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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for a post-apoc flick, January 25, 2004
"Steel Frontier" is another one of those low budget post-apocalyptic genre films that pop up with frightening regularity on video store shelves. Generally, I can always find time to watch yet another entry in this fascinating field of cinema. The special effects in these types of movies usually attain new levels in mediocrity, the acting often tanks, and plot holes abound in these zero budget efforts about life in a world destroyed. The best post-apocalyptic films came from Italy in the early 1980s, cheesy, ultra cheap movies that provided endless opportunities for laughter. The movies are always essentially the same: a gruff, lonely hero prowls the barren wastes in search of redemption for a past crime or to forget about a lost love, an army of miscreants threatens to destroy a group of people struggling to reassert a sense of normalcy, and plenty of people will die by the end of the movie. "The Road Warrior," more than any other apocalypse film, set the tone for every subsequent effort in this genre. "Steel Frontier" never strays far from this formula, differing only in its attempt to add a western theme to the proceedings.Joe Lara plays Yuma, a drifter with a heart of gold and a high tech motorcycle in search of something in the wastelands of what once was America. Yuma looks like a gunslinger, a man decked out in a long overcoat, cowboy hat, and long scraggly hair. I guess his motorcycle doubles as his steed, except this mount shoots bullets and rockets into hostile vehicles seeking to do our hero harm. After finding a mutilated, nearly dead man in the desert raving about some dangerous dudes in the area, Yuma has his own run in with these very men. Captured after a short chase on the highway, the hostiles take the hero to a recently conquered town in the desert. It seems a rebel army under the command of General J.W. Quantrell (Brion James) seized the town in order to secure supplies for their campaign to reconquer a significant portion of the former United States. Quantrell's army includes his spoiled son and Roy Ackett (Bo Svenson), one of the general's colleagues back in the days when the two men were grunts in the U.S. Army. Most of the members of this "army" are no more than former bikers, thugs, and other ruffians who survived the nuclear war. The opening sequence of the film shows Quantrell and gang ravaging their way through this small settlement, gunning down defenseless civilians, having their way with the women, and generally terrorizing everyone they can get their hands on. These soldiers execute any of the men who refuse to join this new army. Into this madness rides Yuma, a prisoner of one of the general's patrols. In order to avoid death our hero agrees to join Quantrell's forces, meaning he must accept a very painful branding and then drink himself into a coma every night with his fellow vagabonds. Predicatably, a local woman enters into the picture, a gal who reminds Yuma of his long lost wife and therefore a woman our hero must save at some point in the film. He accomplishes this by ingratiating himself with a few of his fellow soldiers over a card game, and then promptly winning the woman from one of these men. Bad feelings ensue, but Yuma gets the girl for a time at least. After striking up a friendship with the tormented Ackett--who hates what he does for Quantrell and the man's son but realizes he must survive somehow--Yuma cleverly turns the soldiers against one another. It is all predictable from this point forward: lots of people die, General Quantrell returns from a new mission to face down this troublesome insurgent in his own ranks, Yuma and the general have a showdown on the highway, and the movie ends. Along the way there are a lot of explosions, some nifty stunt work, and Kane Hodder turns up as one of the general's goons. There really isn't a lot to say about this movie. The acting is above average for this type of film, with Brion James and Joe Lara turning in decent performances as Quantrell and Yuma respectively. Unfortunately, the always amusingly watchable James disappears for a significant part of the film. Bo Svenson looks slightly bored with the whole thing, though, and most of the actors who play soldiers in Quantrell's army take their performances over the top. The special effects work, mainly explosions and lots of squibs, looks good for a low budget actioner. The predictable plot and script is so average it is tough to remember the movie a few days after you watch it. That's not to say "Steel Frontier" is a bad film; it's just that fans of the genre have seen all of this a million times before. The movie still entertains, however, so devoting ninety minutes to this movie is an acceptable trade-off. If you are still unsure about the movie, you will know within ten minutes if "Steel Frontier" is something you will enjoy. The DVD, by the way, is not bad. Not a lot of extras, but the picture transfer looks nice. Give this one a shot, but rent it instead of buying it.
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