ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX

(1985, Italy)

DIRECTED BY: Enzo G. Castellari

STARRING: Mark Gregory, Henry Silva, Valerie D'obici, Timothy Brent.

"The year is 2000. Two savage armies battle for supremacy over a shattered wasteland."

A sequel of sorts to Enzo G. Casterllari's 1990: The Bronx Warriors (borrowing from Escape From New York title wise and that's about it) but really its a whole new movie. It's the year 2000 a nd conditions have become a lot worse in the Bronx (as if things couldn't get any worse), a "mega" corporation called General Buildings has plans to wipe out The Bronx and turn it into part of their re-established empire. A group called The Disinfectors take care of the dirty work. The group are led by Henry Silva in a rather lame role where he gives the orders and never gets his own hands dirty.

Enter the character Trash (Mark Gregory, YAH!) from 1990: The Bronx Warriors who is now part of a rebel allia nce. Trash accompanied by an explosives expert and his son along with a loud mouth female reporter devise a plan to kidnap the president of General Buildings. The plan works but the rebel alliance must battle it out with the Disinfectors when they come looking for the head honcho.

Escape From The Bronx has a heap load of action from start to finish and less of the goofy kung fu like hand to hand combat that was in The Bronx Warriors. It also had a lot of unintentional funny parts and they can provide a chuckle or two. Henry Silva's character gets pissed off in a big way when he asks for coffee, gets it and finds out there is sugar in it "I said NO GODDAMN SUGAR!!!", Silva spits out various profanities with a mouth full of coffee staining his teeth and dripping everywhere. In a couple of incidents Trash shoots at a van and the same with a helicopter using a handgun (with a never ending supply of ammunition of course) and blows them up on the first couple of shots WITH A FREAK'IN HANDGUN!

As always the d ialogue is pitiful but colorful (i.e: fag face, fag lips, I'll twist your balls off etc) especially due to the dubbing but I have to point out it's not as bad as the original. One particular scene has a man wired to explosives telling the rebels to keep away because he is going to blow up. The rebels run but no explosion occurs (???).

I personally find these things funny and they add to the movie, I like most of the Italian action flicks because you can always find something to laugh about, I think this is part of their charm. Escape From The Bronx also has some nice music (another noticeable trait for these type of flicks) and a good explosive conclusion. The ending is one of the better ones I've seen but the General Buildings corporation is not destr o yed, making me believe that there were plans for a third sequel. I give this one a generous rating because of its enjoyment level and not so much because it's a well made movie, some good camera work and slow motion action scenes to add to it. Mark Greg ory is my hero!

Rating: 3 ½ Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

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