My quick rating - 4,6/10.I had no idea this movie even existed but luckily the crew over at the real independent film company Troma got their hands on it and released it on DVD. I wouldn't normally care about some movie riding the coat tails of the cult success of Escape from New York but when I read that it is made by Lucio Fulci , the king of Italian gore flicks I had to check it out. Aside from a couple scenes, there really isn't much of the famed directors camera eye to be seen. The makers here did really pay attention to the synthesizer music to set the tone of every scene though. The whole idea is quite ahead of its time as the whole point of reality TV shows is straight up violence for rating purposes. Granted we haven't quite hit the motorcycle racing in a gladiator style ring to the death yet, but give it time. My thesis of "Men are Born Evil" still stands to this day and I still fully expect to see live executions on TV at some point. Anyway, here the combatants are people on death row along with their champion deathrider who is framed for murder just to bring in ratings for the show. The inmates of course rebel against authority and attempt to escape. The whole movie is so tongue and cheek and really pretty lame especially by Fulci standards. I am definitely glad I have seen it but unless you are a fan of City of the Living Dead or Zombie and just need to see what he can do with a sci fi flick (to my knowledge, this is the only one he has done) than I would pass on it. There is another bonus: Fred Williamson somehow shows up in this one as he often seemed to do in apocalyptic flicks around this time. Even the Italian ones that show a very budget limited futuristic world.
