If I remember correctly (and I may not - it's been years), I think Phoenix the Warrior (or She-Wolves of the Wasteland) was standard fare on the old USA UP All Night movie show. At the time, I thought it was a decent enough time waster, but then again, I was usually pretty inebriated when I watched it. Re-watching it last night, sober as a judge, I've changed my opinion drastically. What a bore! An hour and a half of the deadliest dull film I've seen in a long, long time. The acting is atrocious, the special effects are horrible, the music is annoying after about 3.4 seconds, the dialogue is cringey, and the sets are as cheap as you'll find. Throw in some really crappy, amateurish fight choreography and a plot that comes across like it was written by a drunken badger and you end up with one sorry excuse for a movie. I watch a lot of bad movies, but Phoenix the Warrior is too much. I really can't imagine enjoying something much less than I did this movie. It's a disaster!Based on other comments I've read, I'm sure this one will get voted down on IMDb. It seems there is an audience out there who enjoys Phoenix the Warrior for the titulation it provides. I really feel sorry for anyone who watches this dreck for that reason. I suggest looking elsewhere.

In yet another post-apocalyptic future, men have been eradicated. The surviving women left alive on the planet battle for supremacy. The head baddie in this manless future is Reverend Mother (Howard), sort of a cross between The Emperor from the Star Wars movies and Plughead from the Circuitry Man movies. She has a way of impregnating people, but she doesn't want any male children born. She's kind of like the opposite of China. When Keela (Sands) becomes pregnant, she goes on the run. A baddie-ess named Cobalt (Khambatta) faithfully executes the orders of the Reverend Mother. Thankfully, Keela meets up with a warrior chick (also called a "Sandtrapper") named Phoenix (Kinmont) so they can both battle all the goons that are after them. Along the way, they find the last man alive, not surprisingly named Guy (Emery), and they face many trials and tribulations as they fight to stay alive. What will happen? It's not Warriors of the Wasteland, it's She-Wolves of the Wasteland, so, you know, let's keep that in mind. (Though, to be fair, this did come out on VHS as Phoenix The Warrior). For an American post-apocalyptic slog, this is modestly entertaining, and the pace isn't that bad. It's not terribly different from others of its kind, but the main twist in the formula, if you want to call it that, is the 98% female cast on display. If nothing else, you can always gawk at the eye candy. There's certainly no shame in that - heck, what else would you be gawking at if not for that? Many of the post-apocalyptic mainstays are here: riding around a desert setting in dune buggies, characters with torn/bizarre outfits, wacky makeup/hair, narration in the opening that sets up why there was an apocalypse, but never comes back to explain anything else, and of course, some shooting and blow-ups. By definition this time around, all the fights are cat-fights, though that description may be demeaning to Kinmont as the noble heroine. She doesn't need a man around, much less Lorenzo Lamas. Persis Khambatta as the baddie is tough too, however - she even has an Andrew Scott-style necklace of ears. Women love necklaces and earrings so this really saves time. Khambatta is also listed as an associate producer, and she does seem intensely into her role as Cobalt. We applaud her professionalism in the face of low-budget silliness.There are some organized prison fights to the death (THIS close to Punchfighting but not quite, mainly because swords and other weapons are used instead of fists, and we don't see anybody clutching the cash in their hands), and of course where would we be in life if there wasn't a Final Warehouse Fight? Interestingly enough, in the future, bizarrely deformed mutants will use TV Guides as religious articles and remembrances of TV shows are the new religion. Ideas like that help propel the movie along. And it is comforting to know that in the future, after the apocalypse, hair crimpers will still be widely available.God bless you, AIP, you've managed to wring some last droplets out of the post-apocalyptic genre. We knew we could count on you.

