury Road' watched 'Road Wars' out of curiosity it is more than likely that they'll appreciate that film more once seeing 'Road Wars'. While not quite one of The Asylum's all-time worst everything bad about their output is present and it's basically an abomination that shows no shame it seems in being as bad as it is.

1/10 is not a common rating for me these days and generally try to be encouraging and balanced when reviewing. There have been a fair share of films seen that have deserved the rating and look as though they didn't even try, other than wasting good actors that is one of film's biggest cardinal sins for me. That's the case with 'Road Wars'.

As expected, 'Road Wars' is cheap, and that's being generous, visually, even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors and even the scenery doesn't make much impression despite being actually the least bad aspect of the film. There are worse special effects in other Asylum films, they still look very cheap though and like they were an afterthought and made in haste. Am aware of the film being low-budget, but there are examples of low-budget films that still don't look awful and manage to be pretty good.

Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script makes little sense, sounds awkward constantly and on the wrong side of camp throughout.

There is absolutely nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. 'Road Wars' is basically non-stop dullness and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese, too much often extraneous talk and not enough action and extremely flat and irritating character writing.

Its incredibly dreadful with no exceptions acting from a cast that wouldn't even pass for Z-grade is one of the film's worst assets.

Overall, really poor. 1/10 Bethany Cox

CHOCOLATE AND NUTS

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 23 November 2018]

Asylum mockbuster of "Mad Max." Girls with excessive eye make-up, water and gas at a premium, folks living in the desert, demolition derby vehicles. Add in Zombies known as Night Runners and Day Walkers. One guy appears to be immune and human factions in conflict. Occasional grindhouse soundtrack, cardboard characters. People with various accents. A lot of talking and riding in a car. Spend the money and watch "Mad Max..." instead.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Worst Post-Apocalpyse Movie

[EverydayIDecay · 1/10 · 26 January 2021]

Worst than half-ass post apocalyptic type movie. Can barely call it that. They just put on crappy makeup and there's really no plot storyline.

I expected little and I got it

[zwolf · 6/10 · 3 August 2015]

Obvious attempt to cash in on Fury Road, and it's from Asylum, so you know to go in with low expectations. But, I'm a fiend for post-apocalypse road war stuff, so I had to give it a chance. And... it was okay. It benefited from low expectations.

The cars are at least good enough to have maybe passed for extras in some of Fury Road's crowd scenes, so there's that. Unfortunately, they don't really get to do much. There's only one real chase scene and it's brief and doesn't entail much except driving around, with no real stunt work. The cover shows lots of vehicles and explosions. You get about five or six cars, and no explosions. As for the driving scenes, director's never going to be confused with George Miller.

Plot-wise it's Mad Max cross-pollinated with I Am Legend. Society's broken down and the few survivors and scavenging for everything. Gasoline seems to be more plentiful than water, though, since petrol's the one thing they don't seem to fret about much. A lot of people have become victims of a "vampire virus" and, since they luckily have a biochemist on their team, they're trying to work on a cure. One guy who may be immune shows up; the filmmakers are so desperate to make him seem like Mad Max that he has an Aussie accent, and they even have him wearing a black leather jacket with one shoulderpad.

Their big problem is they're running out of ammunition to fight off the nightly attacks from vampires, and to look for more they'd have to leave the only known source of water. Mostly they sit around talking about this, when you'd rather they were driving. It's not really that difficult to make one of these movies more satisfying -- just get decent-looking cars (which they did) and show them driving around a lot (which they didn't).

So, it's not very good, but it's still better than most of the Italian Road Warrior ripoffs that swarmed the video stores back in the days of VHS, so, I cut it some slack. Production values aren't bad, the survivors looked suitably skangy, and the acting's not great but isn't painful, either. And the plot's not compelling, but there is one and it's not overly clumsy. It's an okay way to kill 90 minutes as long as you're not expecting too much. Better than most Asylum films, but that's damning with faint praise.

