Movies that are twenty years old but have earned only one comment deserve more attention. In this case we have the usual "jungle commando adventure" wedded to the "corrupt Washington politics" plot. While testifying before a Congressional subcommittee, ex-Marine Lt. Frank White tells of a covert CIA operation designed to eliminate a drug ring operating in Central America. Scenes of White sparring with a venal and ambitious Congressman alternate with flashback scenes set in Central America -- scenes filled with gunfire and explosions. This arrangement is an efficient way to get the story across but action fans, at whom this movie seems to be aimed, may find the Washington scenes a bit tedious. Perhaps in recognition of this the movie ends with a chase-stalk-and-shootout sequence that is set in Washington rather than Central America but the sequence's degree of action and suspense don't justify its length. A continuing problem is that much of the plot hinges on the friendship between Frank White and sniper Rick Burns but this friendship is poorly developed and never very convincing. (White is played by J. Christian Ingvordsen who also directed and co-wrote the movie. He qualifies as an adequate leading man and he looks good with his shirt off.)
Remember those "macho" men's magazines with covers showing bound and bare-chested men being threatened by a beautiful Nazi babe wielding a whip? Fans of those magazines will enjoy this movie's Central American section wherein five American soldiers are captured and imprisoned by armed men working for the drug cartel. There are scenes of these prisoners, stripped to the waist and gleaming with sweat, being marched along hallways and down stairs, hands cupped behind heads. Occasionally they're tied up, arms stretched above their heads, and splashed with water. This culminates in a torture scene in which one bound man is punched in the gut, another one, seated in a chair, is given an electric shock, and a third is approached by a torturer carrying a hot iron. Before the hot iron can be applied to the prisoner's bare torso with an appropriate sizzling sound, however, the torturer is distracted -- and the audience is disappointed! For the record, the almost-scorched man is played by Spike Ryan.
