Best movie of this year hands down!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Blistering performances.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Yet another in the assembly line of low budget "Mad Max" / "Road Warrior" ripoffs actually isn't bad at all, even if it IS derivative. Give credit to the extremely prolific producer & director Cirio H. Santiago: he takes the script by Frederick Bailey and just hits the ground running. He offers very little in the way of let-up, and plenty of action. Our hero could have used a touch more charisma, but he's passable, and the bad guys are such loathsome scum that it's satisfying to watch them come to their ends.Gary Watkins ("The Long Riders", "Johnny Dangerously") stars as "Trace", a lone wolf in a post- apocalypse future. His kid sister Arlie (Playboy Playmate Lynda Wiesmeier) ends up abducted by the villainous Highway Warriors led by a power crazed goon appropriately named "Scourge" (Joe Mari Avellana, a familiar name to you if you've watched enough Filipino exploitation). With the help of a killer named "Stinger" (Laura Banks) and a young clairvoyant girl named "Spike" (Linda Grovenor), he takes on the scores of minions that come his way."Wheels of Fire" is going to be too nasty and hard-edged for some tastes. It will never be mistaken for a feminist statement. But those of you who love a bit of sleaze to go with your brainless futuristic thrills should be more than satisfied. Wiesmeier is made to go topless a great deal of the time, and at one point is tied spread eagle across the hood of a car. There's no excessive gore to concern more squeamish viewers, but that DOESN'T mean that this isn't still plenty violent. For example, Trace has a flamethrower mounted on his vehicle and he just LOVES to set guys on fire.Performances are all perfectly suited to the material. They won't win Oscars, but who cares? Watkins is okay, and the ladies look just fine. Fortunately, both Banks and Grovenor get to be fairly heroic themselves and handle themselves capably in fight scenes. Avellana is a decent villain, Joseph Zucchero is amusing as a dude named "Whiz", and Jack S. Daniels is a hoot as a wretched piece of excrement named "Scag".Acceptable genre entertainment gets its biggest boost from the rousing, full orchestral score by the talented Christopher Young ("Hellraiser").Seven out of 10.

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.

In Wheel of Fire, Lynda is in a Road Warrior knock-off in which she is captured and gang-raped by a group of scummy, bearded, tattooed bikers. When first captured, she can be seen on the ground screaming as her top is ripped off, revealing her awesome rack. The leader has his way with her, ties her to the hood of a beat up car and tears around the desert with a still topless Lynda screaming her head off. He then rewards his fat biker worshippers by letting them pin her down and take turns screwing her.Apparently, the original cut has a much longer rape scene that goes on forever. She is beautiful, but this feature is borderline porn. Obviously working on this film was better than having to sit through it. Don't watch it with a date. it is quite misogynistic.The film is apparently a bit of an embarrassment to Playboy.

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.