Non-Horror Exploitation: Endgame - Bronx Lotta Finale (A.K.A. Endgame) (1983)

After Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Buio Omega, Antropophagus and Rosso Sangue, Endgame is my fifth movie by Italian trash director Joe D'Amato. Unfortunately this post-nuke action flick kinda disappointed me.

A telepathic mutant recruits a post-World War III TV game-show warrior to lead her band of mutants to safety.

I have to give a compliment to D'Amato. Unlike many other Italian directors around that time, he didn't completely rip-off movies like Mad Max and The Warriors. The ''Endgames'', a competitive game where 3 hunters hunt for 1 man, are pretty cool and he even came up with a telepathical plot. It's a shame that I couldn't care less about that telepathical bullshit though.

Al Cliver was hired to be the main character. Even though he was my favorite character in Fulci's Zombi 2, he isn't as convincing here. He has the perfect face for these kinds of rolls but he's a little bit too stiff to really come across as a veteran anti-hero. The rest of the B-cast will have genre fans drool all over there screen. Apart from Al Cliver we've got Bobby Rhodes, George Eastman, Laura Gemser and Gabriele Tinti. Unfortunately most of them aren't used to their full capacity. Bobby Rhodes unfortunately dies within the first 15 minutes, George Eastman is cool but also somewhat quiet in this movie (where are his classic one-liners!?) and Laura Gemser only shows her bare chest once in the movie, during a noticible scene where she gets raped by a fat, drooling, fishmonster.

Endgame has got a good amount of action but it doesn't really grab you by the balls. Maybe that's because the rival groups, which Al Cliver and his men go op against, just seem way too retarded. There's the vikings, wearing animal fur and some leather straps, there's some swordwielding blinds in burqas and of course the agressive mutants devided in two species: The primates (who looks like they just stepped off of the set of the original Planet of the Apes) and the fishmonsters (including fish scales). Especially the latter ones look hilariously shitty. What this movie misses is a real, threatning main villain. Instead they just come across random groups of weirdos who don't form any kind of threat at all.

I'd still advice you to watch Endgame though if you're interested in Italian post-nuke movies from the 80's. The cast is filled with idols and from time time the movie is as cheesy as can be (prime example: The SS (Security Service), wearing gestapo-like uniforms, who sweep areas looking for mutants). Apart from that, the ending, in which the enemies are killed in interesting way by the use of telepathy, is actually pretty cool. What's also fun is the multiple spaghetti-western influences you'll see through the movie. Endgame certainly isn't a good movie, even for its sub-genre, but it's entertaining none the less.

Fun Fact (Source: IMDB)

Of all his movies, director Joe D'Amato has stated that he likes this one best.