Expected more

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Once again the world has degenerated into a barbarous state in the wake of a nuclear holocaust. Rugged road warrior Trace (eassyed with mucho macho panache by Gary Watkins) must rescue his sister Arlie (buxom and shapely blonde Lynda Wiesmeier, who frequently bares her beautifully bountiful breasts) from the evil Scourge (a nicely slimy portrayal by Joe Mari Avellana) and his gang of scummy bandits. Tough gal Stringer (a pleasingly scrappy portrayal by Laura Banks) helps Trace out.Filipino exploitation cinema maestro Cirio H. Santiago once again works his usual immensely enjoyable B-movie magic: The brisk pace never flags for a minute, a gritty take-no-prisoners tone pervades throughout, neat use of desolate desert locations, a generous serving of yummy gratuitous female nudity, hysterical profane dialogue, and even a vicious tribe of subterranean albino cannibals tossed in for extra campy measure. Naturally, Santiago certainly doesn't skimp on the thrilling low-rent action: We've got down'n'dirty fights, lively car chases, fierce shoot outs, and lots of stuff of stuff blows up real good. Moreover, there are solid supporting contributions from Linda Grovenor as sweet psychic Spike, Jack S. Daniels as skeevy lackey Scag, Joseph Zucchero as kooky inventor Whiz, Steve Parvin as sniveling wimp Bo, and Nigel Hogge as the opportunistic Ambassador. Christopher Young's robust full-bore score does the rousing trick. The fairly polished cinematography by Ricardo Remias boasts several snazzy stylistic flourishes. A spot-on schlocky blast.

First off, if feminist's have a -Top 10 Most Hated Movies- list, I'd be willing to bet that this filthy, fast-paced, hyper-misogynistic 80's schlock-fest would rank in the top 5.Wheels of Fire! One of my favorite low-budget films ever, this gritty fast-paced actioner packs a considerable punch, with loads of action scenes, explosions galore, car chases, and some very solid stunt work. I consider this to be the best of all the Mad Max rip-off's that where prevalent throughout the 80's and as it stands it's easily Cirio H. Santiago's best effort in the genre. For such a small time production this is really great stuff, if only more low-budget flicks where this entertaining. The world of Wheels of Fire is a very violent and primitive one, profoundly misogynistic too, showing-off quite a good bit of T & A.The plot revolves around tough-guy Trace (the "Max" of the movie) and his super hot busty blonde sister Arlie (who was in fact a former Playmate), some tallish chick named Stinger who sports a glorified mullet and a falcon and then there's Spike a cute modestly dressed brunette who has telepathic powers, they all team up and "battle the force's of evil" namely Scourge and Scag. Scourge is played by an acne-scarred Filipino actor who, funnily enough, sports a "painted-on" widows peak to further enhance villainous visage (it's real obvious looking in hi-res) and I really dig this guys costume - the baddies ALWAYS have the coolest costumes. Scag, what a character, a mountain of a man and second in command, perpetually wearing a large pair of dated looking shades from the 80's and gnashing on cigars; the shades and full beard combo gives him the air of that of a manager of hard a drinkin' and hard partyin' 80's rock band, maybe the Marshall Tucker Band perhaps (his real name "Jack S. Daniels" just screams party 24/7!) - in any case Scag is a force to be reckoned with. These two BMF's lead a gang of about a hundred scroungy, hairy-faced road warriors, decked out in your standard bad-guy apparel of black leather and bullet belts.The bad guys kidnap Trace's pretty sister and he vow's to rescue her and along the way has several colorful encounters and tons vehicular carnage and gunplay ensues. Some good vehicular stunts here and there, particularly in the middle of the film, NOT Mad Max caliber, but still pretty good. Wheels of Fire has some hilariously cheesy, profanity-laced dialogue and a lot of it, the movie is peppered with poorly written juvenile sounding lingo and often their delivery is just as bad as the dialogue itself, especially Arlie's lines (or in other words the busty blonde). Throughout the film the actors are often poorly miked up, making their words hard to make out at times, also dialogue is often crudely over-dubbed making for some humorous moments - that red-headed biker with the cracky voice, oh my, that's one of the funniest voices.I think Wheels of Fire portrays a pretty accurate image of what a post-apocalyptic world would be like, rampant lawlessness with roving bandits raping, murdering and pillaging. Heavy doses of blatant misogynistic behavior and rape are seen throughout the film, everybody wants a piece of Arlie's sweet tail (she's a Playboy Bunny after all).I must say Gary Watkins, the actor who play's the lead role of Trace, is very convincing with his handling of all the weaponry he uses through out the movie, he's good in hand-to-hand combat also. A solid rough n' tough 6'3 specimen, he should have been in more actioners like Wheels of Fire. I can't accuse him of being a great actor, but he really fit the bill for the physicality the role required.Filmed in the Philippines the landscapes are very arid and rocky, not unlike what you'd see in the Mad Max films, only that's in Australia. At the end of the film a filipino army regiment comes in and fills out the ranks for the good guys and Scourge and Scag are defeated at last.For such a low-budget affair, Wheels of Fire is enhanced greatly by an uncommonly good orchestral score, composed by a very young and at the time largely unknown Christopher Young. At the request of the producers, Young made the music sound as "Goldsmithian" as possible, with terrific sounding results. This seems to be the only one of his PAW films that Cirio H. Santiago splurged on in the music department, because ALL the rest are limply driven along by primitive drum-machines and ultra-lame Casio keyboards.So if you ever find yourself hankering for some good old violent, grimy, low-brow fun from the 80's (every second of this movie looks and sounds PROFOUNDLY 80's) well then Wheels of Fire is very highly recommended. I myself own 3 or 4 copies of it, proud to say I own it on limited edition Blu-ray, as part of "Roger Corman's Post-Nuke Collection". Note: By no-means is this a "Date Movie", your lady-friend WILL BE DISGUSTED by your taste in movies, I suggest you watch it in your man cave with a cold six-pack as your company. Just sit back and ogle at Lynda Wiesmeier's spectacular rack, because her "twins" are the movies biggest stars......or is it Trace's cool Mustang? You be the judge.

