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Never one to ignore a trend, Italian director Umberto Lenzi has a crack at the jungle warfare/action genre as popularised by US hits like Rambo, Commando and Missing In Action, giving us this cheap and cheesy piece of instantly forgettable nonsense about a team of hard-as-nails mercenaries hired by a mining company to rescue the kidnapped son of a deposed South American president.

A mish-mash of ideas borrowed from the aforementioned American movies, Lenzi's film is unremarkable guff from start to finish, a repetitive succession of lame jungle encounters between the fearless soldiers-for-hire and numerous heavily armed goons. Expect the endless 'ratatatat' of machine gun fire, lots of explosions, a dreadful hang-gliding scene (the team's very ordinary equipment supposedly made of special material capable of avoiding detection by radar), random encounters with jungle critters, hilarious dubbing (the son of the president has a particularly irritating voice), much macho posturing from the mercs, and a gratuitous shot of explosives expert Sybil (Julia Kent) bending over in hot-pants, but nowhere near as much gore as one might hope for in a film by the man who gave us Cannibal Ferox.

What happens when you mix THE WILD GEESE + "The A Team" + Uncommon Valor, but then mix in a bunch of Eurocult actors (including Antonio Sabato in one of his last meaningful roles), and add a touch of scifi? You get WILD TEAM.

Generally this film is pretty trashy and low quality, especially in the writing department and of obviously low budget. However, Umberto Lenzi skillfully directs the film well enough to inject it with enough energy to keep things moving. The cast of recognizable faces plays to each one's strengths (Werner Pochath as the creepy guy, Ivan Rassimov the stern know-it-all, Antonio Sabato as a smarmy leader, and Sal Borgese as the goofball). The odd woman out is Julia Fursich (Kent) who looks very angry and uncomfortable most of the film, which adds a layer of humor to the experience.

There's plenty of pyrotechnics and lackluster action on display; enough to make Bruno Mattei, Ignazio Dolce, or Antonio Margheriti blush. It's all handled pretty cheaply with no blood squibs or creativity to any of the deaths, but moves along at a quick enough pace that you won't care too much.

Much like CROSS MISSION of a year later, this action film features a hilariously out-of-place sci fi touch in the form of a group of psychics (!), including Gabriella Giorgelli (!!), used to locate the film's MacGuffin, and are able to somehow tap into a powerful supercomputer for more accuracy (!!!). There's also a pretty good Stelvio Cipriani score on display, certainly a cut above most mercenary movies of the period. He certainly brings in a lot of cues inspired by his earlier work on THE GREAT ALLIGATOR and TOUGH TO KILL, which certainly beat this movie to the punch of Italian WILD GEESE knockoffs shot in the Dominican Republic. They weren't quite done though, as the film THE LAST MATCH, a few years later, would go on to squeeze what little juice was left in the genre.

All in all a serviceable time waster.

