Eric Roberts is not in Revelation Road 3.

I was hoping that he might be, even though his name didn’t appear in the credits.  Quite a few cast members from the first two films return for the third film.  David A.R. White is back as Josh McManus, the former super soldier who now drives his souped-car through the wastelands of America.  Bruce Marchiano is back, credited as the Stranger though we all  know he’s actually Jesus.  (Since Marchiano  appeared in all three films, I can only assume the Revelation Road films all take place in the same cinematic universe as The Encounter films and Sarah’s Choice.)  Brian Bosworth shows up briefly.

But there is no Eric Roberts.  Not even Eliza Roberts appears in this film!  It’s a shame and they are both missed.

However, Kevin Sorbo does show up.

Kevin Sorbo plays Honcho, a bandit leader who lives in the wastelands and who is worshipped by those who follow him.  Honcho occasionally speaks with an Australian accent.  Occasionally, the accent slips or disappears all together.  At first, I thought this was a case of bad editing, bad dubbing, or maybe Sorbo not really being that into the character.  However, there’s actually a rather clever moment in which Honcho tells Josh that he’s not actually from Australia.  He just speaks with the accent because it impresses his followers.  Without the accent, he’s just some guy who used to work at a gas station.  With the accent, he’s a warlord.

It’s a moment that made me laugh, largely because it’s true.  People love and fear accents.  If you’ve got a posh British accent, most Americans will assume that you’re planning a heist of some sort and that Sylvester Stallone or Harrison Ford is somewhere nearby, trying to stop you.  If you’ve got an Australian accent, the assumption amongst Americans is that you can survive harsh conditions, handle your alcohol, and jump out of a plane without a second thought.

However, Sorbo’s fake Australian accent also pays a sort of homage to the Mad Max films.  The Revelation Road trilogy was obviously envisioned as being a faith-based version of the Mad Max films, with David A.R. White cheerfully stepping into the somber shoes of Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy.  Using Mad Max as a model for a faith-based apocalypse film actually isn’t that bad of an idea.  Indeed, Gibson’s style of beatific madness opens up the original Mad Max trilogy to a similar interpretation.  Unfortunately, Revelation Road 3 is at time a bit too faithful to the Mad Max films, to the extent that it struggles to establish an identity outside of the films that inspired it.  That’s one reason why Kevin Sorbo’s character stands out.  He’s a character who genuinely surprises us.

As for the plot of Revelation Road 3, it finds Josh being sent on a mission to find The Shepherd (Robert Gossett), a mysterious figure who is gathering together a religious flock in the desert despite the fact that the new world government has outlawed things like religion and individual freedom.  While Josh’s wounded companion waits in a town ruled over by Mayor Drake (James Denton), Josh searches the desert and occasionally sees a mysterious rider on a horse.  The film mixes action and theology and the results are definitely mixed, with a few well-done chase scenes mixed with a lot of scenes of people talking.  That said, at its best, The Black Rider achieves a sort of desolate grandeur.