Escuadrón

One look at the VHS box art and potential viewers should recognize what's what when it comes to Counterforce. No A-list actors, no pretentious title, no budget, just pure B-movie fun. Sure, the film lacks polish and the acting is stiff, but it makes up for it in heart. This is like old school G.I. Joe where the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, with nary a shade of gray in sight. Jorge (George) Rivero, who co-starred with John Wayne in Rio Lobo, was sort of Mexico's Steve Reeves, not many Mexican actors at the time were in his kind of physical shape (the gym scene where the entire Counterforce is pumping iron is priceless). His English is quite good and his chiseled features made him a natural to star as the leader of Counterforce. Hugo Stiglitz stars as the villain here and he also appeared in Mexican cinema, most notably in a Jaws ripoff titled "Tintorera". Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Vigilante) again plays a terrorist type as he did 2 years earlier in Chuck Norris' Delta Force. Action classic? Of course not. Silly fun? Absolutely.

The credible, pyrotechnical director of the grossly undervalued 'Killing Man' (1984) is once again reunited with dynamic, muscular action man, Jorge Rivero, the most visually stimulating member of covert black ops outfit 'Counterforce', alongside notable Cult movie icons, Isaac 'Truck Turner' Hayes, Louis 'Swamp Thing' Jourdan, George 'Everything' Kennedy, Andrew 'Brood' Stevens, Hugo' City of The walking Dead' Stiglitz and the estimable character actor, Robert 'Vigilante' Forster as the dastardly dictator sowing the seeds of discontent in North Africa now that his honourable, freedom campaigning rival Kassar (Louis Jourdan) is reluctantly in exile.

As pressures continue to escalate in North Africa, the people oppressed by ceaselessly death dealing dictator and a failed assassination attempt increasing the volatile tensions, as the heavily armed, montage-trained Counterforce are tasked with their inevitably incendiary mission to protect freedom fighter Kassar and his family from the savagely scheming despot, Forster, who proves himself to be one especially tenacious S. O. B, abusing his power for means nefarious to assassinate Kassar, thereby putting Counterforce's considerably awesome talents to the test! Loma's boisterous, ceaselessly locomotive 80s B-actioner entertainingly delivers an uncommonly zesty barrage of noisome gun play, audacious vehicular carnage, and a righteous overload of entertainingly explosive, Boy's Own, macho mayhem!

In lesser hands 'Counterforce' could well have been an altogether flaccid, low grade 'Delta Force' knock off, but, happily, the capable, no nonsense director is only too aware what the beery demographic for such unrepentantly formulaic fare expects to see! Plentiful explosions, frantically squib-heavy gun battles, high tension escapes, a communally sweaty homoerotic flexing montage, excessively 'bro-dacious' B-Movie banter, and cartoon evil, freedom-baiting terrorist skells getting it royally in the ear, and, rewardingly, ace director, José Antonio de la Loma generously provides uproariously escapist retrograde entertainment with his galloppingly Gung ho, hardwired-to-thrill, Alpha Bros save the world shoot 'em up, 'Counterforce'.

The B-Movie icing on this scrumptiously calamitous celluloid confection, the 'Bicing' if I might be so precious, is the extraordinarily vivid, heart-thumpingly magnificent score by master composer, Joel Goldsmith, the film being additionally blessed by one of the more memorable performances by Euro-cult boss, Hugo Stiglitz since his memorable turn in 'Cemetery of Terror'; with his glacial hit man 'The Blond' even sporting a gnarly-looking Iron Maiden Powerslave T-shirt. Right on!

This one sets up the plot rather easily with some US Intelligence commanders watching TV footage of a Arab tyrant (Robert Forster) as he rallies against the "Mad Cowboy in the White House":

Intelligence Commander #1: "We need to get that bastard."

Intelligence Commander #2: "How?"

Intelligence Commander #1: "I don't care."

That is all the set up you get, but what can you expect from a film where the villain is never given a name and merely billed as "The Dictator"? So they turn to Colby (George Kennedy), who gets his Counterforce team - who even have outfits with their own logo on them - on the job to protect Kassar (Louis Jourdan), the democratically elected President of this fictitious country. Counterforce consists of leader Harris (Jorge Rivero, billed as George Rivero), muscle Ballard (Isaac Hayes), zen karate guy Nash (Andrew Stevens) and rookie Sutherland (Kevin Bernhardt). Gee, can you guess which member of the team will be killed in action?