Pretty bad

[jacobjohntaylor1 · 1/10 · 19 June 2018]

This is not a good movie. It is a horror movie. It is not scary. I do not understand the character. I do not like this movie at all. It does not have I good story line. Do not see it this movie.

The end ruined the movie

[tlspurgeon · 5/10 · 11 June 2023]

The movie was good all the way until the end. It's like they didn't want the movie to end well so they literally changed it and messed it up. Maybe they thought it would have been cliche for the characters to make it so they made them turn on each other and shoot each other. If that's the case, they totally guessed wrong! The movie was good for not having the usual sex scenes, Satanic, and or LGBT propaganda. I really appreciated that. The action scenes were done well. Not too much camera shaking so you could actually see what was happening. However, this movie totally disappointed me at the end. It could have been a good movie from start to finish. But they just had to not let the characters find a serum or get along with each other at the end so they could go on to find a "cure". It was so bad that it was like a switch was flipped at the end. It was just so disappointing. It could have been a good movie had it not ended that way.

"Who's going to have your back? Papa Smurf?"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 5/10 · 7 September 2020]

With characters called 'Tophat' and 'Deerhead', cars with spikes or attached flame throwers, women with painted faces, men with odd weapons, unending supplies of petrol and all shot in dull yellow and beige this must be 'Mad Max' on a low budget. It also has zombies who like blood, a night time and a daytime variety. The story is not interesting, no one seems to wash and nearly everyone dies by the end so it's grimy and grim. On the faintly positive side I did like the sun soaked locations. And Jane Hae Kim as the medico Susan, who wasn't in it nearly enough.

upset steve: cranky highway

[godinamachine · 4/10 · 2 March 2022]

HEY EVERYBODY ITS ME (4) and today we review " upset dax: furry choad" ...the movie !!!!!!!!!

SO here we have yet another "asylum" production ripping off a block buster movie ...obviously "mad max: fury road" that came out around the same time ..... instead of "war boys" we have "zombies" .... and instead of "mad max" we have "steve" from accounting .... you know some random forgettable looking average joe looking guy with an aussie accent and a halloween try hard mad max costume on .... THEN we have the furiosa chick for the movie ? ...the "side chick" if you will being almost the main character ALSO in this film as she is looking for a cure for her man and yadda yadda ........totally different story line form mad max though .... but visuals are very close BUT as with 99% of ALL end of the world films .... it always turns out like that ......you get either mad max look, or cyber punk look ....thats our only 2 choices .... WHY ?!?!?!?!?

Its a competently made film over all ..... usually the asylum films are though ...they get a lot of crap thrown their way for ripping off the block buster films BUT they do a decent job most of the time now ...in the beginning ...meh not so much BUT NOW days ....yea ....they do pretty good ...

story was mid level, nothing to great , the standard "search quest" deal,.... with the gasp "twist" ending you knew was coming from a mile away ... though ... the way the "heros " handled it was kind of stupid .....i mean ... when facing end of your species , and you find a cure, BUT it has ONE ...only ONE set back and really that set back isnt that bad .... i man the cure leaves you pretty much fine with a livable normal life .... but instead of accepting that they get all NO WE MUST BE PURE AND "NORMAL" AND AAAHHHHHHHHHHH KILL KILL KILL!!!!!! Like dude calm your milkers sir .....your fine ....they are fine ...everyone could literally BE FINE but instead you think one tiny thing ....and its the end of the world .....again ...... news flash its already over ...theres like 200 people left max and you can change it all back ....BUT NOOOOOO you want to be a jerkoff last second because ???? Writers block on how to end the film is my assumption .... didnt have a "good way to end it soooooo we get that

couple of major issues here that could have easily been fixed to make it a solid film:

#1. Should have NOT had an aussie for the lead male hero role ..... i mean ...end of the world movies already have to be compared to mad max literally every step of the way so why make it even easier ??? Doing this would have made it stand alone as its own film - however i know then it would NOT have cash grabbed the mad max train and that was the sole purpose of this mockbuster .....so i get it .... but a man can dream cant he ....

