Esquadrão Selvagem

Thunder Squad (1985)

** (out of 4)

A brutal and sadistic dictator kidnaps the son of a South American rebel who is living in Miami. The evil dictator has the son so a group of missionaries led by Antonio Sabato heads into the jungles to try and rescue him.

This action picture from director Umberto Lenzi goes under a variety of titles including SQUADRA SELVAGGIA, I CINQUE DEL CONDOR and WILD TEAM but no matter what you call it you'll never mistake it for a good movie. No, this here is one of those films that isn't a bad movie and it's not a good movie and it pretty much stays in the middle of the road in regards to the quality. With that said, the final thirty-minutes are entertaining enough to make the film worth watching.

It's clear that Lenzi was shooting this on a shoe-string budget because there's really nothing over-the-top here in regards to the violence or the action. The action scenes are certainly done on a smaller scale and you can tell that editing was the biggest friend to the director who used it to try and make the picture look bigger than it actually was. The violence is certainly PG rated and there's really nothing offensive here so those expecting violence or gore might be disappointed.

Sabato makes for an interesting lead but I wouldn't say he was a major find for the role. Ivan Rassimov, Werner Pochath and Julia Kent round out the supporting players and for the most part the four of them are entertaining enough for this type of film. As I said, the final thirty-minutes certainly make up for a rather slow start and once we hit the jungle things certainly pick up and make the film worth watching.