Putrid hellspawn of Conan the Barbarian and Mad Max has Kathleen Kinmont as a female warrior(..indeed quite a stretch, although she's smokin' in animal skins)on a mission to keep a boy child away from an evil witch who wishes to use his youth to gain power over the remaining civilization(..the entire male race was wiped out, save one, by a bacterial virus that ravaged the land, leaving only a small number of females to fend for themselves). The Reverend Mother(Sheila Howard in hideous make-up with feeding tubes and wires in her head, hooked to a machine which is keeping her alive)orders, from a room decorated with plastic sheets, her second-in-command Cobalt(Persis Khambatta, over-the-top in an unflattering performance)to find the boy. Phoenix(Kinmont)joins forces with Keela(Peggy McIntaggart), impregnated with a seed that soon is carried to term, with them attempting to remain out of the clutches of Mother and Cobalt which is not easy since the fiends have an armament of ugly foot-soldiers on the prowl. Cobalt's village(..with buildings built from scrap metal) provides necessary supplies for survival out in the desert wastelands which occupy the area all around them. Soon Phoenix and Keela discover an actual man(James Emery)when they intrude upon his shack not knowing it was his. The trio, along with Keela's boy child, will form a unit that will attempt to overthrow Reverend Mother, Cobalt, and their female thugs, hoping to end their terrible reign so peace can exist. That will not be easy.The film's key novelty, in my opinion, is that the cast is comprised mostly of women. They are dressed in as little as possible, adopt attitudes, and fire automatic weapons at each other, with essentially two factions emerging..those who are under Reverend Mother's command and the "trappers", those who oppose her regime and wish to be free from her tyranny. There's even a scene featuring gladiatorial combat between Phoenix and Cobalt's hand-picked warriors. There's a very bizarre tribe of severely deformed humans with ghastly faces whose voices offer a strange frequency when they talk..they worship the television gods(!)and offer up captured Phoenix and Keela for a sacrifice..it's good that Phoenix made a friend in her temporary prison with a warrior she was forced to engage in combat, Neon(Laurie de Nuccio). The filmmakers try hard convincing us that Kinmont could make a legitimate female warrior, but Brigitte Nielsen she's not. Her battles with other adversaries are laughable, and Kinmont's eventual confrontation with Khambatta couldn't be more lame. She sure is nice to gaze upon even if the movie itself can be difficult to stomach. McIntaggart isn't gonna win any acting awards herself, but she is also quite a tasty dish.I'm honest when I say that renting She-Wolves of the Wasteland had more to do with the idea that women would be occupying the screen time in a sub-genre known more for starring men with bulging biceps beating the hell out of each other with giant(..often quite sharp)weapons. The rough female brutes that often cause our heroines problems are a direct opposite of Phoenix and Keela, they have a tendency to be uglier with crazy hair styles. If you are wondering about the nudity, never fear, Phoenix and Keela meet a female group, in face paint, hiding out on the other side of a waterfall(..why aren't more of these women here?!?!)who bathe naked and dance, soon falling prey to Cobalt for lending their enemies refuge..I wish it would've been Kinmont, but why argue.Phoenix's introduction should provide amusement..while two thugs attempt to harm Keela, Phoenix tosses an apple she was eating in the air, catching their attention temporarily, blasting them, catching the fruit afterward! Don't expect anything of quality whether it be action sequences or hand to hand combats because everything is clumsily staged. Cobalt and her cronies drive dune buggies as transport! Bizarre sequence where Phoenix, Keela, the child, and the man cross into the graveyard of the "TV people"(..dressed in robes)where television sets accompany skeletal remains lying in unfolded recliners!

Excellent scene where Kinmont and another babe are tied to a wooden cross and chastised by radioactive mutants!!! What else could you ask for ...heavy cheese factor here but worth the wait to see that scene! This flick is along the lines of Spacehunter : Adventures in the Forbidden Zone; again hot babes captured by weird mutant freaks. There were a lot of Science Fiction exploitation films that came out during the 1980's and Phoenix is one of the best. Very dark backgrounds, a post apocalypse futuristic location and an overall orange atmospheric scenery gives the film a look as if the world has gone mad or at the very least, out of control. I gave this a 10 for the babe factor alone.