Customer Reviews

Battle Beneath the Earth/The Ultimate Warrior

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're into corny sci-fi from the 60's and 70's get it! If you only watch blockbusters and chick flicks, stay away! I love old yul brynner sci-fi movies and max von sydow actually did a great acting job for being a B movie sci-fi flick, so the purchase was good for me. Battle beneath the earth was OK too. The beginning is kind of catchy, "just like ants!". Drink plenty coffea to make it through the middle of the movie. Enjoy! P.S. if you like Yul Brynner Sci-Fi movies, make sure to get "Future World" & "West World"!

Exciting double bill of Sci-fi Post Apocalyptic Films provides many thrills.
The superior quality film is BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH 1968, an admirable
1960s cold war type adventure involving the Chinese, tunnels under the earth, a top star cast of Kerwin Mathews and Viviane Ventura with Ed Bishop.
Director Montgomery Tully directs with visual style and flair.
Secondary film on the disc is the ULTIMATE WARRIOR 1975, a well made sci-fi
futuristic movie with Yul Brynner, Joanna Miles and William Smith.
Picture quality is good, colours are bright and sound is crisp.

An interesting film from the 1970's, part of a string of movies -- such as SOYLENT GREEN, THE OMEGA MAN, DAMNATION ALLEY, A BOY AND HIS DOG,etc. --which deal with civilization after some violent cataclysm. Yul Brynner was no spring chicken when he did this role but performs well. Max Von Sydow as the Baron (originally it was to been called THE BARONEY) delivers as a man struggling to keep the people in his charge from being overcome by the violent forces outside his compound and from extinction. In some ways a precurser to the MAD MAX films. Then there is Big Bill Smith. Has anyone ever played better-- and more -- crazed over the edge psychos than this son of a gun? I think not. In an interview he said that in his death scene, while rats ran over him, one actually crapped in his mouth. Now that's taking one for the team! This was written and directed by Robert Clouse ,who, in the same year , helmed Bruce Lee's ENTER THE DRAGON.

As for BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH ... a boring film with Kerwin Matthews (7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, WEREWOLF IN WASHINGTON D.C.). It seems longer than its actual running time.

THE ONLY FILM WORTH WATCHING IN THIS SET IS THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR WITH YUL BRYNNER AND MAX VON SYDOW. IT'S A MILDLY INTERESTING FUTURISTIC SCI-FI SET IN THE WASTELAND OF A RUINED NEW YORK CITY. WHETHER OR NOT THINGS ARE THE WAY THEY ARE BECAUSE OF A NUCLEAR WAR OR SOME OTHER CALAMITY, I WAS UNABLE TO DECIPHER.

THE MAIN THING IS THAT SEPERATE GROUPS OF PEOPLE LIVE LIKE ANIMALS, LOOTERS AND CANNIBALS BUT OTHER GROUPS OF MORE RATIONALE PEOPLE TRY TO LIVE MORE DECENT LIVES IN A BARRICADED COMMUNE BUT WERE FACED BY A MULTITUDE OF CHALLENGES. TAKE BRYNNER AND VON SYDOW OUT OF THIS FILM AND YOU HAVE NO FILM. THE RELIABLE B MOVIE VILLIAN WILLIAM SMITH ALSO JOINS THE STORY AS A BRUTE WHO BULLIES EVERYONE AROUND HIM.

FORGET THE OTHER FILM, IT STINKS AND NO ONE COULD ACT IN IT. IT'S CALLED BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH. IF THEY TOLD ME ED WOOD WROTE AND DIRECTED THIS FILM, I'D BELIEVE IT. IT WAS BAD AND BORING. I ACTUALLY WATCHED IT TILL THE END TO BE SURE I WASN'T HALLUCINATING. I KEPT STUN GUNNING MYSELF TO STAY AWAKE. IT MADE PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE LOOK LIKE CITIZEN KANE.

OF BRYNNER'S SCI-FI FILMS IN THE 1970'S, I'D SUGGEST WESTWORLD AND IT'S SEQUEL, FUTURE WORLD.

