SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

George Taylor If this film had a budget, it could have been great. Starring Yul Brynner as the Ultimate Warrior, and Bill Smith as the main bad guy, Brynner is helping defend a peaceful group of post apocalyptic survivors, whose leader Max Von Sydow has the last seeds in the world. Low budget, this was filmed nearly entirely on the (quiet clear) Universal back lot.

a_chinn The year is 2012. The world has been devastated by nuclear war and plague. The few surviving humans living in New York City have formed into two warring gangs, scavenging off the remnants of the old world in order to survive. My all-time favorite character actor, William Smith, plays Carrot, the evil red-headed leader of one gang. Max von Sydow plays the kind and thoughtful leader of the good but weak gang who want to restore some semblance of civilization. In walks the titular Ultimate Warrior in the form of Yul Brynner, in one of his final film appearances, and helps Sydow fend off the villainous Carrot (the least menacing of name for a villain of all-time) and his savage gang. Directed by Robert Clouse, who will always be remembered as the man who brought Bruce Lee to American audiences when he directed "Enter the Dragon," fills the film with plenty of hand-to-hand combat, but nothing close to Lee's amazing moves. A fellow Hong Kong martial artist, the great Gordon Liu, was originally set to star in "The Ultimate Warrior," but that sadly fell through, although a 55-year old Brynner does an credible job, even if he doesn't have the acrobatic skill of Liu. The film co-stars many familiar faces with Joanna Miles, Stephen McHattie, Richard Kelton, and Darrell Zwerling, and also features an interesting eerie score by Gil Melle. Post-apocalyptic films have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until films like "A Boy and His Dog," "The Omega Man," and "Damnation Alley" where we started to see truly destroyed worlds that hinted at the wastelands we'd later get with the endlessly imitated Max Max films. Of all the post-apocalyptic films prior to "The Road Warrior," I believe this one was closest to presenting a similar warriors-of-the- wasteland type of setting, although 1979's "Ravagers" is pretty close as well. Also of note on this film, without revealing any spoilers, the final showdown between Brynner and Smith has a quite memorable and intense climax. Overall, this is an underrated bit of 1970s sci-fi that well worth watching for fans of this era's downbeat science fiction.

bkoganbing How well I remember The Ultimate Warrior when he was a big draw in Vince McMahon's WWF back in the day. With him in mind I thought I would get a titanically built warrior along the lines of Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Instead I got Yul Brynner looking very uncomfortable in a role for which a Schwarzeneggar was required to make it believable.The Ultimate Warrior the movie is set in an apocalyptic New York in the year of 2012. A plague has descended on the land and the world's food supply has been pretty wiped out. Manhattan island has descended into gangs that have formed tribes. One of the more civilized tribes is headed by Max Von Sydow who is a scientist and whose son-in-law Richard Kelton has developed some vegetable seeds that are immune to the plague virus. But he and his pregnant wife, Joanna Miles have to escape to the country and give these seeds a chance to grow.Which is where Yul Brynner comes in, The Ultimate Warrior, an ultimate fighting machine who makes hash out of an invading tribe headed by William Smith. Can Von Sydow and Brynner keep civilization alive.Brynner was never a man exactly out of shape, but he was 55 and looking it when he did this film. Fifteen years earlier he might have been believable, but not now. Von Sydow was all right though as the voice of dying civilization.One thing though in that last hand to hand fight with William Smith if Schwarzeneggar had been cast he would never have had to make the sacrifice he did. You'll have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about.Only for Yul Brynner's fans and even they should approach this one with a caution.

Paul Kotta "Not as bad as you'd think" is not a very convincing way to start a review, I admit, but this is a movie that had a lot going for it. A lot of potential, but not completely wasted. The scrip, including dialog, is rather intelligent. And the smartest thing the film's creators did was cast Brynner, von Sydow, and Smith (who is one of the most underrated bad guys in Hollywood. I wish Tarantino would rediscover him the way he did Travolta, Keaton, Forster--and just about half the main characters of most of his films, in fact). Perhaps, though, the stars' salaries left little money for sets and costumes, which are pathetic. The lighting is about as atmospheric as a dogfood commercial. Sadly, director Clouse's usual flair for fight scenes is, with the exception of a couple of nice touches here and there, absent.Interestingly, "Day of the Dead" borrows heavily from this film, from the basic storyline (handful of survivors of apocalypse fighting against one another as a handful of them plot escape) right down to the cauterization-with-torch scene and the island-as-escape-from-wordly-chaos theme.