SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Interview with Director David Worth
• WOTLW Production Stills
The Pitch
That guy from Paperchase does a Stallone impression after dental surgery while riding a talking motorcycle.
The Humans
That guy from Paperchase (Robert Ginty), The bald chick from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Persis Khambatta), Jimmy Carter (Harrison Muller Sr.), Donald Pleasence, Fred Williamson
The Nutshell
That guy from Paperchase is the reluctant savior of a post-apocalyptic world along with his trusty sidekick, Harvey the Talking Motorcycle. He battles Donald Pleasance who is the leader of Omega, an evil Orwellian organization with a predilection for S&M nightclubs. Think Mad Max meets Knight Rider meets The Warriors, and at the same time completely unbearable to watch.
The Lowdown
If Santa Claus is the jewel of this set, then Warrior of the Lost World is the turd. This film would be completely unwatchable were it not for the commentary of Joe, Crow, and Tom Servo. The movie starts with our “hero”, Robert Ginty (That guy from Paperchase), riding his talking motorcycle, which makes jokes so unfunny it has to repeat them several times. He encounters agents of Omega, The Oppressive Government of the Lost World and makes short work of them thanks to his wonderful toys.
The only people who still watch Warrior of the Lost World.
Later, while fighting future-nerds, he crashes his bike into the invisible wall that is home to the toga wearing elders. After they fix his injuries with flashlights, they insist that Mr. Mumbles is the chosen one that will save them all. Since he is an anti-hero, he has to be forced at gun point to help, by the bald chick from Star Trek: the Motion Picture (Persis Khambatta); guess who will be the love interest. After a lot of walking through random sets, they arrive in Omega HQ to rescue her father from execution. It is at this point that we are treated to GI Joe: A Real American Hero quality gun sound effects.
After a lot of bad sound effects and dead Omega soldiers, Robert Ginty and Jimmy Carter “narrowly escape with their lives.” Their inability to bring along Persis Khambatta can really only be attributed to laziness given how easily they wiped out the rest of the Omega soldier during their escape mission. It literally would have only taken a couple minutes to have her escape with them. Lucky for us, she gets captured and we are treated to Donald Pleasence reprising his supervillian role from You Only Live Twice. Other than Megaweapon (more on him later), he is the highlight of the film. He hams it up in a way that you cannot help but enjoy.
Trust me, you will cheer when Megaweapon kills the talking motorcycle.
Robert Ginty needs an army to rescue Persis Khambatta and so begins The Warriors portion of the movie. Robert Ginty and a representative member of each of the various ‘themed gangs’ fight in a no-holds-barred brawl to determine who will lead them. Luckily, that guy from Paperchase, who is not above dwarf-tossing and sucker punching women, is the ultimate victor. The newly formed road gang fights the Omega soldiers who wish to thwart their second rescue mission. The rebels are winning until Omega unleashes Megaweapon, but thanks to the noble sacrifice of the talking motorcycle, it is defeated.
Eventually, Persis Khambatta is rescued and Donald Pleasence is killed…or is he? It turns out that it was just a clone that died and that Fred Williamson was on his side all along. Just when you thought it was over, Warrior of the Lost World threatens a sequel. This is the greatest threat of the apocalypse.
Even with the commentary, which made me laugh out loud at several points, watching this film is painful. I was only able to get through this review by liberal use of the jokes employed by the crew. It never gets to the point of ‘so bad it’s good’ and just stays awful. Use of alcohol is strongly recommended to get through this movie.
Uncredited Meatloaf cameo
The Package
The first time I watched this, I wanted to forget that this movie existed and so I skipped the interview with the director. The second time (Yes, I inflicted this film on myself twice for the sake of this review.), I watched the interview beforehand and it actually provides some interesting background on the making of the film. For example, Fred Williamson asked to be written into the script so that he had an excuse to extend his stay in Rome. He is a good sport about his film being the butt of so many jokes and even finds the time to shit on Renny Harlin. If anything, this disc could have done without any extras for the same reason that I skipped the interview initially. That said, Shout! Factory still earns some bonus points due to the quality of the extra.