Syndicate Smasher

Back again blog fans.   No sooner did I finish up Green Lantern, I got a request to view an existing film that wouldn't mind a little hype and input.   I think I can swing that.  So it would appear I am going to be partaking in a 80's homage to action with stars Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop, Maniac Cop 2, Hundra,I, The Jury, Armed Response and Samurai Cop 2) and character actor Mel Novak (Game of Death, An Eye for An Eye, Sword of Heaven, Moonbase, Vampire Assassin, Big Guns and Nemesis 5: The New Model). Novak gives good villain in the styles of Henry Silva,so you are always in for a decent monologue but I think he's on the side of the Angels this time.

Action and Horror producer/director BennyTjandra (The LBC: Smile Now, Cry Later, Blonde Squad, Lovesick 2 and Nation's Fire) takes the reins with our latest movie and we will see what he can do with them. This is Syndicate Smasher.

Who needs Rambo? We got Mel.

First off, I love this title. It's a bit of a throwback to the 1930's Columbia Pictures serials similar to Spy Smasher so I'm on board. Our story unfolds in Siberia (Looks a tad bit like Bronson Park and the existing cave area but who am I to kibitz?) as an elite squad of mercs are moving in on their target.   Later they take Walmart. (Is joke, comrade. Is being funny) Sporting 50 Barett sniper rifles, the convoy they have in sight could be taken down before they so much as regroup and defend.

Jack Samson's (Jon Miguel of Rise of the Zombies, Parts of Disease, Blonde Squad and Extraction:Genesis) position is compromised when his headstrong partner opens up with her sniper rifle and bodies start stacking like cord wood and all for a 100 large. 100 grand is a nice figure but it's at least 50 to 2 and those odds sound worse than betting all on black in Atlantic City.

Jack's partner Dasha (Olya Lvova of Blonde Squad, PhoenixCatcher84 and Curse of Sleeping Beauty) proceeds to smoke these commandos all in the first two minutes we got folks dropping like flies. Jumping the gun? Oh just a touch. Jack and Dasha are looking down the barrels of quite a few AKs when the rest of their team proceeds to go sick house on that unit. Mel Novak's character Milan opens up with a .50 Browning swivel mounted heavy machine gun (yes I am a gun nut, get over it) and in true Rambo style, reduces these guys to lumpy gravy. Stick from Game of Death is back, baby and got a big boomstick.

Dara (David Prak of Pirates of the Caribbean, Inherient Vice, The Rundown and No Escape) gunning down and mulching folk with LAW rockets. The rest of the team efforts mop up.

This Hardee's shake is horrible!

 Man, those Serbian commandos shot worse than storm troopers and Cobra combined. Also FYI in your next lives, don't hide behind blades of grass to avoid LAW rockets.

That whole bit of gunning down carnage goes on for almost 7 minutes. I know it's difficult to hit a moving target but again I am harping on these commandos. Their training was crap.

Our team makes it back stateside and then it gets a little crazy. Jack wants the team to do a little wet work in their backyard which let's face it, is dicey at best. Feds, cops and military can be up their collective asses quickly and violently like a drunken proctologist with poor depth perception.

A contract job worth $300,000 for taking out one man that is clearly off. No family to speak of, a house that was ceased by the city and he's been hiding out there for four months. Bells best be ringing and Admiral Ackbar is there to tell you it's a trap.

Contractee squeezes off his fair share of rounds managing to not get hit or hit the crew, Milan triple taps him, two to the heart, one to the head and they roll. Not sure if anyone bothered to collect shells or not.

Off to the courthouse where reputed "businessman Dippolito (Nic D'Avirro of Renegade, Baywatch, Baywatch Nights, Desert Son, Rounding Home and Track of Saints) is cleared of charges impending from an investigation. A Italian mob boss? Outrageous. Clearly an import/export business...that may or may not move smack around. A lucky break seeing the only prime witness was greased mere hours ago.

Enter Detective Carol Driscoll (Laurene Landon) as she points out how easily that could have been orchestrated on Dippolito's behest and that she will nail his ass to the wall.

He's got a rocket for your sprocket. Hey Hey! Ho Ho!

Milan's team is getting antsy as suddenly half up front isn't happening. Shocking that again the Russian mob doesn't care. You'd think four man hit squad would be folks you wouldn't want on your bad side. I mean let's face it, a little surveillance, watch their habits for a couple of weeks and boom. They could cripple their operations pretty effortlessly. Again now we have Italians and Russian mobs. Oh this can only get worse.

The crew meets up with some low ranking Yakuza for a smack deal and these guys are old school. No chem test just a taste test. You can lose your minions that way, fellas.

Driscoll hell bent on getting Dippolito and enter one Detective Beattie (character actor Joe Estevez of Soultaker, Werewolf, Roller Gator, Lethal Seduction, Hell Asylum and Samurai Cop 2) dealing with three very dead Japanese Nationalists with links to drug trafficking and it's all coming up Dippolito.

With our fierce foursome dodging the heat, the crooks and probably the Marines next, it's looking pretty grim.

Let me just say this, if gun fight violence and blood spraying every direction is your bag, you have found your film. We have a solid story, decent pacing, scenarios I didn't predict and trust me I have seen me some tropes but I had some genuine surprises in this film. Not nearly the exposition dump you expect from a smaller budget films, some choice camera angles and a sturdy cast.

Gun play worthy of a James Glickenhaus and/or John Woo flick. Yeah, envision The Exterminator meets The Killers.

FYI, I loved Thomas J. Churchill in this. Two and a half kilos dropped in his club and responded exactly like I would have. Plenty of WTF moments and getting pissed. I has laughing so hard.

Huh, I deal with valet parking the same way.  Double tap.