The Losers

I like when directors try to mix genres like "Chopper Chicks In Zombie Town", "Blade Runner", "Rock'n'Roll Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy" etc. You don't always get the best results but at least it's interesting. In "The Losers/Nam's Angels" B-movie veteran William Smith leads a bikergang against the Viet Cong. Fun idea but the film spends too time with the bikers' love affairs, bar fights etc. In the end the gang gets their s**t together with their special built warbikes (no Harleys!). It's too late to save the movie but Tarantino must've been impressed since he used some scenes in "Pulp Fiction"! Nice try but see "Satan's Sadists" or "Apocalypse Now" instead.

William Smith is my all time favorite B-Movie actor- a truly talented individual whose list of lifelong accomplishments is extraordinary. He single handedly made movies like "The Losers" watchable and even enjoyable if you don't take them too seriously. The film centers around the U.S. Army hiring a motorcycle gang to rescue a presidential adviser being held captive in Cambodia. Smith plays gang leader Link Thomas, whose Army Sergeant brother sets up the mission. Most of the movie is spent focusing on events leading up to the mission with the gang partying, smoking, getting in fights and souping up their choppers as the rescue nears.

The acting is average, although a respectable cast (Adam Roarke, Paul Koslo & Bernie Hamilton) was assembled. There is too much time spent on love interests which tends to bog down the film, but the latter half especially is very entertaining as the mission takes place. This is 70's schlock through and through, but is a treat for William Smith fans, as he gets top billing and the lions' share of screen time.

No one will confuse this with anything Oscar worthy, but so what? A good way to numb your mind for an hour and a half.

In order to rescue a Presidential Advisor (in a Francis Ford Coppola costume) from a group of Chinese Communists in Cambodia, the government enlists a subdivision of Hell's Angels led by William Smith to break in there and get him out. The back of the box said this film has more action than 'The Dirty Dozen' and 'The Wild Bunch' combined. To call that a vast overstatement would be a vast understatement. In reality, the film is a bunch of bikers having sex, getting drunk, getting wasted, getting into lame fistfights, falling in love, waxing poetic and building stupid-looking motorcycles sandwiched between two decent action scenes with 2nd rate Enzo G. Castellari slow-motion (which would make it 4th rate Peckinpah). All in all, it's actually not bad, but the climax should have been better considering the time we have to wait in order to get to it. Have ear plugs ready when the title song comes up. It's a soft medley probably sung and written by some drugged out hippie chick that doesn't fit with the movie at all.

When I first saw this movie, I turned off after a while, really finding it a bore. 14 years later, I gave it another day in court. I watched it to the end. This is an unremarkable movie, about a group of expendable bikies, you feel sorry for, as they are so pathetic. They're sent in to Asia to rescue a thankless CIA guy, who shouts abuse at them, after most of these poor sods are already dead. where leader, Smith is really the last man standing. This really chafed only for a moment, cause this movie really lacks any kind of interest. We do explosions and gun fire but again I just found it pointless. One bikie, having some R and R with some nude hotties, not following procedure, explains himself to one of the guys in charge of this operation, which I found funny. He brags on how he used to own this cat house, and had to pick up some money that was owing to him. At the mentioning of his bike being flogged, by a kid ,he's out of there in a flash. The scenes in this cat house were the only ones I liked in this forgettable movie, part of the Roadshow Vibrant Video collection.

While watching History channels "Gangland" a program dedicated to show the origins of various crime syndicates, I got the feeling that most outlaw biker gangs were created in the aftermath of Vetnam.

Bandidos, Mongol Nation, Warlocks, are just few the many notorious biker gangs that was founded by Vietnam vets. In case of Bandidios, their leader was former marine who supposedly used the marine corps as rolemodel when it came to structure, chain of command.

This biker film is apparently inspired by an offer Hells Angels leader Sonny Barger made to President Johnson. Barger offered some of his men to be used as an guerrilla force behind enemy lines in Vietnam.

Johnson turned him down and thus Hollywood took over the idea.

Basically this film is about some very mean, violent, outlaw biker gang who are deployed in Vietnam in rescue mission of an American diplomat.

But as it turns out, is not going to be easy...

To be honest this just your average B-movie biker film, but it does have a few surprises up its sleeve.

The director is clearly inspired by Sam Peckinpahs films, when it comes to the violence(often shot in slowmotion) but the also the main protagonists being antiheroes.

Even one of this films taglines is inspired by the The Wild Bunch (1969):It's The "Dirty Bunch" On Wheels! There are also heavy criticisms against USA and its foreign policy, the way US military handles the Vietnam war. Another subject this film touches upon is the racial tension that exist in the US army.

It is unusual to see that kind of material in a cheaply made b-movie and makes this film a bit more interesting then the rest.

William Smith playing Link Thomas is very convincing here and plays the gangs leader very good.

Vic Diaz, who always been a favorite of mine, plays another one of those sleazy characters that he was so good at.

So if you like bikerflicks but want something a little different from the average then see this even though it is cheaply made b-movie its still more interesting then Twilight(2008).