Megaforce

In 1982, you could not read a comic book without seeing the ad for Megaforce. It's the first hype I can truly remember, save for the similar ad strategy for 1977's Orca. As a ten-year-old chubby geek, I needed to know all about Ace Hunter and his crew of super soldiers.

I wondered, "As a small child living in a small town, could I truly be ready to join Megaforce?" The answer was no. I was too small for the bikes, too rotund for the jumpsuits. But it was a dream. A dream I have refused to give up on.

The Republic of Sardun is peaceful. Gamibia, a neighboring country, is not. So they send General Byrne-White (Edward Mulhare from TV's Knight Rider and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) and Major Zara (Persis Khambatta, Star Trek: The Motion Picture) to ask Megaforce for help. The conflict will bring their leader, Commander Ace Hunter (Barry Bostwick from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), into conflict with his former friend and now rival, Duke Guerrera (Henry Silva, Killer Kane from 1979's Buck Rodgers, Chained Heat, Fists of Steel, Amazon Women on the Moon).

That's alright, though. Megaforce has incredible motorcycles, dune buggies and a big RV. Things will all work out.

Zara decides to try out as Hunter falls in love with her. She passes, but he cannot allow her to join them in combat -- she'd throw off the rest of the guys. That's right -- an empowered woman success against the odds but can't make it to the team because these guys wear spandex and headbands and need to just be guys, alright? It was 1982. The glass ceiling for Megaforce was ankle level.

Megaforce attacks Gamibia and blows up the base, then have some trouble getting out of the country. Seems that all these tanks are in the way. No worries -- the boys all make multicolored smoke come out of their vehicles, which self-destruct and they leave on foot, except for Hunter, who flies his into the cargo plane. Even then, he gives Guerrera the thumbs up, which the bad guy returns. Again, this was 1982. America was back, baby, and if we wanted to blow up all the vehicles instead of saving them, no matter how great and unique they were, we were going to do it. Who are you to deny Ace Hunter? Does he come down on the corner and knock the dicks out of your mouth? Don't presume to tell this bandana-clad gentleman how to lead Megaforce.

Barry Bostwick was all in on this movie. And why not -- he had a three picture deal in case things picked up. His interviews at the time are so wonderful, like when he said that the Pentagon tried to stop the movie because of how close Megaforce was to covert CIA strike teams (one only wonders if they all had flags on their bikes and crazy collared dress uniforms, too). Or when he opined that the world needed a real-life Megaforce.

Megaforce came to us from Hal Needham, a former stuntman who went on to direct Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run, Stroker Ace and 80's BMX megafilm (seriously, it ruled the video stores of my teenage years) Rad. He even had his own toy -- the Hal Needham Western Movie Stunt Set! You don't even have to guess if I had it as a kid.

Barry Bostwick and Hal Needham weren't alone, though. There were other members of the team, like Dallas (Michael Beck from The Warriors and Xanadu), who has a Confederate flag on his uniform, because we didn't understand racism in 1982. Other team members have one name and are one note, like Ivan, Suki, Sixkiller, Anton and Lopez. All of their clothes were designed by Mattel, who saw big toy potential in the film, but only ended up making a playset and some Hot Wheels. My brother and I had them, even if he would not allow anyone else to play with his Megafighter dune buggy. There was even an Atari game!

That said -- the film flopped hard. It's been forgotten by nearly everyone, save the ridiculous folks like me that kiss their thumb and give people the "Megaforce salute."

In fact, two of those people were Matt Stone and Trey Parker. There is no way to watch their Team America: World Police without seeing echoes of Ace Hunter's hard work.

And the government itself got really interested. After the military refused to aid the production, they asked Needham for the plans for the Megaforce vehicles. He happily handed them over and claimed that Desert Storm's hardware came directly from this film.

I cannot stress how completely dumb this film is. No one is ever in danger. No one ever appears to be a real human being. Therefore, it is wonderful and I also recommend that you seek it out. Deeds not words!

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This is one cool movie. Words can not describe how great this movie is. Barry Bostwick is a bad ass in this flick. I wish I could get a gold jumpsuit myself. Someday I will buy it on DVD and watch all day long. If you see one movie in your life see this one, you will not regreat it.

I'll admit there is a lot of cheesey stuff in this movie. But how can you not like it? I like it as much as I did when I first saw it back in the '80s. Movies are for entertianment value, being over cricitcal and not just enjoying it for what it is, is a shame. This movie offers you cool stunts, comedy, in general good fun. So what if the missiles don't hit their intended targets? Or the fact that they fit all of those buggies, motorcycles on 2 C-130s? Heck half the movies today don't get it right 90% of the time. I just hope it will come out on DVD some day.

I remember this film, because its the first film I ever walked out of. And for this-then action film-obsessed 14-year old, for a film to be so utterly bad that he felt his lack of intelligence being insulted, well that was like a 2 year old telling his mother that the Teletubbies were stupid. I remember when I was first getting into movies, and I would keep a log of what films I saw, when I saw em, and what I rated em (I think I used a scale of 1-to-10), I recall this one getting my first ZERO. More recently I am pleased to find that when I ask others about the film that most people have never heard of it. A few months ago I saw it late night on cable and finally saw the film's ending, and I must say that is as that two year old would say, "stupid". Utterly, embarrassingly, mind-boggingly stupid.

Ok, I will admit the special effects are cheesy and the acting really isn't that great. However this movie has some good qualities I have come to love in action movies. A hero who's hair stays in place no matter what hell he's been through. An absent minded genius who makes neat toys. And how can we leave out the beautiful woman who catches our hero's eye?

This movie does have some nice things. I liked the dune buggies and motorcycles that change color to match the terrain. I liked that the hero, Ace, was best friends with the villain. I liked the crazy character played by Michael Beck, especially the goofy thing he did with the holographic mission planner. This movie has some high tech things that militaries use today. Including the dune buggies. They're used by Special Forces and Navy SEALs. The room where conversations are monitored is like today's Echelon Dictionary Project. This movie has some good things that foretell future military advancements. Not to mention that this movie is meant for kids and shouldn't be seen as an adult movie. There isn't any profanity in it and it's funny.

I must not be the only one who liked this movie back then. I remember all the lunch boxes and action figures this movie sold. People who say this movie are bad must not have seen it when they were kids.

Rayvyn