A while back, I bought this 50-movie set, Sci-Fi Invasion, for five bucks. That adds up to ten cents per movie. Take a little bit of Escape from New York, some of Assault on Precinct 13, and a whole lot of The Road Warrior, then lower the budget and make it Italian and you’ve got this 1983 movie, Raiders of Atlantis.

Here’s what happens: A group of scientists and some petty crooks have a tense encounter at sea. After a storm, they return to the mainland, to find all the buildings burning, almost all the people dead, and group of megaviolent “Interceptors” running around killing everyone.

Speculative spectacle: It turns out a crashed Russian submarine has brought the lost kingdom of Atlantis back to the surface, and the Interceptors are seeking revenge against surface dwellers for ruining the planet. But, really, that’s just an excuse for a lot of post-apocalypse fighting.

Sleaze factor: The crazy psychos kidnap the group’s only female. We’re told they want her for her intellect. Yeah, I’m sure.

Quantum quotables: “All the liquor stores are closed.” – one scientist, upon stepping onto the shore of the legendary Atlantis for the first time.

What the felgercarb? Are all those cars, motorcycles, and tight leather pants really of Atlantean origin?

Microcosmic minutiae: I’m pretty sure disco was well and truly dead by 1983, but that didn’t stop the filmmakers from loading the soundtrack with all kinds of disco schlock, including the main theme, “Black Inferno,” performed someone/something called “Oliver Onions.”

Worth ten cents? This movie is all non-stop fighting, but it’s so repetitive that you get desensitized to it after a while. Watch it only if you’re really bored.

****

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