User reviews

Wow, someone has clearly taken his desire to come up with the ultimate "Rambo" rip-off to the extreme! Ferdinando Baldi has always been one of Italy's most capricious exploitation directors. In the late 60s and early 70s, he made a couple of very good and original spaghetti westerns, like "Texas Addio" and "Blindman", but he ended his career in the 80s with poorly financed and righteously forgotten imitations of Hollywood blockbusters like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and most notably "Rambo II & III". The best thing about "Just a Damned Soldier" is the title, because furthermore there isn't a plot, character development, suspense or (intentional) humor. The film is nothing but a series of random shootouts and explosions. The shootouts are hilarious because the four American mercenary heroes never get hit whereas the literally hundreds of Filipino extras theatrically drop dead in small groups. These poor suckers run straight and unprotected towards the bullet rains and don't even attempt to fire back! The explosions are hilarious as well, since the aimlessly thrown grenades spectacularly pulverize entire military targets and obviously cause more damage than they are supposed to. But arguably the most ridicule scene is when someone, a good guy actually, gets executed by using him as a living darts board! If you're into cheap action guff, give this obscure jungle joke a look and then forget about it forever.

PS: the other reviewer is right! Lead actor Peter Hooten does look like Steve Guttenberg! It's difficult to take someone seriously as a lethal mercenary when he has the face of Mahoney in "Police Academy".

Everybody in the Film had a great tan, and I mean the type of tan you get after being burnt to a crisp.The bad news is that the two leading men were not great as Peter Hooten (Bert Ernst) was miscast as the tough leader of men and Benito Stefanelli (Tittleman) the bad guy was just lazy. Benito is one of those guys who could dress in a white Miami Heat freshly pressed suit and still look grubby. He also looked like he wanted to take a nap throughout the film. Tittleman's girlfriend played by Christine Leigh was also nondescript but at least added a little eye candy with the same deer in the headlights expression through out. Hooten, who's tough guy portrayal included starring into the camera so he could show off his Martin Landauesque baby blues at the end of every take was also a little wimpy in the action scenes. It's fortunate that by now veteran Romano Kristoff (Cisco) was aboard to complete most of the action work. Romano even had to man the flamethrower and looked like a pro. The film just didn't work even with a couple of high spots. The the music score was distracting and aggravating at times, but stunt work was an upgrade from most "Z" movies with a great getting shot and falling off of a pier scene. I honestly can't recommend Just a Damned Soldier. Damn it.

This is not the funniest war movie ever made, don't believe that for a second. I found this an enjoyable way to waste 90 minutes. The acting is bad? I didn't think so. You want bad acting, watch Troll 2. Bad special effects? Wrong again. Actual things actually blow up real good. I liked the characters as well. No, it isn't realistic. You want realism, go watch Band of Brothers. This film is just fun, that's it. The dialogue isn't laugh-inducing, either. Do yourself a favor and skip the sequel, though. Even the brilliant Mark Gregory can't save that one.