One day I hope to have watched every Mad Max knock off and I’m glad to have finally crossed one of the two Empire of Ash films off the list. I have had this on DVD for many years, however, have not had the drive to put it on until now. This film is a little confusing for a number of reasons, so lets get on with it.
It’s probably worth mentioning right from the top my £1 DVD of Empire of Ash (1988) has Empire of Ash III on it instead, even rolling an Empire of Ash title card (without the III.) Secondly, Empire of Ash II was released the year after the first film, however, it was just the original a with “II” added on, we can get into that when I track a copy down. Empire of Ash III arrived afterwards with some of the same cast.
Empire of Ash III is, like so made, a cheap science fiction movie whereby society has broken down and wrong’uns are out marauding a wasteland and misbehaving. In the middle are a few folks we are inspired to root for in the hope they manage to escape the clutches of evil and find salvation. I have just described pretty much every Post Apocalyptic movie, however, here we see Mad Danielle (a female version of Max) trying to rescue a girl from a cult led by Smith. Empire of Ash III adds a couple of additions to the norm. Tits! There is a surprising amount of nudity here and the film indulges in it, offering little explanation for it, the almost all the pretty ladies are de-robed and then put their clothes back on at some point.
I can’t say the cast is any good. The one starry name who has spent more time is rubbish like this than he deserved, the late William Smith, is a seasoned professional at delivering a performance without showing any embarrassment. Our leading ladies, whilst lovely to look at amidst the bleak backgrounds are unable to carry off the horrendous dialogue. Very few went onto anything else.
There is a metric tonne of faces as bit part players in this movie, it’s almost like they went into a 10 biker bars and said “Who wants to be in a movie?” then used everyone. I’m going to favour this as frequently in cheap action movies we see the same faces wearing different hats.Empire of Ash III has a new henchman getting blown up or shot in every action sequence and that’s … something. Amongst the plethora face are a few names that surprise, action star Don Wilson, Steve Cropper the pip smoking Blues Brothers band member and Tim Chapman from Dog The Bounty Hunter. This could just be a case of IMDB lazily linking extras with stars with the same name.
The filmmakers do show a lot of creativity for world building, strategically filming old factories, that might still be in operation, without showing signs of life. The action is also surprisingly competent, even if the story lets it down by becoming boring by the midpoint of film. The film seems to have a decent amount of production value with regular explosions, helicopters and a variety of vehicles, not just the same couple used over and over like in Interzone.
The big but is that the film is not that much fun. We have a stupid plot that is far too serious for its own good and the cast are having to treat it like high art, spewing out dialogue like they are making Apocalypse Now! I found the aforementioned Interzone refreshing because it knew it was all crap and just rolled with it. Empire of Ash III wants you to indulge it for it lore, like it’s Star Wars. Yet there are moments that are inexplicable and feel like they were added at a later date, for example some loose ladies who are up for some sexy fun over a board game. This just adds to the jankiness of the film and the direction is completely lost.
I was a little shocked to see that I had looked at a film from director Michael Mazo previously, the overly hated but quite watchable Time Runner and I have the Crackerjack trilogy waiting in the wings for which he is responsible for the first outing. Mazo also seems to be connected to the Chained Heat and Bound Heat series of movies and I believe there is an associated website with some videos connected to the franchise.
Empire of Ash III is a tremendous letdown, and it pains me to say that the reviews are correct, it’s garbage. I try hard to see the positive in things but Empire of Ash III is too much of a challenge. I now have to trek the physical media wasteland looking for a copy of the original.
Empire of Ash III came under a few different names to add to the confusion of the franchise already. However, the film was able to tap in to the Mad Max frenzy easily and it probably would have been quite successful had it been any good.
Empire of Ash III is not easy to find on DVD. The first film is around, especially in the UK and it turns out I have it already.
My copy of III was a picked up in a market in Taiwan. Jumping on a plane 20 years later to demand a refund seems a little excessive. I now appreciate the unique copy I have, even if it states it’s the original Empire of Ash.
