Wheels of Fire is another low-budget rip-off of The Road Warrior from Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago, packed with poorly executed action scenes, diabolical acting, and cruddy costumes and props (one motorbike is customised with what looks like plastic halloween pitchforks),all of which only serves to further illustrate just how brilliant George Miller's iconic movie actually is.

Gary Watkins plays Trace, a fearless warrior who takes on the evil Scourge (Joe Mari Avellana) and his ruthless gang after they kidnap and gang rape his sister Arlie (played by big-breasted blonde Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier). On his mission, Trace teams up with tough female fighter Stinger (Laura Banks),telepath Spike (Linda Grovenor),and a dwarf who speaks a bizarre language (this character probably has a silly name as well, but I don't recall what it was).

With a race of subterranean albino cannibals and a cult of struggling survivors who are building a rocket to the planet Paradise, this one gets pretty silly at times, but Santiago's uninspired direction, the dreadful dialogue, and dismal performances ensure that boredom is never far away. Wiesmeir is game for being strapped topless to the hood of a speeding car, and Trace flame-throwing countless bikers is fun for a while, but the bulk of the film is pure post-apocalyptic poop.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

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.

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.