User Reviews

Tonino Ricci never met a genre he didn't like or try to make a movie in, so when Tito Carpi - who wrote some of the best Italian post-nuke movies ever like Warriors of the Wasteland and Escape from the Bronx - brought a script that combined Max Rockatansky with John Rambo it was a perfect match.

Rush is the kind of lone survivor that these movies need. He's played by Ricci's frequent lead, Bruno Minniti, and when he finds out that Yor (Gordon Mitchell!) is hording all the plants and water, he decides to go into one-man war like he's a disaffected Vietnam vet and Yor's Untouchables are the Hope, Washington police.

This is the kind of end of the world movie where Gordon Mitchell has the most obvious stuntman ever and the soundtrack isn't afraid to play a sax solo over the non-stop death and destruction. Speaking of Yor - the real Yor - Rush is nearly as bad of a hero as that prehistoric dude, because he gets nearly everyone but himself killed.

This just might be the single worst film I have ever actually seen from start to finish.

So... the basic plot is...

Post nuclear holocaust world. All life everywhere is gone, except for inside the compound where the story takes place. A mad dictator rules the compound, and everyone in it, with an iron fist. Anyone who attempts to leave is shot. No one attempts to leave, because the compound has the last remaining crops in the entire world, because all plant life is gone, because of nuclear war.

Meanwhile, the compound, which is basically what looks like a public school borrowed for the film during spring break, is only separated from the outside world by a chain link fence. On the other side of the fence, you can see... TREES! Meanwhile, the hero has left the compound, gone across the desert, and found a tiny plant coming up out of the sand. WE ARE SAVED! There is life out there! So, he must come back to the compound, and tell the others that there really are new plants growing out there. But no one believes him. BUT YOU CAN SEE THE TREES! Then people must rally around him and fight for freedom and escape the compound.

They must have been in a hurry to wrap up the filming before the kids came back to school, because so much of this film is so poorly shot, acted, edited, etc., they must have been really pressed for time and avoided any re-takes, re-shoots, or acting lessons.

Sadly, though, the film was inspirational enough to spawn "Battlequeen 2020," which was obviously inspired by this one.

Yeargh.

In the deluge of cheesy Italian fantasy flicks that came out in the early '80s (half of them sword and sorcery epics, the other half science fiction stories) one man's work is often overlooked; his name is Tonino Ricci (alternatively Anthony Richmond in English-language versions). Ricci's films (which include this, the sequel RAGE, and THOR THE CONQUEROR) are often cheaply-made (even by genre standards), have clichéd story lines and bad acting. I think Ricci is somewhere on the map just above Bruno Mattei in terms of skill level. Anyway, RUSH - THE ASSASSIN exhibits all of the hallmarks which distinguish Ricci's directorial work, and is a virtually plot less action movie which quickly becomes repetitive while watching. And yet, despite all of this, I love the movie.

I can hear you thinking "what the heck?". Why on earth would anyone love a cheesy no-budget no-hope futuristic movie in which vehicle crashes are cut away from and the explosions are less than impressive? Well, RUSH - THE ASSASSIN is a bad film no doubt, but I enjoyed it immensely because it's extremely easy on the brain (as I said, there is no plot to think of, the film just begins straight off with the action), has a stupendous death toll, and lots of silly stunts and bad dialogue. Only the Italians were able to make movies like these and get away with it (considering that a sequel followed then this movie must have at least broken even). The big budget alternative that springs to mind from watching this film is immediately RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II. The films share many similarities, with bandanna-wearing long-haired rebels killing off hundreds of guards and bad guys in the woods/jungle.

Although an entry in the post-apocalypse genre, it's pretty easy to miss that this film is set in the future. Aside from a glowing red sky, some ruins and a single robot, it might as well be set in the present day. Luckily we have the "solemn voice-over" (as always) to narrate mankind's woe at the beginning of the film. Straight afterwards we meet up with Rush who fights a man to stop him from destroying a plant (!). Rush is your typically swarthy leading man, dressed in a dirty tight vest designed to show off his muscles and seemingly plastered in some kind of baby oil. Yep, he's pretty disgusting.

Through various machinations of the plot, Rush ends up being transported to a prison camp presided over by "The Ruler", played by genre stalwart and former peplum muscleman Gordon Mitchell, typecast in the '80s as a bad guy (see also ENDGAME). Mitchell is of the "ranting villain" variety, no different from a million others, although he does look quite natty in his black clothes and long leather jacket. Rush is designated to tend to some radioactive plants but in the meantime plans his escape. Meanwhile another guy freaks out and is shot dead, and one of the guards says "Take him to the fertiliser plant"!

This is a great, highly entertaining movie packed with firepower and cheesy scenes of action. Highlights include a hilarious motorbike jump (impossible in real life of course), the scene where Steel, one of the prisoners, commits suicide by being shot and jumping on to the bad guys and exploding, and the final battle between Rush and the Ruler, where Mitchell's stand-in is plainly visible due to his different coloured hair! Conrad Nichols - who plays the lead in just about all of Ricci's films - is pretty wooden as knuckleheaded Rush, but then that's to be expected (even the megabucks guys like Schwarzenegger and Stallone are wooden in similar roles). Gordon Mitchell seems to be enjoying himself as the sadistic villain and is the only member of the cast with any real acting ability. Laura Trotter is the token love interest but gets killed at the end. The music is cool, but apparently ripped off from other movies.

I guess that this film will appeal to those fans of low budget cult craziness only. 99% of the world's population would immediately dismiss it as "rubbish", I suppose. Ah well, they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me RUSH - THE ASSASSIN offers up plenty of cheesiness, funny mistakes and unexplained things, shooting and craziness to make it a so-bad-it's-good entertaining movie.