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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

One of my all time favorites.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is actually a good film, don't let the dodge music fool you. It may have a weird plot about relic hunting and saving the world, but it has good action sequences and a young Robert Patrick who is pretty cute, and features throughout the film. This is certainly a good role for a first timer in a movie (yes his first role ever), he has so much energy and charisma. The fights scenes are quite well done on such a low budget, 'Patrick' does it realistically with vigour. It may be cheesy when it comes to plot and music but it's the 80s. I would have certainly been entertained in the 80s, it is reminiscent of other classic 80s adventure/action films, you'll see what I mean. If they had tinsy bigger budget and better recording equipment this would have been box office magic. But I believe the film would have done well if more people had bothered to see it. The film has only aged because it has been overlooked. But it's a little gem for Robert Patrick fans- I watched this all the way through with a delighted grin on my face hence the high-ish rating.

Future Hunters is an under the radar 80's action movie that throws everything it can think of at the screen in an attempt to catch an audience. It combines several popular film genres of the time to delirious effect. It starts out like it's going to be a post-apocalyptic movie but quite soon afterwards the hero time-travels back to the 80's in an attempt to try and avert an impending nuclear war in a manner not a hundred miles away from ideas underpinning The Terminator. He achieved this (somehow) because he has in his possession the Spear of Destiny and he ropes in a young couple into finding its magical sheath, by now it's taken a Raiders of the Lost Ark turn in its pursuit of religious artifacts, later on, large rolling stone boulders emphasise this influence only further. On the subsequent quest the film combines a – really good - extended martial arts fight in a shaolin temple, neo-Nazis, a lost tribe of dwarfs and a further tribe of Amazon women. There's lots of pumping 80's music on the soundtrack, chases, fights galore, guns, explosions and death by crocodile! And to add a little extra cult value, it stars a young Robert Patrick in a role that he gives his all to. This was one of several cheap genre films that were filmed in the Philippines at the time – there were financial incentives to do so – and the South East Asian flavour certainly adds a lot as well. In the final analysis, this is a very fun action movie that consistently attempts to entertain its audience in a myriad of ways. You can't say fairer that that really.

You can say a lot of harsh and unfriendly things about director Cirio H. Santiago (and most of them will still be too gentle), but he definitely was responsible for some nice footnotes in B-movie history as well. For example, did you know that he single-handedly launched the career of Robert Patrick? Half a decade before he became an immortal cult icon with his role as the stoic liquid-metal cyborg in "Terminator II: Judgment Day", Robert Patrick starred in no less than four Santiago flicks, including the horrible dud "Equalizer 2000" and this debut feature "Future Hunters". I'm not too sure if Robert still likes to be remembered of his collaborations with the late Cirio H. Santiago, though. Here, he walks around in tidy white underpants an awful lot and gets his ass kicked several times during the first half of the film (but mostly kicks other ass during the second half). Many of my fellow reviewers around here apparently consider "Future Hunters" to be pure B-movie Walhalla, but yours truly politely disagrees… The film is a rip-off potpourri of numerous great classics, but it isn't half as exhilarating and entertaining as it should have been. Cheap & exploitative rip-offs ought to surpass their role model movies in terms of over-the-top action, absurd situations, sleaze, violence and flamboyance – like several Italian flicks do, for example "Hunters of the Golden Cobra" or "Atlantis Interceptors" – but this one fails. The ideas are there, since the script steals aspects from monumental franchises like "Mad Max", "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars", but they are all just very random and unprocessed. The story opens in the year 2025; with the brave warrior Matthew tracking down a Christian artifact in a devastated post-apocalyptic landscape. This particular artifact – a spear – holds the power to prevent the cataclysm from happening and its mere touch transports Matthew back to 1989. There he immediately gets shot by biker thugs (how about that, he's supposed to be strongest warrior of the future but he can't even survive 10 minutes in the 80's) and desperately begs a young couple to take custody over the spear and bring it to the place where it belongs. Michelle (lovely Linda Carol) and Slade (Robert Patrick) promptly find themselves pursued by Nazis, Asian mobsters and whatnot and they all want to possess the spear. How do they even know that this young couple has the spear? The race ends – after a lot of lousy martial arts fights and cheesy helicopter explosions – on a small island inhabited by midget Mongols and Amazon women. "Future Hunters" is allegedly co-scripted by the respectable director J. Lee Thompson, but I think he has very little to do with the finished product, since it carries all the inept trademarks of Cirio H. Santiago. This means a total absence of logic, suspense or continuity, poorly staged action sequences and a ridiculously high amount of cast members giving away horrible performances. "Future Hunters" is boring, stupid and it can't hold a candle to the rip-off exploitation flicks that were made in Italy around the same period.

Cheerfully plumbing depths of giddy stupidity with a certain infectious go-for-it wacky aplomb, this is by no means a good movie, but it sure is a highly entertaining and often unintentionally sidesplitting piece of energetic kitsch. Tough Mad Max clone Matthew (Richard Norton in peak two-fisted form) discovers the location of the Spear of Destiny -- it's the Roman spear that was used on Christ during his crucifixion -- in the bleak apocalyptic world of 2025. Matthew travels back to 1986 and gives the spear to Michelle (foxy blonde Linda Carol) and her boyfriend Slade (Robert Patrick in his pre-"Terminator 2" Grade Z dreck salad days). It's up to our young couple to make sure that the spear doesn't fall into the wrong evil hands. Director Cirio H. Santiago, working from a blithely inane script by J. Lee Thompson, keeps the pace racing along at a constant speedy clip and treats the ridiculous premise with gut-busting misguided seriousness, thereby ensuring that this honey is a total tacky hoot from start to finish. Better still, Santiago and Thompson cram this baby with all kinds of deliciously absurd lunacy: We've got a nasty biker gang, wild car chases (keep your eyes peeled for an incredible day for night continuity error during one particular chase), fierce karate fights, solemn opening narration by a third-rate Orson Welles clone, a tribe of helpful cave-dwelling dwarfs, nefarious Nazi bad guys (Ed Crick hams it up outrageously as the leader of the Nazis), lots of stuff blowing up real good, cruddy (not so) special effects, and even a group of fearsome Amazon warrior women. Extra kudos are also in order for the extremely bouncy pulse-pounding score by Ron Jones and a smidgen of tasty gratuitous female nudity courtesy of the yummy Mrs. Carol. A real schlocky blast.