"Warriors...come out to play-ay!"

I'll admit, I'm often a victim of watching movies purely because there is someone I like in it. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it really doesn't. Otherwise, I watch movies because they are recommended to me or something is an apparant 'must-see'. So I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to rent The Warriors. I didn't know anything about it, didn't know anyone in it, I just hear someone mention it every now and again and felt it was something I needed to watch.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I was under the impression that it was going to be really dated and to a certain extent it was but it doesn't fall victim to 70's fashion because each gang has a different style. I could easily have watched another half hour or so to see some more gangs. The story was so simple and yet compelling, you got to know the Warriors well enough to care if they got home and cleared their names. It's one of those films where you can't really catch everyone's name on first viewing but I particularly liked Swan, Vermin and Ajax. You gotta love films with characters with stupid names. I'm glad that Vermin didn't get killed as was originally written. The female character was also good because she wasn't your typical love interest, she could handle herself and didn't cause chaos as most of them always do.

I liked the way it was shown as a classic style comic book during the transition, it added to the real story type element of it having been originally derived from a Greek story. Considering a lot of the cast were unknowns, they all did a reasonable job, granted there was really a lot of 'acting' to do but you believed them. The costumes are also brilliant, if totally whacky! You kinda wish you could see more but you do get a good look at various gangs during the opening titles.

I know there's supposed to be a remake on the way, I don't see why they need to. I can only see it being pretty much EXACTLY the same movie, maybe with just more violence and a heavier focus on social issues and gang warfare.

Overall: A good piece of entertainment, worth a looksee before it undoubtedly gets tainted by the remake.