It's 2087, 75 years after the start of the final war. It lasted 15 years and left the world devastated. It hasn't rained for 50 years. Lost Wells is a settlement in the desert that actually has water. The peaceful villagers welcome Derek Abernathy (Adam Ant) and his cult followers. Abernathy immediately massacres and enslave many in the settlement. Ethan (Bruce Dern) rises to challenge him. Ethan takes school teacher Angie Banning (Catherine Mary Stewart) to the big city and find a barbaric world desperate for water. Ethan recruits his old partner George Landon (Michael Paré) and others to battle Abernathy's cult.

This takes the style of 'Mad Max 2' even including the white outfits. They're throwing hubcaps like the boomerang. The plot is pulled from 'Seven Samurai' like many other movies such as Steve McQueen in 'The Magnificent Seven'. However it's nowhere near the same vision or quality. Adam Ant is not the most imposing villain but he fits the low quality camp. I always like some Catherine Mary Stewart and Bruce Dern is one of the great actors of our times. Michael Paré is an oddity of the 80s and I've never understood his leading man appeal. The setup is clunky. The dialog isn't much better. It's a poor production pulling elements from other better movies.

In 1970, Lee Katzin made The Phynx, a nearly lost film about a rock band's influence on world politics. It's packed with names, with everyone from Warhol superstar Ultra Violet to Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Busby Berkeley, Leo Gorcey, Colonel Sanders, Harold Sakata and the inventor of the Bloody Mary, George Jessel. Just as oddly, Katzin would make his contribution to post-apocalyptic films nearly two decades later with this film.

2087. Earth has been decimated by nuclear war and water is the most precious thing there is. The Lost Wells outpost has survived, but now an evil group of renegades, led by Derek Abernathy (Adam Ant),wants to take over.

This is a film packed with plenty of interesting actors, like Bruce Dern and Michael Paré (Streets of Fire) as the heroes, along with Catherine Mary Stewart (The Apple, The Last Starfighter, Night of the Comet),Julius Carry (Sho'Nuff from The Last Dragon) and Alan Autry Jr. ( Captain Bubba Skinner from TV's In the Heat of the Night).

That said -- this is a flimsy film, unsure what it wants to be. When you hear something like "Bruce Dern against Adam Ant after the end of the world," you want it to be awesome. Sadly, it falls short. If only an Italian director was in the chair, ready to throw rats at everyone in the cast or bring in George Eastman!

In the nuclear ravaged wasteland of Earth 2087 water is as precious as life itself.

The isolated Lost Wells outpost survived the holocaust and the inhabitants guard the source of their existence.

An evil cult of renegades want control of their valuable water supply. And the villagers are no match for such brute military force. Only one man can help the stricken community - a mercenary living in a distance cannibal city.

But even he, and his strange henchmen, may not be able to survive in the world gone wild....

Films like this were rife in the eighties, from Mad Max, to Cyborg, to Spacehunter, they were released regularly, and some were of very poor quality. This however is one of the better ones and I've never heard of this film, until it appeared on MGM HD.

But these post apocalyptic movies always carry the same type of story and narrative. Something is always in short supply, the good guys hardly have anything to keep then alive, whilst the bad guys are always in supply of weapons and vehicles.

And there always is the random rugged guy who saves the day.

But it's the way the film is executed that makes the story interesting, and this is beyond the realm of bonkers, it cannot be anything other than a lot of fun.

Ant is acceptable as the villain, he doesn't really get much to say or do, just a lot of shots of him standing up on a truck. Pare is the Mad Max of the film, albeit a really gentle one who doesn't really do much except chase around the girl from Weekend at Bernies.

Dean is the best thing about this, walking around with a swagger and then walking off in the middle of a huge battle, without a care in the world.

It's not anything remarkable, but its a lot of fun and it never gets boring.

Highly recommended.