Bought this for the "Ultimate Warrior" alone, and I suggest it stay that way, as the other title is worthless even by grade "z" movie standards. Saw the "Ultimate Warrior" as a junior high kid back in early 80's on late night TV, and it has been a cult favorite of mine ever since. Yul Brynner tries to save what little hopes for civility and a sustained food supply are left after the apocolypse. Brynner was a fantastic tough guy throughout his career and this is one of his better showings in his later years.

For Bad SciFi Freaks. This is just another set of bad SciFi for those of us that collect this stuff.

I would rate the movie four stars if I could but this disc gets a 1 star for not treating "The Ultimate Warrior" like it deserves to be, so I just have it three, whatever, the following will explain. As another review has stated, I also have waited years for the release of The Ultimate Warrior, starring Yul Brynner, max Von Sydow, Joanna Miles, and William Smith. This great film (1975) was one of the very first Post Apocalyptic films made. I own the VCD of this film, and have bought this new DVD as well, but it is simply a terrible choice to place such a great and well made film as The Ultimate Warrior, alongside some b movie thing. The Ultimate Warrior is a historic film deserving a lot better treatment that this. I hope they re-release this and do it the justice it deserves with its own disc, extra features, etc, but I am glad to at least have it on a single dvd instead of the VCD's. The Ultimate Warrior is presented in Widescreen here on this DVD, and the picture and sound are nice and clear. As with any film from the 70's there is room for restoration and whatnot, but its a nice sharp picture despite minor grain issues.

As for the movie itself, "The Ultimate Warrior" (1975) is a post-Holocaust action-thriller that came out in 1975 after "THX-1138" and "The Omega Man" (both -1971), and after "Zardoz" (1974), but just before the genre became popular with "Logan's Run" (1976), "Mad Max" (1979) and "Escape From New York" (1981). "Rollerball" starring James Caan also came out in 1975, but nobody that I'm aware of had really portrayed the gritty horrors of post-apocalyptic survival in a realistic modern setting/story out in the streets (and under them) with real, unaltered, typical people until The Ultimate Warrior.

A precedent setting film containing many original seeds of post-apocalyptic action that would show up time and again in other films, The Ultimate Warrior takes place in 2012 in a New York City that was decimated by a biological plague a couple of decades earlier that has created a world in which nothing grows. Now in the decaying city Baron (Max Von Sydow), leads a group that has barricaded a street against a rival gang of thugs, run by Carrot (b-movie legend William Smith). Wanting his pregnant daughter, Melinda (Joanna Miles), to have a better future, Baron hires Carson (Yul Brynner), a tough fighter with a code of his own, who has been standing outside the public library waiting for somebody to make an offer for his services. Baron has heard of a mythical island off of the coast of North Carolina and wants to relocate his band there. Of course, this means fighting their way out of what is left of the Big Apple. Melinda's husband, Cal (Richard Kelton) is a scientist who knows the secret of growing plants from seeds, so humanity might have a chance after all.

"The Ultimate Warrior" is not the ultimate example of the post-apocalyptic action film (my vote for best post-apocalyptic film is a tie between Logan's Run in 1976 and Escape From New York with Kurt Russell in 1981), but it is a solid, unpretentious movie. The cinematography by Gerald Hirschfield is done very nicely, it has a decent script, a standout eclectic experimental musical score by Gil Melle, and it has Yul Brynner & William Smith matching wits and weapons! Taking into consideration that Brynner was around 60 when he did this film he still showed audiences that he had what it takes, could look cool and get down. Having just done Westworld in 1973, The Ultimate Warrior was Yul Brynner's very next film. It was directed by Robert Clouse of "Enter The Dragon" fame.

The film hinges on Brynner's performance, which is actually fairly complex because we are not completely sure that Carson is a cynical anti-hero; in fact, we suspect he might be the only truly human character in the film.

"You know, people are beginning to eat people out there." -Yul Brynner as Carson.

This is maybee one of the first movie that get a "hint" of the future without our normal supply of oil etc.