User reviews

After a biological war has annihilated all the males on earth and most of the females, those few women who survive are left to fend for themselves in an effort to stay alive. Many of them soon gravitate to a particular evil sorceress known as "the Reverend Mother" (Sheila Howard) who mysteriously manages to impregnate some of the women but ensures that no males are born. Until, that is, one specific woman named "Keela" (Peggy Sands) becomes pregnant with a "male seed". Realizing that the Reverend Mother is determined to kill her unborn child, Keela attempts to escape from her domination. During the attempt she encounters a "sand trapper" named "Phoenix" (Kathleen Kinmont) who provides protection and support both before and after the child is born. Now, obviously with a title like "She Wolves of the Wasteland" a person probably shouldn't expect too much. And they would be fully justified in feeling wary as this film consists of bad acting, cheap sets and corny dialogue. It does, however, have an abundance of bimbos in skimpy attire which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your particular mindset. I personally didn't mind the acting of Kathleen Kinmont or Persis Khambatta (as "Cobalt") or the skimpy attire on any of the young ladies. However, skimpy attire or not I could only take so much of the bad acting and awful combat scenes. But that's just me. In short, this movie might be good with a friend or two and lots of beer. Otherwise, it might be best to let this one go by. Below average.

With a forumla like that, how could you go wrong? A lot of ways. This is one of the most amazingly bad Mad Max rip-offs I've ever seen. There's a moment where the kid is given a music box and he just tosses it away, an obvious nod to 'The Road Warrior', but then literally tossed away. Also can't forget the 'Thunderdome' inspired "arena" which is just some sticks and barbed wire.

When you've seen one Mad Max inspired movie, you've seen them all, but this one adds a feminist touch... and it touches all the wrong places. It wouldn't be so bad if the writers working on the script actually took the time to think about what they were writing and why.

The plot is simple, all men are dead, women inherited the Earth.

The reverend mother has somehow developed magic powers that are never fully explained and only serve as a plot device to further the story when it's most convenient. Seriously, she apparently has telepathy, but is unable to find the child until she's given a toy he was playing with (a toy car that has somehow survived all this time). Seems kind of odd because she could sense when he was born and knew where he was. Hmm, strange. Most of the plot is like this, nothing is explained, there's no real exposition and you're left asking "why" and "how" to everything you see. If not for the year it came out, I'd almost swear they were doing a rip-off of 'Waterworld' because it suffers from many of the same issues... but Waterworld was at least entertaining and fun.

It is nice to see that women in this barely post apocalyptic world be able to keep their manicures nice, their hair perfectly permed and skin flawless. There also seems to be no shortage on gas, bullets, water and modern clothing, mostly consisting of spandex and aerobics workout outfits and a pair of Levi's. It makes it hard to really understand just how far in the future this should be (the plot itself is over a period of six years as it is).

This movie truly suffers with how boring it is. Even the grotesque amount of scantily clad babes wielding guns and swords (none of which I have any issue with), you're just waiting for the movie to be over with. The acting is atrocious. I'm almost certain everyone was just reading queue cards off screen that were written in crayon. The only one that seemed to have any kind of experience acting was Persis Khambatta, but even she isn't enough to balance so much wooden acting that you could build a fence. Though, I will give them credit, the dialogue was probably written by pre-teen girls who thought this was what the future would be like.

Fight scenes are laughable with how fake they are, never actually landing a hit or attempting to make it look like their punches and kicks have any kind of power behind them. There's even a scene in the arena where they don't even hide the fact that the opponent has fallen onto a soft mat, they literally leave it in the shot! Gun fights are ok... if you like watching swimsuit models pretend to know how to wield a firearm. I've seen women shoot guns before and they do it very well when properly trained, but this is just embarrassing to watch.

If you're a fan of T&A movies or Mad Max style movies, you'll mostly be disappointed, but it's still fun to watch and see what bad movies like there were inspired by.

Poor Persis Khambatta. This stunningly beautiful actress did not leave us with a long (or even a short) catalogue of exceptional films. She will always be remembered as the Deltan Lieutenant Ilia in 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (which, let's face it, wasn't that great of a movie either), but other than that, she appeared in a handful (12, to be exact) of films that were mostly eminently forgettable. And none of them was more forgettable than "Phoenix: The Warrior," aka "Warriors of the Wasteland." As one of the film's thumbnail summaries puts it, "Big hair, big guns and a serious lack of wardrobe. A post-apocalyptic story that features women who leave little to the imagination as they do battle in junkyards and gravel pits."

