La force des sept

Hmmmm, a small town of peaceful farmers is taken over by bandits who force them to do what they want, and give them all of their food and supplies.

No, I am not talking about Seven Samuri, nor the western remake The Magnificent Seven. I am not even talking about the Disney remake A Bug's Life.

Except instead of 7, there are only 5 or 6 heros in this movie. And instead of Yul Brynner we get Roddie Piper. He does an OK job of acting, but the tired worn out script was so bad, nobody could have saved it.

I can only say that I bought the DVD for $3 on sale, and the movie was worth the $3. But I would not pay anything more for this thing.

Usually, these low budget affairs seek to cash in on a cinematic heavyweights popularity, here we have what could be considered the opposite. You could be forgiven for thinking that part of the production process of making 2010's The Expendables was watching 1997's The Bad Pack, given the similarities. Set in a small Texas border town, under attack by a local militia group, Mexican immigrants hire a band of mercenaries to protect them. Robert Davi and Roddy Piper provide the star names in what I found to be a very enjoyable low budget independent action movie, one which deserved more backing and perhaps even a franchise.

Might as well watch an episode of the A Team or Knight Rider, it looks so late 90s cheese action made for tv movie though it probably wasn't, think TBS on a Sunday afternoon type B movie. Roddy Piper did a fun job, Davi was his usual self, the Austrian guy I can't put a finger on, maybe he was in Beer Fest with the Super Trooper guys circa 2000s. It was a silly frivolous cheaply made quickie with chessy bad guys, a few familiar faces and the usual poor Immigrant folks who need help lol. Watch it for a laugh, I paid a $1 for it at a charity shop, worth about 50 cents of that but you can't beat cheese, it's no Tango and Cash, or Expendables or 7 Samurai but it is old school silly fun for 80s kids. Late night or Sun afternoon if nothing else is on. But 12 reviews says it all lol.

Albeit not a horrible film, it wasn't a good film either. A plethora of stereotypes (The cool leader, the insane guy, the ice-cold assassin chick, the happy-go-lucky guy, the introspective muscleman, the computer geek) are paraded out and put through a typical A-Team adventure involving some really badly acted white supremist survivalists who are terrorizing a Tex-Mex boarder town. This is the type of screenplay one knocks out during a slow television night.

THE BAD PACK is a 1997 action Thriller with a B-movie ensemble cast.

This fun action flick is a perfect example of the time period, the 90's straight to video market, this is a pure genre film that's mostly Action orientated but with cool hero characters, i love the look & feel to this 90's flick, i know that 90's tone/ look & feel including the cheesy music but it all feels Nostalgic & comforting, a little relic gem from a more simpler time "The 90's" that feels so far away now & i miss it!!!

With no over the top c.g.i of today & without a mega budget this little Action film is easy watching & simple story-telling just how they made 'em back then.

A team of skilled Mercenaries are hired to protect a small Texas town from an evil racist militia. Simple story with cool characters. We get some shots of sunny Los Angeles & then the story takes place in a sunny & dusty little Texas town for the rest of the movie, nothing spectacular on the cinematography side but standard to fine stuff but it does have a very cool music score.

The Bad Pack is such an easy-watching piece of action entertainment, it follows a straightforward story of a few good people standing up to even more bad people. It's good vs evil packed into a low-budget B-movie with some humour & fun action. Its nothing amazing but it's just Awesome & i love it. The film probably could've done with more action but i get that the budget was tiny so what we got is good enough for me & also i wish Davi had a bigger fight sequence with the leader of the Militia as his showdown with him was pretty underwhelming & needed more action. But hey, i enjoy this little Action film & the team of characters are very likeable.

This deserves much more credit as "Stallone" obviously copied this for his first "Expendables" it's so obvious from the rag tag team of mercenaries & the plane they use right down to fighting for a small unfortunate town against an evil militia/dictator, i loved "The Expendables films" that's a great Trilogy right there but this movie was what sparked the idea for Stallone but i gotta say Robert Davi is Awesome as the leader of his team.