If there's one thing in life you usually shouldn't question, it's the brutal character of an Italian mid-80's action flick. There was a truckload of them overflowing the more hidden shelves of raunchy video stores back in the late 80's and they pretty much all looked similar. They had deliciously appealing VHS cover art, complete with heavily muscled and testosterone bursting males firing off big machine guns, and provocative taglines like "Shoot first, ask questions … never" or "They Shoot 'em all up!". On the backside of these VHS boxes, there were several more enticing stills depicting pure mayhem and carnage. The good thing about these images is that they're 100% reliable! These movies truly are a non-stop spitfire of extreme action, gratuitous mega- explosions, muscle showcasing and horrible macho dialogs. "The Wild Team" is Umberto Lenzi's contribution to the popular trend, but it actually was a bit of a disappointment. Especially in comparison with other contemporary jungle mayhem highlights (like Bruno Mattei's "Strike Commando", Antonio Margheriti's "Commando Leopard" or – most of all – Ruggero Deodato's awesome "Cut and Run"), "The Wild Team" is rather tame and unmemorable. The plot contains all the required ingredients and clichés to guarantee pure entertainment, but the film simply lacks the essential panache! The cast is stupendous (Antonio Sabato, Ivan Rassimov and Werner Pochath!) and the body count is tremendous, but the adrenalin and kicks aren't bursting from the screen like supposed to. When the son of the popular President of Manioca, a small Southern American island, gets kidnapped by the henchmen of the communist dictator who took over the power. They threaten to kill the boy if the President would even just consider to take up his former position again. A multinational in Florida supports the President – because he guarantees free access to the country's profitable silver mines – and hires a quintet of rough mercenaries to go on a rescue mission. The search and rescuing of the boy goes rather fluently, if you don't take into account a shamelessly overlong para-sailing sequence, and after about 45 minutes you wonder what'll happen next because everything looks solved. But then, of course, Lenzi begins with all the dire but inevitable sub plots including treason, corruption, self-sacrifice and getting saved from the jungle by an annoying 12-year-old. There's nothing exceptional or remotely remarkable about the jungle action sequences and it's never a good sign when even the shootout sequences start to look boring after a while. Stelvio Cipriani's score is undoubtedly the best thing to mention here, but unfortunately the music doesn't suit the tone and subject matter of the film. His best scores are for mysterious and sleazy horror films or gialli, like "What have they done to our Daughters", not brainless action flicks.

On the tropical island of Manioca, during a MardiGras-like festival, the child of the former president is kidnapped by the thugs of a communistic dictator. A large corporation in Miami finances an expedition to recover the child, and thus hopes to put the democratic nominee back in power. To this end, they send four mercenaries into the jungle, all of whom are masters of warfare. However, while the four mercenaries are fighting their way through the green inferno, new developments are occurring back in Miami. It seems that the corporation has changed its stance, and is now trying to work out a deal with the communistic dictator. This is sadly one of Umberto Lenzi's most neglected films--and for no good reason at all. Perhaps the lack of distribution has contributed to the obscurity of this gem; but, for all serious fans, it remains to be rediscovered. This film is not remarkable insofar as it is extraordinary, but that it so keenly represents the ending of an era. Never again will we see the likes of Antonio Sabato, Ivan Rassimov, Werner Pochath, and Franco Fantasia, all teaming up together in one great film such as this. Besides being well-directed, this movie is augmented by a very nice soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani, as well as a surpise appearance by Andrea Aureli. Of course, it has its drawbacks as well. For instance, Ivan Rassimov's character is killed off much too soon (the same fate he suffered in Ruggero Deodato's "Atlantis Interceptors"). However, this movie contains some genuinely wonderful scenes that recall all the glory of Lenzi's earlier films. Highly recommended!

Thunder Squad (1985)

** (out of 4)

A brutal and sadistic dictator kidnaps the son of a South American rebel who is living in Miami. The evil dictator has the son so a group of missionaries led by Antonio Sabato heads into the jungles to try and rescue him.

This action picture from director Umberto Lenzi goes under a variety of titles including SQUADRA SELVAGGIA, I CINQUE DEL CONDOR and WILD TEAM but no matter what you call it you'll never mistake it for a good movie. No, this here is one of those films that isn't a bad movie and it's not a good movie and it pretty much stays in the middle of the road in regards to the quality. With that said, the final thirty-minutes are entertaining enough to make the film worth watching.

It's clear that Lenzi was shooting this on a shoe-string budget because there's really nothing over-the-top here in regards to the violence or the action. The action scenes are certainly done on a smaller scale and you can tell that editing was the biggest friend to the director who used it to try and make the picture look bigger than it actually was. The violence is certainly PG rated and there's really nothing offensive here so those expecting violence or gore might be disappointed.

Sabato makes for an interesting lead but I wouldn't say he was a major find for the role. Ivan Rassimov, Werner Pochath and Julia Kent round out the supporting players and for the most part the four of them are entertaining enough for this type of film. As I said, the final thirty-minutes certainly make up for a rather slow start and once we hit the jungle things certainly pick up and make the film worth watching.