At first glance, you would think that that Wheels of Fire is a complete Mad Max rip-off. That's because it is, quite clearly, a complete Mad Max rip-off. The film starts off with a preamble sequence that passes by far too quickly to get any particular scope on the story, but it basically runs thus: the film starts with our lone driver hero (and not bad at jumping massive drops either), Trace (Gary Watkins) drives over to meet his sister Arlee (Lynda Weismeier) and her new boyfriend Bo (Steve Parvin) at a surprisingly organised post-apocalyptic encampment that actually makes the wasteland look not-so-bad. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't last long. The boyfriend gets in a fight over car keys, it all gets out of hand, and everyone gets ticked off, forcing Trace and co. to beat a swift exit. They get separated, the boyfriend gets killed and Arlee gets sent off as fresh meat for the bad guys Scourge (Joseph Anderson) and the man who only ever says "Come on!", Scag (Jack S. Daniels). This, quite reasonably, puts Trace in a bad mood, so he teams up with bounty hunter and hawkmaster Stinger (Laura Banks), River Tam-alike Spike (Linda Grovenor) and short fuel tanker escort Whiz (Joe Zucchero), who doesn't seem to do much of anything other than "Ooga ooga!". He's basically R2D2, but less useful. The one thing I thought that let the film down (aside from some ropey acting) was that there were so many brilliant ideas that the writer had for this story, but with only an hour and a half running time, they had to cram everything in at once, which really disrupted the storyline. Everything moves too quickly. It's clear that the story is rich with opportunity and the writer wanted to express that. Considering how rich the characters and potential stories are here, I can't help wondering if they should've made it a TV series instead. At the very least, it would've given them more time to expand on the storyline and character development. Another thing I noticed was that the lead character is really well connected with the world around him, as is revealed as the story progresses. Everyone just seems to know him. Apparently he used to be "on the team" with those guys building the rocket. The main villain is his mortal enemy. He and the ambassador have a history. It's all clearly trying to build up the mythology behind this story. Gary, however, seems to have other ideas. The tagline for the film is "If you thought Max was mad… wait 'til you meet Trace!" Which is all well and good, but not once do you see him looking more than slightly annoyed, as if the warlord kidnapping his sister and sending her off to rape camp is little more than a minor nuisance. And don't get me started on Lynda Weismeyer. All she seems to do throughout the whole film is escape, get captured, scream and show off her credentials. And when she finally does something meaningful, she gets gunned down. Twice. Still, there is a lot to love the film for. Linda Grovenor plays her turn as the psychic Spike with this wonderful sense of warmth and freshness that, in a film set on a wasted Earth, makes her seem incredibly rare. From the moment she first appears on-screen, you just feel for her. She's a wonderful addition to the cast and when the big fight at the climax comes around, she doesn't just stay in the sidelines. Oh no, she really kicks ass, with nothing but a knife. She gives the villains what for in a way that should be right up there with Summer Glau's Reaver fight at the end of Serenity. Grovenor really shines in this role and they were truly lucky to have her on the film. And on the flipside of kick-ass heroines, Laura Banks' bounty hunter Stinger, while maybe not a stand-out against the likes of Princess Leia, Sarah Connor or Ellen Ripley, she could certainly hold her own. She's more than a match for Trace, a really well-rounded character who seems to be genuinely conflicted. And the fact that SHE ALSO HANDLES A BIRD-OF-PREY just makes her seem ALL THE MORE BADASS. Beat that, Virginia Hey. And then there's the cars. Trace delivers fiery justice from the roof-mounted flamethrower on his gorgeous jet-black '64 Ford Mustang. Funny how everyone in the future drives muscle cars

Max had the V-8, Trace (Wheels of Fires last and only hero) has a jet engine on the back of his car allowing him to make unintentionally humorous faces as he rockets around the halfway desolate wasteland. Be amazed as Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior) is dissected and spliced back together as a new movie albeit filmed in a lackluster manner with bad actors and lousy stunt work.Why is WoF set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Simple, The Road Warrior was! Actually any questions can be answered by: it was that way in the Road Warrior! Except for the out of work mutant actors from the original 60's The Time Machine film that make a cameo appearance for sake of giving the audience some non-vehicular action to chew on for a few minutes.In typical 80's fashion, all cars driven by bad guys that are bumped or slightly jostled explode in a huge billowing explosion. Inevitably all car chases will happen near convenient cliff sides and cars will unavoidably fall off of them. Along with this 80's cinematic wild ride is the general rampant misogyny in this style of cheapie film. Generally I waited for Trace's rocket powered car to accelerate and shoot flames so there would be another shot of him scrunching up his face like he is supposed to be tough, which comes off more as him looking constipated. Badly choreographed action coupled with bad acting makes this film a true sinker. The unintentional humor value even manages to wear thin.Rats: Nights of Terror by Bruno Mattei is superior. And that in and of itself is saying a lot! By this count 2020 Texas Gladiators is a cinematic masterpiece compared to Wheels of Fire. A poor Road Warrior knock off that doesn't have near enough cheese factor to make the film watchable.