It's tough to review a movie when what's bad about it is everything. Where do you start? The preposterously nonsensical plot? The hopelessly flat-footed dialogue? The even more hopelessly amateurish acting? The grotesque hair? The clownish makeup? The hysterically skimpy costumes? The bad-home-movie production values?

Why did Khambatta take this role? Was it to pay the bills? Was it the only work she could get, at least in the States? It's so sad: She had a disastrous combination of a chain-smoking habit and bad genes that led to her needing a coronary bypass operation at the age of 35. Despite the operation, she went on to die of a massive heart attack only 10 years after she made this dismal dog of a movie. R. I. P.

If I remember correctly (and I may not - it's been years), I think Phoenix the Warrior (or She-Wolves of the Wasteland) was standard fare on the old USA UP All Night movie show. At the time, I thought it was a decent enough time waster, but then again, I was usually pretty inebriated when I watched it. Re-watching it last night, sober as a judge, I've changed my opinion drastically. What a bore! An hour and a half of the deadliest dull film I've seen in a long, long time. The acting is atrocious, the special effects are horrible, the music is annoying after about 3.4 seconds, the dialogue is cringey, and the sets are as cheap as you'll find. Throw in some really crappy, amateurish fight choreography and a plot that comes across like it was written by a drunken badger and you end up with one sorry excuse for a movie. I watch a lot of bad movies, but Phoenix the Warrior is too much. I really can't imagine enjoying something much less than I did this movie. It's a disaster!

Based on other comments I've read, I'm sure this one will get voted down on IMDb. It seems there is an audience out there who enjoys Phoenix the Warrior for the titulation it provides. I really feel sorry for anyone who watches this dreck for that reason. I suggest looking elsewhere.

The movie is basically about a society of women in a post apocalyptic setting who hunt down the last remaining men and kill them in order to promote the goals of their leader who appears to be a very old borg/emperor palpatine love child. They do so in order to bring about her ultimate "goals" which are never really revealed. The only explanation the movie offers is that she is wanting to create her own race of humans, but how she plans on doing so without men is kind of left up in the air. To put it simply this was a total blue ball movie. A complete build up with absolutely no release. There are only two nude scenes back to back (one involving child birth which totally takes away from the awesomeness of the nude female figure) and before you know it everybody is fully clothed, acting badly, and running around hopelessly looking for the end. And that's just the people watching watching it. Oh bazing! Many times during this movie I found myself screaming for the female warriors of the waste to get naked and start doing each other, but unfortunately that never happens. If you want a good mad max sexploitation movie, then keep looking. This one is NOT it.

Kathleen Kinmont plays a desert tracker that gets unexpectedly stuck helping a pregnant woman escape an all female cult. I am a lover of low budget post apocalyptic and sword and sandal flicks but this is bottom of the barrel. Rates down with Sandahl Bergman's 'She' and David Carradine's 'the Warrior and the Sorceress'.

The acting is non existent and the sets were built with the contents of my recycling bin. Fight choreography is non-existent. There's a little TnA reminiscent of scrambled playboy channel in '86.

I've come to the conclusion that fans of 'Phoenix the Warrior' aka 'She Wolves of the Wasteland' gotta have fond memories of this growing up or enjoy anything if it means seeing boobs. Cheap and awful from the musical score to most of the acting right down to explosions, very sad action, non existent fight choreography. This wasn't lots of fun.

A war involving biological weapons has life rescind into post apocalyptic times where it's thought all men have been killed and a few women survived. Reverend Mother (Sheila Howard) controls the supply of sperm and has only females born so she can continue exerting power. When Keela (Peggy Sands) carrying an unborn son escapes her facility, Phoenix (Kathleen Kinmont) becomes their protector.

Kinmont (Halloween 4) and Persis Khambatta (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) as a right hand baddie deliver the best acting, but that doesn't say much here in a project such as this. Any scene whenever it involves swords, guns or fisticuffs is laughably bad and whatever mild interest you have in a futuristic tale (done elsewhere) never builds to anything.

Set in the desert one part Mad Max, two parts a riff on sword & sandals movies 'Phoenix the Warrior' might appeal to lovers of bad flicks. Which means if you don't fall in that category: avoid it. There's not enough of it's main selling point - female flesh - to be very titillating. A box cover much better than the actual movie which was the style at the time.

