VividSimon Simply Perfect

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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

Leofwine_draca Exploitation legend Cirio H. Santiago strikes again with yet another Filipino-made post-apocalypse actioner after the previous year's STRYKER. This is a straightforward action packed B-movie, nothing more nothing less, that is happy to rip-off MAD MAX 2 and about half a dozen other such movies. And you know what? This is really fun stuff! The reason being that there's no plot as such, just one action scene after another. We've got shoot-outs, burning stuntmen, car chases, lots of crashes, explosions, and to top it all off a large scale battle between two armies which employs a surprising amount of extras and proves to be a worthwhile finale. The action is straight-forward stuff, mildly convincing but lacking in any impressive stunts or camera-work. Don't expect any style; Santiago is no George Miller or Enzo G. Castellari, he shoots his film workmanlike and just gets on with it, making up in quantity if not in quality for the action bits.Other elements of interest include the opening stick-fight with metal bars (coming from the man who made THE PACIFIC CONNECTION, this is not a surprise); a few slow-motion car stunts as they roll over the edges of cliffs; hero Trace burning lots of bad guys with his flame-thrower, which is pretty cool in itself; a topless woman tied to the bonnet of a car (!); a tribe of troglodyte albino cannibals known only as the "Sandmen", whose inspiration stems from the Morlocks in THE TIME MACHINE, it seems; and the aforementioned large scale destruction/battle of the climax, fittingly topped by a mildly entertaining death for the chief villain. The arid locations in the Philippines make for an authentic backdrop for the production and the costumes, weaponry, and armoured vehicles fit the bill, even if they're not particularly outstanding or memorable.Hero Gary Watkins is definitely a Mel Gibson-wannabe and actually looks a lot like Gibson, so much that you'd think the two were brothers. Thankfully in his imitative performance some of Gibson's world-weary character comes through making Watkins an adequate lead. The three female supporting characters - one a female warrioress in the Sandahl Bergman mould, the other a psychic like Laura Gemser in ENDGAME, the other the sister of the lead character - are rather indistinguishable from each other and their characters don't hold the interest (good thing that there's lots of action to take your mind off the people involved then). Lynda Wiesmeier turns out to be a Playboy Playmate and unsurprisingly spends about 90% of her screen time topless. The only other characters that stand out are an annoying comic relief dwarf and the sneering villain, as played by the Filipino-born Joseph Anderson with some relish. The rest of the cast are mostly just undistinguished Filipino actors and don't make much of an impact. In the end, WHEELS OF FIRE is pretty much a forgettable flick that entertains you throughout with the wealth of action that it offers, rather like a Dolph Lundgren movie or a Stallone/Norris Vietnam movie. Enjoyable once but not one you'll go back to, this is B-movie making at its most solid.

Idiot-Deluxe 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.

john_phelan911 First off I have to say that this film is awful. Seriously, its so bad that when I put the video next to Citizen Kane that movie started to suck as well.So why have I given it 10 stars? Because you'll never see a movie as deranged as this. Its the cinematic equivalent of a tramp, high on amphetamines, trying to beat a fairground ride to death with a birthday cake.Its a Mad Max rip off with dreadful actors, no real plot and no budget. Thrown into the mix a bizarre underground cameo from the Umpa Lumpas from Willy Wonka, the craziest sex scene ever which looks like it was taken from a daytime soap and full on battle sequence at the end and you have pure straight to video gold.Watch it with your critical faculties intact and you'll hate it. Watch it with some spicy food, Chivas Regal and a bag of Moroccan black and you're in for a hell of a ride.

leagueofstruggle 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.