This is basically a low-rent DELTA FORCE knockoff, but it is not without its charms. The film is basically just two extended action scenes (protecting Kassar and saving his kidnapped wife and son) but it moves pretty fast and is exciting enough. The principals are all fine but Kennedy and Forster - who is obviously supposed to look like Gaddafi - get little screen time. The best character is a master of disguise hit-man played by a dubbed Hugo Stiglitz. I laughed when he disrobed in the elevator and was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt underneath his suit. The film ends with The Dictator getting away and sets up a COUNTERFORCE II, but that never happened for whatever reason. I like to think it was because Andrew Stevens discovered the softcore thriller genre and the filmmakers just felt it wouldn't be the same with a new team.

I had this VHS tape in my possession for years (where I got it, how, I don't remember, probably a convention for a buck if that) and didn't think to watch it till now as as I clear some out. I put it on and... This is not what I typically watch - obscure/probably better-forgotten practically DTV made-off-foreign-tax-credit action junk that would later be "homage" for Expendables (but before that was justly parodied in Hot Shots Part Deux to a certain unintentional extent). What you need to know about this is that this is overloaded with would-be political commentary regarding who can or can't be a dictator or make martial law or who commits the assassinations for what cause etc etc...

But really, this is most concerned with Isaac Hayes getting to rhyme a lot of his dialog (I know I heard a "hill" rhyme with "kill" at one point), and that the stuntmen who keep falling off balconies - seriously theres like thirty of them in this frickin thing - can have a path to fall comfortably when they do. Oh, and Robert Foerster plays a Middle Eastern Dictator, which just made me conflicted because I know reasonably this shouldn't be and why didn't they just get an Arab actor or someone of that descent... Yet he's also Robert Forster and can't help but be competent and intense and interesting in what he does. This movie is Grade-A as to why Tarantino did Forster a true service giving his career a blood donation (Hayes too being in this is just bizarre, but it get it I guess, paycheck's what it is).

I suppose the main point I want to make with Counterforce is this isn't a particularly engrossing movie by any stretch, despite it being full of bodies hitting the proverbial floor, but the problem is largely of my own making: watching this friends could at least bring some ok some lively commentary, and that can't happen right now during a statewide shutdown. I can only make so many comments by myself before I overdo the Ian Malcolm thing of "And now Im talking to myself that-that's chaos theory."

If you truly are into seeking out all of the Competent but Largely Dull Except when theyre Occasionally Schlock Action Thrillers That Feature Some Day-For-Night footage Co-Starring Hugo Stiglitz (speaking again of QT), then I get it. Hell, I even had a couple laughs at, say, the dummy on tbe wheelchair in free-fall off a building.... Otherwise, find something else to do with your life, please.

Well first off I must say what a great assembled cast of B-Movie stars appear in this! We have Jorge Rivero, Issac Hayes, George Kennedy, Louis Jordan and Robert Forster to name but a few!

Rivero appears here as leader of the eponymous Counterforce, a sort of crack special unit designated to sort out trouble wherever in the world it may occur and under whatever terrain/conditions present. Strangely the group comprises only four members (!) but these are no ordinary soldiers, oh no, these guys are apparently the best of the best in their specialist fields.

The plot concerns our macho men given the assignment to protect an exiled leader from a fanatical Islamic dictator (Robert Forster in a decidedly odd bit of casting!) The various attempts on the exiled leaders life provide the basis for the bulk of the action sequences throughout the film, although it has to be said that there simply aren't enough of these said scenes present to satisfy the average action junkie. Added to this, even when the action sequences do take place, the said action is rarely handled with much panache by the director here. In fact even the supposed action soaked finale the viewer will no doubt be hoping for is something of a disappointment.

However, even having said the above, the film actually remains very watchable, not least of all because of the highly likable heroes. I actually found the film and especially the protagonists relationships with one another to be pleasantly reminiscent of that classic eighties show The A-Team. In fact everyone in the team seems to be the best of buddies and even during the heat of fire fights whilst dodging bullets, these guys are still cracking witty one liners at one another accompanied by wry smiles! Not just the relationships either, the whole film itself exudes that curiously pleasant 'feel good' 80's TV charm. Such an innocent action movie style is so refreshing to watch when viewed against some of the deadly serious, pretentious and overblown Hollywood action output of late.

For fans of 1980's nostalgia ala The A-Team, Knightrider etc I'd highly recommend this enjoyable yarn. Fans of super high octane action however, will probably find this to be underwhelming stuff and would be best advised to skip it.