My New Year's resolution is to be a more positive person, and that consideration extends to my perspective on films. 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS is a good place to start.

I could talk about the terrible script, the most outrageous costumes imaginable, the limited budget which bleeds through every frame, or the beefcake pretty-boy lead who is not only completely devoid of talent, but lacks any personality at all (to call this performance "wooden" would be an insult to puppets everwhere), but I will try to highlight the goods which this film actually *does* deliver.

Italian cinema had a nice little cottage industry of ripping off successful and well known Hollywood movies. Most are pretty awful, to be honest, but some of them have developed a cult following of their own. 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS is one such film. Director Enzo G. Castellari (THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS - *NOT* the Tarantino film, WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND, ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX) makes no attempt to hide his "apprpriation" of the plots from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THE WARRIORS, but if you'received looking for a strong plot, you would do well to avoid these Italian knock-offs completely.

With these movies, the appeal is in the details and the genre trappings. Trying to argue that these films aren't designed solely to make a quick buck is a guaranteed losing proposition, but some of these directors-for-hire actually put some thought and imagination into their projects. Castellari is one such director. 1990 features some very nicely framed and composed shots, along with some innovative and very effective editing. The fight choreography was *mostly* effective and well-covered by the camera. Few Italian genre motion pictures are bereft of a little gore, here and there. 1990 is no different. I haven't seen this many impalings outside of a Hammer vampire film, and we even get a nice little decapitation in the final minutes to "cap things off" The final battle also consists of one guy armed with a flame thrower, running amuck, and roasting everyone in sight. The way that Castellari shoots the flame effects is nearly seamless (It appears that the actors and camera are behind a clear glass panel, giving us a very exciting pov shot of facing down a flamethrower barrel).

If you don't mind the cheesy nature of these movies, some of them are rather enjoyable. Vic Morrow and Fred Williamson have a blast chewing the scenery, which - I suppose - compensates for the film's mannequin lead.

As far as cheesy low budget B-Movies go, it seriously does not get any better than 1980s Italian rip-off movies. If you think of any popular Hollywood genre movie from the 70s and 80s (Exorcist, Evil Dead, Jaws, Aliens, Mad Max, Indiana Jones, the list goes on) there's a very good chance that Italy has their own very-obvious low budget rip-off of it made in the 80s, and chief among them is 1990: The Bronx Warriors, a cheesy low budget mix of The Warriors and Escape From New York. Parts of New York City (Specifically The Bronx) is left lawless and various gangs and criminals have taken over. The daughter of a wealthy company-owner runs away to escape her family and ends up in the Bronx, outside the grasp of the law, and takes up with the leader of a biker gang, who must battle deadly police assassins, as well as rival street gangs, in order to keep her safe.

There is seriously no words for how cheesy this movie is. From the glow in the dark skulls on the main gang's motorcycles, to the various themes of the rival gangs (mimes, dance troops, street hockey players), to the horrible annoyingly catchy 80s music that will be stuck in your head weeks after having watched the movie. There really is no shortage whatsoever for cheese lovers here, and that's not even talking about the horrible dialog and campy world-building on display everywhere.

The movie does slow down for quite a bit in the middle however, and outside of the very basic plot I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you what the movie is really about or how the plot progresses because it really is kind of all over the place, and I hardly understood what exactly was going on half the time...but hey look, a deadly street gang doing interpretative dance around their enemies! An undercover assassin cop with a flame thrower! Bad dubbing acting as characters shout at each other over how to run the gang! Oh, here comes that annoyingly catchy bad 80s score again!

God damn, this movie is bad in all the right ways!