Bruno Mattei Week: Strike Commando

Hey there folks. Sorry the delay the last two days. Personal issues including having to get a new cell thanks to my graceful dropping of the previous one. With that in mind we continue Bruno Mattei Week with an incursion to Vietnam but apparently this is not part of the war bringing the ever shouty, eye bulging Reb Brown as lead role gunning men down, driving knives into their bellies and all around being a terrifying bad ass. Will this be a rip-off of anything previously existing? This is Strike Commando.

Get off my roof, squirrels!!!!

Sgt. Ransom (Reb Brown of Captain America II: Death Too Soon, Yor, Hunter from the Future, Uncommon Valor, Howling II:... Your Sister Is a Werewolf, Space Mutiny, Cage and Cage II) leads his valant men into a weapons depot in Vietnam, prepping C-4 around the base to be obilivinized I guess. His superiors are keeping an eye on the team's progress as his CO, Colonel Radek (Christopher Connelly of Gunsmoke, Paper Moon, Police Story, Airwolf, Jungle Raiders and Foxtrap) is getting antsy about the time they are pain painstakingly taking sneaking behind enemy lines, avoiding barb wire, tripwires, mines and enemy patrols. Guess Radek expected everyone to go all Solid Snake, have their cardboard box handy and just ease in and out of the location.

Hey Radek, why don't you sprint across the open minefield then? Jerk. The bombs are laid and everyone is making their way out when one of Ransom's commandos is caught and killed by a roaming guard. Should have checked his proximity detector... which he didn't have. The alarm goes off and Radek jumps the gun demanding the bombs prematurely detonate (A constant complaint he receives from his wife) while Ransom's team are still in the blast zone. Another one of the team gets blasted as everyone hauls butt and Ransom is tossed in the river.

So after this gets blown up, let's get a beer.

Found in the river by a village boy, Ransom is nursed back to health at an alarming rate. Seriously, what is in the local herbs because he is fully healed in no time. Psst Ransom, score me some of that. He agrees to lead the villagers out of harm's way when it is discovered there is a Soviet attachment working with the Vietcong. The helicopter swoops in and Radek tells the pilot to leave Ransom because the LZ (landing zone for civvies) is too hot.

Cut off from rescue, one of Ransom's majors manages to calm him down long enough for Ransom to sneak back in and take photos of the Soviets for proof they are operating out here. Far too long he is spotted and captured. The Soviets led by a fella name of Jakoda (Alex Vitale of Hands of Steel, Urban Warriors, Strike Commando, Robot Jox and Beyond the Door III) torture Ransom with electrocution, beating him, forcing him to do village chores and barbaque his back with a blow torch. Any of this sound vaguely familiar? *cough* Stallone movie

Months go by and finally the Soviets give Ransom a chance to spare his life if he speaks out against his government and points out how they left him to die while being total cowards blah blah and so on. Ransom gambles with his life and mops the floor with the soldier, scoops up Jakoda's girlfriend and tries to make it out with his life. Will he succeed in escaping? Will he demand vengeance on Radek? Is there a horrible paying ransom pun in there?

Okay now just a few comments on the movie. While not brilliant or original, this is a hard hitting, fast paced action film that provides entertainment for those wanting bullets whizzing through the air, body count rack-up and a lot of violence.

That being said, it is easy enough to see where most of the inspiration (RIP-OFFFFFF.....) came from as it is very close to Rambo: First Blood Part II overall but it also has a lot of fight sequences that are just too exact to that of the Missing in Action flick with Chuck Norris and I swear Jakoda is nothing more than a hybrid of Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago from Rocky IV and Lt. Nikolai Rachenko from Red Scorpion. Film theft aside, I was actually having fun with the movie in spite of the heartfelt speech Ransom goes on about Disneyland rides, junk food and candy to a dying boy that has probably NEVER heard of Mickey Mouse. To Reb's credit he looked like this is the kind of thing he would tell an actual dying boy.

Scorpions in my pants!!!!