Covert Action

Writer/producer/director/star J. Christian Ingvordsen created his next action hero, Frank White, with this film and decided White would be more of a talker. NOOOOOOOO! The trilogy kicked off with Cover Action (1988), which lives up to its title by featuring lots of Congressional testimony in its first half. White is being grilled by a Congressdude about the assassination of a Central American politician in the U. S. and some covert CIA missions White was one. Via flashbacks we learn about White becoming the protege of super sniper Rick Burns (Rick Washburn, returning from earlier films as a new character and armorer) and how their intertwining lives led to the assassination. Things pick up in the second half as White and Burns chase each other, and we get not one but two big shootouts in empty warehouses. It ends with White having his faith in the U. S. Government shaken, which leads to the sequel Shocktroop (1989) the following year.

Movies that are twenty years old but have earned only one comment deserve more attention. In this case we have the usual "jungle commando adventure" wedded to the "corrupt Washington politics" plot. While testifying before a Congressional subcommittee, ex-Marine Lt. Frank White tells of a covert CIA operation designed to eliminate a drug ring operating in Central America. Scenes of White sparring with a venal and ambitious Congressman alternate with flashback scenes set in Central America -- scenes filled with gunfire and explosions. This arrangement is an efficient way to get the story across but action fans, at whom this movie seems to be aimed, may find the Washington scenes a bit tedious. Perhaps in recognition of this the movie ends with a chase-stalk-and-shootout sequence that is set in Washington rather than Central America but the sequence's degree of action and suspense don't justify its length. A continuing problem is that much of the plot hinges on the friendship between Frank White and sniper Rick Burns but this friendship is poorly developed and never very convincing. (White is played by J. Christian Ingvordsen who also directed and co-wrote the movie. He qualifies as an adequate leading man and he looks good with his shirt off.)

Remember those "macho" men's magazines with covers showing bound and bare-chested men being threatened by a beautiful Nazi babe wielding a whip? Fans of those magazines will enjoy this movie's Central American section wherein five American soldiers are captured and imprisoned by armed men working for the drug cartel. There are scenes of these prisoners, stripped to the waist and gleaming with sweat, being marched along hallways and down stairs, hands cupped behind heads. Occasionally they're tied up, arms stretched above their heads, and splashed with water. This culminates in a torture scene in which one bound man is punched in the gut, another one, seated in a chair, is given an electric shock, and a third is approached by a torturer carrying a hot iron. Before the hot iron can be applied to the prisoner's bare torso with an appropriate sizzling sound, however, the torturer is distracted -- and the audience is disappointed! For the record, the almost-scorched man is played by Spike Ryan.

I have seen this movie maybe 12 or 13 years ago. It came back to my mind when I saw a TV documentary about snipers at the israelian army the other night. All I remember about this flick is: there is no emotion, no sympathy no nothing when you watch it. In Germany the title is "Hangmen 2" related to 1987's "Hangmen". Both titles are available on video only in Germany. You can imaging why. It's bad acting and you have to search the story by using enlarging glasses. But anyway: the atmosphere somehow is above the average of an ordinary low-budget action-flick. The music and the feeling of oppressiveness is something not many movies have. And: it's the best sniper-movie ever.