#2 the TERRIBLE SOUND TRACK .... jesus christ REALLY ? .... some ... pulp fiction would be sounding garbage ? ... ugh ......nothing says serious zombie end of the world movie like bad surfer music .....

# 3 .... at about 56 mins in ... the black dudes eyes .... LOL ... did no one think to do a reshoot for that one scene ? ... no one .. on the entire crew ....did ANYONE watch the dailies ??? Someone notice he shut his eyes on his own ? ... no one AT ALL ?!?!?!?!? Okay ... apparently an entire crew of blind people shot this film ..so actually now that i think about it ..im impressed how well this came out ....

other wise ....IF you do NOT think of it as a bad mad max parody .....or rip off ....then it isnt half bad really .... its got some action going on ...basic story, acting is on par .....i mean easily a standard filler film for a saturday with nothing to do , just put it on and waste a couple of hours kind of deal sure ... OR you could rewatch MAD MAX FURY ROAD again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4/10.

Not what you expect, better than you expect

[mikemdp · 7/10 · 6 May 2020]

Oh, my stars and garters, I do believe I've got the vapors, honey! I experienced one helluva Asylum movie tonight!

A "Mad Max" mockbuster in name and aesthetic only, this is a kickin' movie about a ragtag group of post-viral-apocalypse humans fighting to survive a plague that has turned everyone else into vampires.

Sound familiar?

Richard Matheson and Will Smith, put your damn hands down, FFS. Of course it sounds familiar. This is The Asylum, after all.

But unlike usual The Asylum pablum, the filmmakers (credit Asylum go-to guy Mark Atkins, most of whose filmography should be printed on used baby wipes) have somehow managed to tell a compelling story! The twists are not obvious, the actors are not all uniformly bad, and the movie is actually quite entertaining on a level beyond the "so bad it's good" brass ring this negative-10th-rate studio usually reaches for.

Look, it does suffer from usual The Asylum failings -- choppy editing, WTF narrative decisions, actors who appear to have been cast because they happened to be next in line behind the casting director at Burger King.

But they're markedly fewer than usually present in The Asylum films. It's like the studio is slowly recovering from a terrible movie disease.

And so, I am glad to report to you that "Road Wars" is a hoot. An absolute hootenanny of cool cars, zombie vampires and plucky protagonists, all filmed in the desert through a camera filter that makes everything orange. That works, too, surprisingly.

The cars are great. The vampires are great. The story works. There's tension. There's drama. There's surprises. This is a The Asylum film, and the story actually is coherent and compelling! Seriously, I'm gonna play the lottery tomorrow, because I can't believe my run of luck here.

Somehow, mixing "Mad Max" with "I Am Legend" was a heavenly Reese's chocolate-and-peanut-butter match. It's astounding how well this movie works, and how much fun it is.

Check it out. Seriously.

Tom Hardy - ish lead....

[guestar57 · 6/10 · 21 May 2015]

It's not a horrible flick,Yes,Derivative of a '70s genre and playing those Mockbuster games with a Aussie – sounding doppelganger of a lead actor.

The cars are very cool and for not being cgi OR in a video game,They do awesome things on screen.

Liked the other lead John Freeman, He has a Robert Rusler look and was a rodeo cowboy so comes with that rugged look of Post Apocalypse naturally.

Wish they didn't use The Zombie cheat/cheap shot,Because then you sprinkle your screen with Walking Dead almost cast.

One accolade to Mark Atkins, You did it all buddy,And that is a impressive feat,No matter the results.

Makes good use of a low budget.

[Pairic · 6/10 · 9 May 2018]

Road Wars: A Mad Max/Zombiesque hybrid. A Rabies type Virus has devastated the Earth, the cities have fallen. Small bands of survivors eke out an existence in the badlands, The Road Gangs are also in operation, vehicles just as outlandish as in any MM film.

An amnesiac Road Warrior (even dressed like MM) emerges from the desert, he brings hope as he may be immune to the virus.

The infected, are day-walkers and night-runners, but mostly come out at night, seeking blood. they'll tear out your throat to get it.

Makes good use of a low budget.