Bezenby This is one of the dumbest Italian films I've ever watched, but don't let that put you off – It's brilliant! The plot, what there is of it, concerns the ancient lost island of Atlantis somehow being brought up from the sea bed by the radiation from a sunken nuclear sub, causing either the Atlaneans or local humans to turn into Mad Max style killers and before you know it you've got everything being destroyed and everyone being killed – but don't worry. We've got a list of Italian exploitation vets out there willing to pick up a machine gun and blow these mental sub-aquatic upstarts to hell.You've got mercenaries Christopher Connolly (Strike Commando) and Tony King (The Last Hunter), professor George Hilton (Devil with Seven Faces), pilot Ivan Rassimov (Eaten Alive) dubbed by Nick Alexander (every Italian movie ever) in a double whammy of greatness, Michele Soavi (Blade in the Dark) and even Mike Monty (Zombi 3). These are the folks I'd be calling if the apocalypse loomed (even though at least four of them are no longer with us)! The head bad guy? Bruce Baron of The Ultimate Ninja fame! I'm getting faint just typing all that out.After meeting up on Connolly's boat after some lab is destroyed in a storm, our heroes head for the mainland and from then on it's a toe to toe battle with our ridiculous looking antagonists involving shotguns, loads of petrol bombs, machine guns and even some electrical wire (which chops off some guy's head).I love the way that Connolly and co lay waste to hundreds of Atlanteans over the course of the last hour of the film. Sure, he's no good at protecting people, especially when he promises three scared people they'll be fine shortly before they're all killed, but I reckon he was just fobbing them off anyway as they were distracting him from mowing down dozens of bad guys. There's a slim plot about a lady who can decipher all these languages getting drawn to Atlantis in some plot to free the Atlanteans (which confused me regarding who all the bad guys were), but just strap yourself in a let the contant sound of gunfire roll over you.I said this film was dumb, and I mean it. Soavi's character states at one point, when they're all trapped in a building, that he's going to scout around for a way out, then he walks out the front door and gets captured. Check out the Atlanteans – their costumes are like rejects from the Bronx Warriors! And what's with the echoey voices? And what purpose does it serve to have Tony King's character as a recent convert to Islam? It's this kind of stuff that draws me back to Italian films again and again.It's a Ruggero Deodato film, so there are fleeting bits of gore (decapitations, a woman being shot through the mouth with an arrow etc), and this is so much more a guilty free pleasure than Cannibal Holocaust – no animal cruelty here, thankfully. Get in! I loved this one.

chris-w-king Recently after discovering the awesomeness of the bronx warriors trilogy i have been hunting post-apocalypse exploitation movies. After 2019, endgame, & conquest i came across The raiders of Atlantis. This strange little film seems to have a pissy biker gang come to be thugish oiks when Atlantis resurfaces. A neighbourhood quickly becomes their playground of burning buildings and rubble. The main evil dude has some weird see-through plastic mask and as usual all his droogies dress like s&m gimps. Ah the 80's It has some gore, not to wave your hands about, but to make your cheeks hurt from laughing. A biker gets decapitated, then the headless biker drives forward into a wall. There is a few dummmy heads getting punctured in various ways, but for most of it people get shot and just fall over.Its not groundbreaking, the first 20 mins drag a bit, but then its a solid little pacey schlockfest. For post-apocalypse completists and 80's cheap action enthusiasts.

movieman_kev Some scientists team up with a duo of Vietnam vets to fight make-up wearing biker punks from the lost city of Atlantis which reemerges from under the water due to a sunken Russian submarine's radioactive missiles. Just typing that previous sentence makes my brain hurt and I haven't even gotten to the more nonsensical stuff. Ha.OK, the plot is ridiculous and the film itself doesn't make a lick of sense, but this b-movie is amazingly fun and doesn't let up on the action. Think of it as a cross between Assualt on Precint 13, and mad max. If you loved those films, are willing to keep and open mind, and can turn your brain off for the duration of the film, you'll like this one a lot as well.My Grade: A- Side note: This movie can be found on side A of Disc 2 of the Grindhouse Experience 2 four DVD set, alas it's from an old VHS dub and the picture is far from optimal. Hopefully this unsung b-movie classic will be re-released in a remastered form (ok, probably not, but one can hope)

Sic Coyote This is a terrible movie.If you take the Sea Devils episode of Doctor Who, The Road Warrior, Rambo, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The A-Team and various other popular stuff and mix it together into a total mess, you have this film.This movie has: Paper-thin characters, Huge plot holes and leaps of logic, Dodgy special effects etc etc The only reason to watch this again is to mock it, that's the only enjoyment really to be gained out of this get a load of alcohol and a few mates into crappy movies and this should be an interesting subject for abuse. That's all it's good for. This is Italian exploitation at it's dumbest.The biker riding on headless and crashing into a bush was quite funny though.1/10