Davi's character is so cool, i would have loved a sequel to get to spend more time with McQue, from that cool moment we see him eating a sandwich during a robbery at his local Diner, he's so calm & cool until he strikes & beats the robbers up very quickly, it's such a fun way to introduce this cool tough hero!!!

Robert Davi is a great actor, he's just always underrated & underused these days but during the 90s he was constantly turning up in straight to video action Thriller films, I'm a big Davi fan & love him in B-movie films such as this The Bad Pack, Center of the Web, Night Trap, Peacemaker, Maniac Cop 2&3, The Zone & other's. My top 3 Robert Davi films would be: The Bad Pack, Under Surveillance & Maniac Cop 3.

He is a great B-movie action lead & always has a Cool & Calm presence on screen, he makes a good rugged lead similar to the likes of Tom Atkins & Robert Forster & here he plays tough mercenary McQue, who gets a team of mercenary types for a dangerous mission to take out a militia that's terrorizing the Mexicans of a small Texas border town, this is the first true "Expendables" & in this rag tag team we get the Awesome Roddy Piper (They Live) who gives a funny & tough performance & you can see he's enjoying it!!! Roddy was always great in these straight to video action films, he made a load of fun B-movies in his time & it's always nice to see his face again, RIP Roddy.

Roddy made some B-movie gems such as Tough & Deadly, Back in Action, Sci-Fighter & Jungleground.

There's also a beautiful but extremely deadly Assassin Remi Sykes played by Shawn Huff, it's a cool & fun role.

We've also the big beefcake "Arnie" type Ralf Moeller (Cyborg, Universal Soldier, Alone in the Dark 2) who plays Kurt Mayer he's the big muscles guy of the group & a great fighter, he's cool, tough & fits right in.

Movie villain favourite Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2, Innerspace, Commando) has a small role as Biker bad guy, it's cool that he pops up in this fun flick.

There's the brains,computer type guy, Larry. B. Scott who plays Jeremy Britt who helps with all the technical stuff & gets the guys their plane, he's funny & geeky.

Then there's the crazy one Hoffman played by Patrick Dollaghan, he's on the edge crazy & makes it feel like "The A-Team" when he comes into it.

There's lots of great Action & fun humour, i love the team & the dusty 90s cinematography, a low-budget gem if ever there was one, my type of "Cult Classic" & just a good old fashioned action flick of good taking a stand against evil, but There's such a fun vibe to it all that you sit & enjoy it as pure entertainment.

The Bad Pack is just great old school fun, it's a very low-budget production & it's a pure 90s B-movie that's totally entertaining & alot better than big budget cinema released films!!!

I think i enjoyed this better than "Stallone's Expendables" now i know this isn't a fantastic film & it's very rough around the edges & made on what looks like a very small budget that restrained it from doing alot more "Big Action" sequences as i noticed we never got to see the militia's full potential, we never got to see the "hundred" or more militia army or a full on attack on the town, it all was wrapped up abit too quickly & neatly in the typical "Big warehouse" bad guy base & it did end then quickly as i thought that was just a little battle before the big daytime town invasion but it never happened!!! Still like I've said considering it's tiny budget & small scale it's still one fun little action film. The Bad Pack has vibes of the A-Team & an enjoyable little cast with everyone seemingly having fun.

I enjoy these types of films i love the cheesy 90s music & i think Robert Davi is Awesome & doesn't have that big Ego that Stallone has so he's more enjoyable to watch, he's a great lead & this is his one of his best roles in my opinion. Davi doesn't usually get a great lead role so here is his main action hero "leading man" role & he nails it!!!

DAVI was that rough & tough gritty hero but without being a buffed up pretty boy, i also always remember seeing The Bad Pack cover at Blockbuster video, i have big Nostalgia for this flick & Davi. I would've loved to have seen this cool team again in another movie (maybe up against a Predator!!! My fantasy) because they're a good bunch.

Also Robert Rodriguez obviously also copied this film in many ways or in similar ways for his "Machete" film, i noticed alot of similar bits.