Without taking too much away from this lunkheaded 80s vigilante movie's action, I must say the atrocities pale in comparison to the remarkable fluffy mullets and athletic shorts sported by the gang of twenty-something avengers,(led by a whiny James Van Patten, who looks here like a genetic cross between Jay Leno and David Patrick Kelly). Not even the wall-to-wall synth stingers and thumping drum machine can compete with wardrobe and hair. The gang even has a sports mascot, a poodle named Butch. Van Patten is so traumatized by the rape and murder of his sister, there's no safe retreat into his art (some form of lame graphic animation he screens to his friends; these "space-y" visuals looking like the rejected material of the video game companies who brought us Detroyer, Battle Zone, and Asteroids). He, instead, embraces spontaneous violence against street crime. Most of the atrocities avenged in the movie are so well-lit and conveniently found as to make the work of Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson and Robocop seem positively procedural. Yet the merciless violence can't sustain the awful characterizations and Van Patten's adolescent outbursts. Ernest Borgnine is in full Comm. Peterson mode here, playing Lt. Carrigan. Aside from sporting a snazzy red leather jacket that barely conceals his bulbosity, he's partnered up with Richard Roundtree, and both men's "hands are tied" by the system. Cannon Films produced this mess, but it's easier to measure the movie by its flaws than its assets. Not even Linnea Quigley can improve things any. Memorable scene highlights the disturbed Van Patten's degenerate art reaching a new low, as his professor shouts in front of the class, "This goes beyond the boundaries of art!" and "It's abnormal!". Who would have thought a vigilante's neon, flashing renderings of "Tron"-like haunted-house werewolves and toothy snakes and skulls could disguise the reason behind all this vengeance? Decent exploding miniature at the end.

So I give it one star for true quality, but I'd give it an eight and a half for sheer enjoyability. An incredibly strange hybrid of sex comedy and vigilante thriller, "Young Warriors" is just the sort of bad movie you usually hope to find when poking around the video fringe, yet so rarely do. It starts off with about half an hour of wacky hi-jinx, sex jokes, and juvenile shenanigans (including an olive in the martini joke that has to be seen not to be believed). Then the main character's younger sister gets gang raped by a bunch of swarthy bikers (an objectionable scene that keeps me from giving this a 10 for entertainment value - rape is not entertainment!), and the main character gets the rest of his sex crazed frat brothers to help him in a quest to clean up the city, find the responsible bikers, and kill anybody slightly criminal they run into along the way.It's hilarious, non-stop fun, apart from the very unpleasant rape scene, and is essential viewing to any serious bad movie fan. Trust me - I've put my time in on these things, and this is one of the best. Highlights include a wonderful visit to the library, a great flickering slo-mo shootout in a sleazy bar (with a shot of a guy blowing his own foot off that's pretty impressive), a couple of decent slumming actors (Richard Roundtree, Ernest Borgnine), a couple of semi-famous recognizable faces (Lynda Day George, scream queen Linnea Quigley), and a couple of relatives of famous people (Chuck Norris' brother Mike, Van Patten clan member James). It even has one of those great "What have we become?" type morality lesson endings, although the turning point comes when the vigilante fratboys gun down a couple of kids robbing a store with a toy gun. I've always wondered why that was the catalyst that got the hero thinking; after all, whether they were kids and not hardened criminals, and whether they had a real gun or not, they were in fact still robbing a store, so as far as I can tell, it was just another job well done for our vigilante frat boys, right? Wonderful stuff. Highly recommended, just don't blame me when you enjoy it despite yourself.

It begins with a couple of disgusting sex-comedy gags, but soon it reveals its true colors: it wants to be a "Death Wish" clone. I say "wants to" because the script gets so increasingly laughable by the minute that it ends up looking like an absurdist "Death Wish" spoof! From a love scene in a room inexplicably filled with candles, to "heroes" who dress up as commandoes and wave their machine guns because they don't want to attract attention to themselves(!), to bad guys who drive around the city in a black van long after it has been recognized as their vehicle, this film has too many ludicrous points to fit in a list. The other major problem is that you can't tell most of the characters apart; of course, you know who Borgnine and Roundtree and even James Van Patten are, but all the other roles could have been played by different actors in various scenes, and you wouldn't know the difference. (*1/2)

This movie was just average. Some scenes were good and some were just plain stupid! A well supported cast though and some good action. The best actor in this movie is definetely Anne Lockhart from the T.V. series "Battlestar Galactica." Cast also features "Mission: Impossible's" Lynda Day George, Mike Norris (Chuck's brother) and a supporting role by cult actress Linnea Quigley as Ginger(lookin' good!), who only appears in a few, but good scenes. There's also a one violent rape scene by a vicious gang which was well done! Savage Streets did a movie like this a year later (which also featured Quigley, but the role was bigger and better), except it was alot better than this movie! Some of the scene's in this movie was filmed in my hometown.