Good concept, poorly executed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Future Hunters is an under the radar 80's action movie that throws everything it can think of at the screen in an attempt to catch an audience. It combines several popular film genres of the time to delirious effect. It starts out like it's going to be a post-apocalyptic movie but quite soon afterwards the hero time-travels back to the 80's in an attempt to try and avert an impending nuclear war in a manner not a hundred miles away from ideas underpinning The Terminator. He achieved this (somehow) because he has in his possession the Spear of Destiny and he ropes in a young couple into finding its magical sheath, by now it's taken a Raiders of the Lost Ark turn in its pursuit of religious artifacts, later on, large rolling stone boulders emphasise this influence only further. On the subsequent quest the film combines a – really good - extended martial arts fight in a shaolin temple, neo-Nazis, a lost tribe of dwarfs and a further tribe of Amazon women. There's lots of pumping 80's music on the soundtrack, chases, fights galore, guns, explosions and death by crocodile! And to add a little extra cult value, it stars a young Robert Patrick in a role that he gives his all to. This was one of several cheap genre films that were filmed in the Philippines at the time – there were financial incentives to do so – and the South East Asian flavour certainly adds a lot as well. In the final analysis, this is a very fun action movie that consistently attempts to entertain its audience in a myriad of ways. You can't say fairer that that really.

You can say a lot of harsh and unfriendly things about director Cirio H. Santiago (and most of them will still be too gentle), but he definitely was responsible for some nice footnotes in B-movie history as well. For example, did you know that he single-handedly launched the career of Robert Patrick? Half a decade before he became an immortal cult icon with his role as the stoic liquid-metal cyborg in "Terminator II: Judgment Day", Robert Patrick starred in no less than four Santiago flicks, including the horrible dud "Equalizer 2000" and this debut feature "Future Hunters". I'm not too sure if Robert still likes to be remembered of his collaborations with the late Cirio H. Santiago, though. Here, he walks around in tidy white underpants an awful lot and gets his ass kicked several times during the first half of the film (but mostly kicks other ass during the second half). Many of my fellow reviewers around here apparently consider "Future Hunters" to be pure B-movie Walhalla, but yours truly politely disagrees… The film is a rip-off potpourri of numerous great classics, but it isn't half as exhilarating and entertaining as it should have been. Cheap & exploitative rip-offs ought to surpass their role model movies in terms of over-the-top action, absurd situations, sleaze, violence and flamboyance – like several Italian flicks do, for example "Hunters of the Golden Cobra" or "Atlantis Interceptors" – but this one fails. The ideas are there, since the script steals aspects from monumental franchises like "Mad Max", "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars", but they are all just very random and unprocessed. The story opens in the year 2025; with the brave warrior Matthew tracking down a Christian artifact in a devastated post-apocalyptic landscape. This particular artifact – a spear – holds the power to prevent the cataclysm from happening and its mere touch transports Matthew back to 1989. There he immediately gets shot by biker thugs (how about that, he's supposed to be strongest warrior of the future but he can't even survive 10 minutes in the 80's) and desperately begs a young couple to take custody over the spear and bring it to the place where it belongs. Michelle (lovely Linda Carol) and Slade (Robert Patrick) promptly find themselves pursued by Nazis, Asian mobsters and whatnot and they all want to possess the spear. How do they even know that this young couple has the spear? The race ends – after a lot of lousy martial arts fights and cheesy helicopter explosions – on a small island inhabited by midget Mongols and Amazon women. "Future Hunters" is allegedly co-scripted by the respectable director J. Lee Thompson, but I think he has very little to do with the finished product, since it carries all the inept trademarks of Cirio H. Santiago. This means a total absence of logic, suspense or continuity, poorly staged action sequences and a ridiculously high amount of cast members giving away horrible performances. "Future Hunters" is boring, stupid and it can't hold a candle to the rip-off exploitation flicks that were made in Italy around the same period.

It is hard to explain what was going through the director's mind when making a classic such as Future Hunters, but I have to admit it was pure genius because not only was this film amazingly a classic, but it had midgets, a big oaf nazi, and the best a night to day chase. I give this movie a A+, and want to thank Joe Bob for playing such a classic film, and keep on playing more like it.So if you haven't seen this movie really consider checking it out, it's a movie with so many bizarre twists and plot jumps, and not to mention characters coming out of nowhere, and a group of dwarfs beating a nazi soldier to death, so rent it or just better off buying it.

I saw this movie last night on TNT's Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs, and, considering myself to be a fairly good b-movie buff, I was quite surprised I had never come across this movie before. It has to go down as one of the better third rate action movies of the 80's (think Gymkata, and so on); highly ridiculous plot, cheap production, cardboard acting, but a whole Hell of a lot of fun and consistently entertaining.To explain the plot would take a forever, and there are so many holes in it any way I would wear out my ? key. But, roughly, here is what the movie has to offer- A magic spear, time traveler, biker gang, Nazis, kung fu tour guide, kung fu master, Asian mobsters, Mongol warriors, cave dwelling midget Mongols, Amazon women, a Pit of Death, earthquakes with Styrofoam boulder tossing, a car chase that is at night one minute then during the day the next, improbable helicopter sabotage, two people one parachute parachuting, Bonehead Nazi henchmen, four midgets pound a Nazi to death, a whole lot of spear chucking, alligators chomping on Amazons, a very decent kung fu fight, and even more.Highly, HIGHLY, recommended for the b-movie fan. I could watch it over and over again it is so gloriously bad.