Excellent scene where Kinmont and another babe are tied to a wooden cross and chastised by radioactive mutants!!! What else could you ask for ...heavy cheese factor here but worth the wait to see that scene! This flick is along the lines of Spacehunter : Adventures in the Forbidden Zone; again hot babes captured by weird mutant freaks. There were a lot of Science Fiction exploitation films that came out during the 1980's and Phoenix is one of the best. Very dark backgrounds, a post apocalypse futuristic location and an overall orange atmospheric scenery gives the film a look as if the world has gone mad or at the very least, out of control. I gave this a 10 for the babe factor alone.

"She-Wolves of the Wasteland" belongs to the "post-nuclear war" movies wave that followed "Mad Max". Provided with a typical 80s disco keyboard soundtrack, its most unusual element is the cast which comprises almost entirely of females. Did I hear anyone complain? No! One tribe lead by the mutant "Reverend Mother" and the warrioress Cobalt (Persis Khambatta from "Star Trek" and "Megaforce") tries to find the (possibly) last male on earth, but he is on the run with Phoenix (gorgeous: Kathleen Kinmont)... What do we get from this movie? Quite a lot of fun, for example there is a mutant tribe whose gospel includes the holy words "Sesamy Street" from a mysterious distant past, and obviously with all the babes around: exploitation with a capital S. These girls are so violent, when they run out of ammo, they pick up swords to cut throats - or even tear each other's hair! Yes, it's silly, but compared to other flicks of the genre that have too many gladiator fights and car races, it's one of the better trash movies around and worth checking out!

You are the last man on Earth and lots of scantily clads babes rule the wasteland. Wow, this is my type of story line and if its your to then this will be a winner.

This movie was a mainstay of USA Networks former weekend show UP ALL NIGHT. Simply put this is great late night cheese well worth checking out. I have seen the video box (Boris cover art I believe) at several video stores, so no excuses.

P.S. Watch for the well endowed axe wielding babe in the prison fight. Super!

I enjoyed the strong women without males concept .. hunting each other wasn't the prettiest but the movie was worth watching.

First of all, this is not the most well known movie, haha. It is also not that great of a movie if you are looking at it too critically. Then again, this movie is not meant to be perceived in that way, at all. My friend and I like to enjoy these obscure little movies sometimes and he told me this one was definitely worth seeing. If you can handle it for what it is, it is indeed a must-see.

The movie itself is very campy, as anyone can tell from the film cover. There are mixed performances ranging from very good to very bad, very fun to very boring. The storyline, which I don't recall much of, is a contender for Best Screenplay indeed, and the movie altogether is just one big mess, but a very enjoyable one at that. No doubt this was made for those types of movie-goers who look for campy, nothing movies. However, I myself tend to be that type of movie-goer at times and this was just what I ordered when I was in the mood for it. Like I said in my summary, it's a poor movie when it all boils down to it, but it really doesn't matter because it is so fun to watch.

The summary says it all: What do you get when you combine big hair, big guns, big, um...personalities! and a serious lack of wardrobe? She-Wolves of the Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic classic that features women--lots and lots of women--who leave little to the imagination as they battle each other in various junkyards and gravel pits to determine the fate of the entire world. Leave your brain behind for this shamelessly sinful sexploitation romp with a plot you won't remember...but plenty of eye candy you won't forget! Found it in the bargain bin--it's been released on DVD for the first time, finally

How can anyone compare this movie to Mad Max I'll never know. This a great Sci-Fi B movie that rates right up there with Attack of the Bee Girls. It's an apocolyptic T&A movie and nothing more. Not much of a plot and acting is just god awful. The fake machine guns act better than most of the other actors. So put the kids and the wife to bed, grab a few beers and a few bros and MST3K the hell out of this movie! Just a great romp thru the Mojave Desert!

Phoenix the Warrior (1988) is a movie that I watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a post apocalyptic society where tribes of women fight for survival. Men are in short supply but when a young lady is found pregnant and absorbed by a tribe the tribe becomes a target.

This movie is directed by Robert Hayes (Task Force 2001) and stars Kathleen Kinmont (Bride of Reanimator), Persis Khambatta (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Roxanne Kernohan (Critters 2) and Karen Russell (Dick Tracy).

The makeup, masks, attire, settings and props were pretty solid. The women fight scenes were great and there's a tremendous waterfall sequence in this. The black dancer is a smoke show and the entire strip club sequence was great. Some of the shootouts and special effects were weak; however, the villain was solid.

Overall, this is an average but fun addition to the apocalyptic genre. I would score this a 5.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.