The Soldier

I saw it when it first came out, and I think I was a sophomore in high school. Carter and his "maliase" (pardon the spelling) were out, Reagan and his pro-America anti-evil empire were in. The Soviets were considered a real threat. Perhaps like today's Bin Laden with a few thousand nukes pointed at us.

Yes, the acting tended to be stiff, and there were some things that happened in the movie that didn't make too much sense. You know what? It was not a documentary. Tangerine Dream did an excellent job with the score, the opening scene was great, good action sequences that were of course pro-American, and it had a patriotic ending. It was a good movie for it's time. Back in 1982, it was considered very cool to be very patriotic, and this movie fit the time.

The Soldier is absolutely one of this worst movies I have ever seen in my life. Just name an aspect of a movie; acting, writing, directing and it is bad. Probably the worst parts are the action; a man is hit in the chest with a half-dozen bullets from a machine gun by the hero (who is flying through the air on skis at the time, don't ask) and croaks out the complete plans of the bad guys to the hero for no particular reason. And that is not the dumbest scene by far. Only rent this if you want to laugh at a movie.

Probably the best Glickenhaus film, great action sequences, over the top yes, but a lot of fun. Especially the beginning and the plutonium theft scenes.

The only downsides are the film drags slightly in the middle and Klaus Kinski has a minuscule role. Only gets one line I think. No great acting performances but action speaks louder than words in these sort of films and there is plenty. A ninja sequence with Steve James is a bit wasted as this angle could have been used more throughout the film i think, maybe in the assault on the missile base? Apart from those minor points it is overall a very good and underrated film. Certainly worth watching.

Not a great movie, but better than other films. The Soldier is about the cold war between the Soviets and Ameriacans. This movie is similar to James Bond but is more violent than the Bond films. Ken Wahl is the C I A's version of James Bond. However, I find the movie is inferiorly made compared to the Bond series. I hate seeing a few good scenes wasted in a film which has choppy directing, an unbelievable script, and bad acting. I like these kind of films but this movie is like a HBO style, low budget film. I wish the makers had more time and money to make this movie the way it should have been made. The Soldier is an 3 or 5 out of 10. Watch it on late night TV.

A film so ridiculous it's almost good. Released a year after "For Your Eyes Only", this is similar in only one respect a skiing chase scene. Even this is pretty poorly done. The cast are uniformly dismal and the music isn't much better. The only saving grace is that it doesn't overstay it's welcome and they didn't make a sequel.