Strike Commando

Yes, the movie is bad. Tragically so. But I can't deny that I am overcome by a natural charm that movies this bad exude. Imagine a movie that cheerfully includes the hackneyed scene where the hero looks over the carnage wreaked by the bad guy and dramatically shouts his name out really long.

Special note should be made of our lead man's character-building scene where he tearfully brags about the food and candy at Disneyland to a dying Vietnamese boy. Simply priceless. For this kind of badness there should be a medal. If you see it, go ahead and try it for a lot more laughs than you'd get from a genuinely good comedy. Look for Reb Brown's "performance".

Italian Rambo ripoff from gore-hound director Bruno Mattei. Reb Brown (UNCOMMON VALOR and the hilariously bad Captain America TV movies) plays an American super soldier sent on a dangerous mission to rescue POWs, but finds an evil Russian soldier instead! One of many Nam-sploitation flicks of the 80s, this one makes Chuck Norris' MISSING IN ACTION look like PLATOON. While the acting, script, and, in particular, the dialogue are so bad it's unintentionally hilarious, the action is pretty fun. STRIKE COMMANDO is nowhere near the scale of bigger-budgeted Nam films, watching all of the model ships and buildings explode, and the liberal use of Nam stock footage, has a certain charm I greatly enjoyed. Overall, it is by no means an actual good film, but I was solidly entertained, and I legitimately enjoy Reb Brown as the film's lead. Recommended if you're a fan of movies like POW: THE ESCAPE or THE LOSERS (not the 2010 film, but the 1973 film where the CIA sends some Hells Angels to Vietnam to rescue a captured presidential advisor), you'll probably dig STRIKE COMMANDO.

AI CAPSUL REVIEW: A hilariously low-rent Italian Rambo knockoff, Strike Commando piles bad acting, worse dialogue, and loads of stock footage into a gleefully trashy Nam-sploitation package. Reb Brown's over-the-top heroics and Bruno Mattei's cheap but energetic action give it a so-bad-it's-fun charm for fans of cult war flicks.

This is an exploitative rip-off of the big budgeted and succesful mega-action thriller Rambo . Here Reb Brown stars as Michael Ransom a hunk soldier who takes on enemies to rescue prisoners or other trapped platoons . At a risked mission he meets a besieged group of local natives led by a French : Allan Collins . When things go wrong , Ransom seeks vengeance against a nasty Russian officer : Alex Vitale who is supporting the Nam guerrilla .

Cheap and exploitative movie taking parts here and there of classics as the expensive "Rambo" by George Pan Cosmatos with Sylvester Stallone and "Missing in action" by Joseph Zito with Chuck Norris . This Strike Commando 1986 packs thrills , chills , grisly tortures , shootouts , jungle outdoors filmed in Philippines Islands , lots of explosion and catching musical score composed by means of synthesizer by Luigi Ceccarelli . In the movie shows up some secondaries, ordinary in B-Italian fims , and most of them playing in Bruno Mattei films, such as : the prolific Luciano Pigozzi or Allan Collins nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre , Christopher Connelli , Mike Monty , Massimo Vanni , uncredited William Berger , and Clyde Anderson or Claudio Fragasso himself who often appeared as cameos and brief interventions. Special mention for the extremely baddie Russian played by Alex Vitale giving a very sadistic acting following the wake of oriental villain hoodlums as Harold Sakata of Goldfinger and Professor Tanaka of Missing in Action. Followed by a sequel in similar style titled "Trappola Diabolica or Strike Commando II" 1988 with Brent Huff as Michael Ransom , Mary Stavin and a miscast Richard Harris himself .

The motion picture in medium budget was regular but professionally directed by Bruno Mattei , assisted by his usual collaborator Claudio Fragasso who also wrote the script along with his wife Rossella Drudi . Deceased Bruno Mattei often used Vincent Dawn pseudonym , he made a large number of films in all kinds of genres as Vietnam wartime, terror , erotic , nunexploitation , Sword and Sandals , Spaghetti Western, Documentary , Mondo Cinema, Women in Prison or WIP , and some of them shot in Philippines as "Robowar" , "Strike Commando I" , "Strike Commando II" , "Double Target" and "Born to Fight" . Rating : 5/10, passable and acceptable , though very cheesy . The film will appeal to Italian Vietnam sub-genre aficionados.

While boasting production values somewhat higher than usual for Italian war movies shot in the Philippines (the modelwork is kept to a minimum, and there are plenty of big explosions), and there are plenty of genre it takes somewhat of an effort to get through the first half. It's slow, dumb, and pretty devoid of action for the most part.

However, things do brighten in the second half of the movie... though probably not in the way the filmmakers intended. Starting at the halfway mark, the movie suddenly starts being funny - *unintentionally* funny! Whether is incredibly inept enemy soldiers being easily gunned down... the hero's screaming and flapping his gun around... or how the movie incredibly and blatantly rips off scene after scene of "Rambo: First Blood Part 2", the movie keeps finding ways to make us laugh. It seems the filmmakers did realize how utterly stupid the movie was becoming, since the last few minutes are made to be *intentionally* funny.

Had the first half of the movie been as funny as the second, I would have recommended "Strike Commando" without hesitation. As it is now, it's up to you if you are willing to bear with that first half.

When you rent a cheap Italian action movie from the mid-eighties, you more or less (should) know what to expect. So, aside from the cut-rate cinematography, it's hard to complain about anything else in "Strike Commando", because it delivers what it promises: non-stop action and mayhem, and a high body count. If you're in the mood for mindless commando-type violence, this movie is better than many similar American flicks. (**)