Commando terreur

An odd concept for a movie: in Kokomo, Indiana, a group of Libyan terrorists raise hell in the town. What follows is a lengthy car chase (clocking in at almost 30 minutes) involving the entire sheriff's department (led by Chuck Connors of all people). A slew of police cars are demolished, splashed, blown up, etc. Unfortunately, the movie then transitions to a low-rent version of The Breakfast Club (which sets up the rest of the plot) where we follow a group of misfit students who are under the watchful eye of a hateful teacher and they must band together when the terrorists hold them hostage. To be honest, the oddball plot doesn't really work and even with the great Ken Foree in a supporting role as Connors' loyal deputy, the movie still can't get up off the ground.

I recently watched Terror Squad (1987) on Tubi. The storyline follows terrorists seeking revenge against the US, going on a killing spree, and then hiding out in a school. Local authorities strive to bring down the terrorists and save the children.

Directed by Peter Maris (Land of Doom), the film stars Chuck Connors (Tourist Trap), Kavi Raz (Pet Sematary), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), and Marco Kyris (Con Air).

This is a movie with a horrible concept and poor execution. The fear of terrorists was the premise, but the terrorists' points, method of communicating their stance, and overall objective were painful. Both the acting and writing for the villains were poor. While there were a few good shootouts and corpses, even those felt cheaply executed. This has a strong '80s feel in terms of characters, dialogue, and circumstances, with a few '70s-style car chase scenes sprinkled in. The finale was laughably bad, both the background music and overall conclusion were dreadful.

Overall, there's absolutely nothing to see here. I would score this a 2/10 and recommend skipping it.

This is a tremendously bad thriller from the late 80s, and the dating shows. The bad guys are cartoon caricatures of Libyans. They cross the US-Canadian border into Indiana (think about it) and immediately fail to blow up a nuclear reactor in Kokomo. What follows is the longest sustained car chase I know of (35 minutes), with old cars, abandoned factories, and other unwanted props getting blown to hell with rocket launchers. Finally, they take over a high school during detention hours (described by one terrorist as a "steenky place!"). It's "Breakfast Club" meets "Die Hard" then, as jocks and nerds band together to defeat the baddies. Meanwhile, the police and SWAT teams led by Chuck Conners surround the school and proceed to do nothing, even when the terrorists' numbers are reduced to two and clear headshots present themselves repeatedly. Finally, it's a mad dash for freedom as the terrorists and their pretty-girl hostage board a Ford Bluebird school bus and head for the airport. But is it a big Bluebird after all? The final set of exciting stunts wouldn't work with a full-size bus, so it miraculously (and VERY clearly) transforms into a Hoekstra minibus halfway through the chase.

I've said enough -- this is an overlooked classic.

I remember catching this on some nondescript cable channel not long after it was made. Wasn't really looking for this movie, or anything in particular, and this caught me and my friends by surprise with its low budget ridiculousness and awesome badness. (You can tell it's low budget because they destroy the same 1971 Pontiac Le Mans about three times: once by crashing it, once by shooting it, then crashing it, and once by firing a rocket at it and blowing it up.)

First of all, the premise at its core is ridiculous. To wit, bad guy terrorists attack Indiana by sneaking over the Canadian border. Say what? And they pass by juicier targets to attack East Dirt, Indiana?

The endless chase scene is in fact a sight to behold. I do remember, some 20 years later, the scene after the chase is over, where the stone-faced Chuck Connors gets out of his police car, surveying the landscape of destruction that has just been wrought, and muttering with all the gravitas he can possibly muster, "Dear Jesus."

It seems like everybody and his uncle thought they could make an action movie in the Eighties, and this movie is the proof. Just get a few generic Arab terrorists (what country are they from? Who cares! They're dirty, and evil and unshaven! That's all the matters!), some blank ammunition, several tons of explosives, and a number of old sedans painted to look like police cars that can be wrecked/crashed/raced/chased/blown up. I guess they couldn't throw the police cars down the side of mountain while exploding, in a classic movie gambit, because they were in Indiana where the topography was completely flat.

The fact that they throw the classroom full of stereotyped high school students into the mix, in an effort to mix The Breakfast Club and Red Dawn together with the usual action movie shenanigans and explosions that makes this film oh so sublimely, transcendently BAD! Plus the fact they disappear for like HALF AN HOUR of the movie for the longest chase scene this side of the original Gone in Sixty Seconds, where we are treated to the destruction of the economically depressed downtown of Kokomo, Indiana (but my question is, how can you tell? It's like the old joke: terrorists attacked downtown Kokomo, Indiana today, causing 10 million dollars of improvements).

This may not be The Best Worst Movie, but it's getting close. The makers of Troll 2, acclaimed as probably the most sublime Badfilm of the 1990's, at least had an excuse: they couldn't speak English! What's the problem with the people who made this movie? They weren't aware that Indiana is not on the Canadian border? They had no problem with showing the good guy cop running over the corpse of a dead old man? They had to alternate comic relief with gratuitous violence (town drunk stumbling along downtown street avoids getting shot, then guy in phone booth gets his brains splattered all over the glass a second later).

Yes, this is prime Badfilm. Recommended to all Mystery Science Theater 3000 devotees. I've gotta get a VHS of this sucker! Or, check on the internet, you might just find a copy of it on there somewhere.

For a low-budget regional production, they certainly managed to do a lot, particularly the endless action scene in the middle of the movie where an unbelievable amount of carnage is enacted. (Though the sluggish pacing at times makes the scene come across as too long, unfortunately.) The premise - terrorists in Indiana - is a hoot, and it helps to partially counteract the slow pacing, thin characters, and questionable writing at times. And there's a big laugh from how the school bus at the end of the movie keeps changing sizes! Not a great movie, but you can't help but admire what the filmmakers accomplished for so little. May very well have inspired the Dolph Lundgren movie DETENTION.