Action Movie Fanatix Review: Raiders of the Sun

They Don’t Take Prisoners.  They Take Lives.

Starring: Richard Norton, William Steis, Henry Strzalkowski, Nick Nicholson

Director: Cirio H. Santiago

1992  |  80 Minutes  |  Rated R

“I won’t accept this defeat.  I don’t accept it!” – Clay

I watched Equalizer 2000 with Richard Norton a while back and ran across its spiritual successor, Raiders of the Sun, recently and decided to give that a whirl.  Same concept, same actor, same director… sounds like a recipe for success to me.

After a biological disaster the world of the 21^st Century is a ruined wasteland.  Gunpowder is more valuable than gold.  The Alpha League, led by Brodie (Richard Norton), seeks a return to justice and order for this post-apocalyptic world.

Raiders of the Sun is classic post-apocalyptic mayhem – lots of leather, crazy spiky cars and explosions.  It is VERY similar to the aforementioned Equalizer 2000, in fact some of the shots are “borrowed” from Equalizer 2000.

Richard Norton’s Brodie looks an awful lot like his Slade from Equalizer 2000.  He’s rockin’ a leather number again that only a man with his physique could pull off.  Unfortunately he doesn’t have his awesome Equalizer 2000 gun though.  On the plus side he does get more opportunity to show off his impressive (especially with leather pants on) martial arts skills.  You win some, you lose some.

His Alpha League goons run around looking like they just signed up for some sort of extreme game of flag football, yellow mesh jerseys and all.

The Raiders wear all black, as could be expected from any group known as the Raiders.  They drive around in black cars with spikes and even have a truck with a five barrel bazooka mounted to the bed of the truck.  How awesome is that!?!

I miss the good old days where we all called a bazooka a bazooka.  Thanks to Call of Duty and the like, kids today know the exact year, make and model of we used to just call bazookas.

The movie essentially bounces from one fight to the next with little wasted time in between, all the while an almost constant chatter of machine guns and explosions from various BAZOOKAS and rocket launchers fills your ears.

The final scene is very reminiscent of Equalizer 2000’s final battle – bad guy raiders attack the good guy base, good guys get help from local tribal types, Richard Norton fights a bunch of low level baddies before a final encounter with the big bad boss deep inside the base.  It’s great.  I could watch both movies back to back and not be bored for a second.  That’s the sign of a good bad movie.

Raiders of the Sun ain’t Equalizer 2000, not by a long shot, but it is still a pretty decent post-apocalyptic Richard Norton slog.  The big difference between Raiders of the Sun and Equalizer 2000 is the Equalizer 2000 weapon – the best part of the first movie.  Raiders of the Sun is probably only going to be enjoyed by serious bad movie junkies, myself included.