Strike Commando

This is an exploitative rip-off of the big budgeted and succesful mega-action thriller Rambo . Here Reb Brown stars as Michael Ransom a hunk soldier who takes on enemies to rescue prisoners or other trapped platoons . At a risked mission he meets a besieged group of local natives led by a French : Allan Collins . When things go wrong , Ransom seeks vengeance against a nasty Russian officer : Alex Vitale who is supporting the Nam guerrilla .

Cheap and exploitative movie taking parts here and there of classics as the expensive "Rambo" by George Pan Cosmatos with Sylvester Stallone and "Missing in action" by Joseph Zito with Chuck Norris . This Strike Commando 1986 packs thrills , chills , grisly tortures , shootouts , jungle outdoors filmed in Philippines Islands , lots of explosion and catching musical score composed by means of synthesizer by Luigi Ceccarelli . In the movie shows up some secondaries, ordinary in B-Italian fims , and most of them playing in Bruno Mattei films, such as : the prolific Luciano Pigozzi or Allan Collins nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre , Christopher Connelli , Mike Monty , Massimo Vanni , uncredited William Berger , and Clyde Anderson or Claudio Fragasso himself who often appeared as cameos and brief interventions. Special mention for the extremely baddie Russian played by Alex Vitale giving a very sadistic acting following the wake of oriental villain hoodlums as Harold Sakata of Goldfinger and Professor Tanaka of Missing in Action. Followed by a sequel in similar style titled "Trappola Diabolica or Strike Commando II" 1988 with Brent Huff as Michael Ransom , Mary Stavin and a miscast Richard Harris himself .

The motion picture in medium budget was regular but professionally directed by Bruno Mattei , assisted by his usual collaborator Claudio Fragasso who also wrote the script along with his wife Rossella Drudi . Deceased Bruno Mattei often used Vincent Dawn pseudonym , he made a large number of films in all kinds of genres as Vietnam wartime, terror , erotic , nunexploitation , Sword and Sandals , Spaghetti Western, Documentary , Mondo Cinema, Women in Prison or WIP , and some of them shot in Philippines as "Robowar" , "Strike Commando I" , "Strike Commando II" , "Double Target" and "Born to Fight" . Rating : 5/10, passable and acceptable , though very cheesy . The film will appeal to Italian Vietnam sub-genre aficionados.

Strike Commando was it seems one of Bruno Mattei's most successful films of the 80's, bringing in enough cash for an further assortment of action trash in the latter half of that decade, including a sequel. 'Tis easy to see why it was such a success, being swift paced, simple minded and action packed. Also the main characters name is Mike Ransom, which makes it immediately a more awesome film than any which doesn't have a main character called Mike Ransom. The plot has Ransom and his men taking down a Vietcong munitions store, only to run across an imperilled village which Ransom vows to return and liberate. He does return but rather fails on the liberation front, as villains have offed the lot. And so like any red blooded soldier would do in the face of atrocity and impossible odds, Ransom sets off for some vengeance time... Apparently Strike Commando is in large part a rip off of Rambo 2. This wouldn't surprise me in the least as a good half or more of Mattei's filmography consists of ripping of other peoples work, but I can't say for certain as I've never seen Rambo 2. Frankly after Strike Commando I have little intention of even bothering, as rather than a lightweight like Stallone Strike Commando has Reb Brown, a man so irrefutably badass that he makes Stallone look like your elderly maiden aunt who has a steel pin in her hip from the time she fell over while gardening. Not only that but he brings a tragic grace to emotional scenes worthy of a five tissue weepie, especially when telling a dying child about Disneyland (where apparently popcorn grows on trees). Yep, he's an all round hero, crack shot, knife flinging maestro, dead on with a crossbow and handy with fists and feet, all this and still man enough to show his emotions. Well matched is the main villain of the piece, Jakoda (or Jaaakodaaah!!!!), played by Alex Vitale, a big brawny slimeball played by Alex Vitale who enjoys killing and torture but even worse makes fun of the hero by calling him Americanski (a sure sign of utter villainy is someone who makes light of God's one nation!). And the various other baddies are fun too, including a turn from trash frequent flier Jim Gaines. Altogether Strike Commando is the epitome of a pig headed good time. Things get blown up, countless goons are shot or knifed and downtime is minimal. The action is even reasonably well staged, at least as good as any mid tier American action trash from the same era. I wouldn't in the world recommend this to anyone who looks to cinema for insight and the higher qualities of man and art, but trash hounds will almost certainly get their kicks. 7/10.

While boasting production values somewhat higher than usual for Italian war movies shot in the Philippines (the modelwork is kept to a minimum, and there are plenty of big explosions), and there are plenty of genre it takes somewhat of an effort to get through the first half. It's slow, dumb, and pretty devoid of action for the most part.

However, things do brighten in the second half of the movie... though probably not in the way the filmmakers intended. Starting at the halfway mark, the movie suddenly starts being funny - *unintentionally* funny! Whether is incredibly inept enemy soldiers being easily gunned down... the hero's screaming and flapping his gun around... or how the movie incredibly and blatantly rips off scene after scene of "Rambo: First Blood Part 2", the movie keeps finding ways to make us laugh. It seems the filmmakers did realize how utterly stupid the movie was becoming, since the last few minutes are made to be *intentionally* funny.

Had the first half of the movie been as funny as the second, I would have recommended "Strike Commando" without hesitation. As it is now, it's up to you if you are willing to bear with that first half.

When you rent a cheap Italian action movie from the mid-eighties, you more or less (should) know what to expect. So, aside from the cut-rate cinematography, it's hard to complain about anything else in "Strike Commando", because it delivers what it promises: non-stop action and mayhem, and a high body count. If you're in the mood for mindless commando-type violence, this movie is better than many similar American flicks. (**)

Strike Commando (1987)

* (out of 4)

Reb Brown plays a Green Beret in Vietnam who is on a secret mission but gets screwed over by his team. Pretty soon he finds himself in a POW camp but he breaks free and then heads out to destroy a campy villain and an entire Army.

STRIKE COMMANDO was directed by the one and only Bruno Mattei and that should tell you all you need to know. If you're familiar with Mattei then you know he was basically a director-for-hire who would patch up movies or rip them off and form his own movies. Very few of them were any good but hte majority of them did fit into the "so bad they're good" category and that's pretty much where this movie is.

There's no question that the performances are horrid, the dubbing awful and the direction is laughable at times. The editing is even worse and it's really hard to understand what exactly is going on. The action scenes are poorly stages and at times you have to wonder who is shooting at who. The budget was obviously very low and this is apparently by the way people just drop dead without being shot. Yes, there are no bullet holes, blood or anything else.

This film was obviously an attempt to rip-off RAMBO. In pure Italian cinema terms, this is an awful film on so many levels but at the same time there's a certain charm to the badness. If you're a fan of these Italian war pictures then this here is pretty darn awful from start to finish but is that what fans want?