My review was written in March 1986 after a Times Square screening.
"American Commandos" is a subpar action picture made in the Philippines for undemanding international audiences. It opened domestically last November in Miami under the title "Hitman", a moniker retained in its theme song. (Shooting title was "Mr. Salvage".)
Christopher Mitchum toplines as Dean Mitchell, the owner of an L. A. gas station who thwarts a robbery of his business by young punks. The youth later decend on his home, kill his young son and rape his wife (Karen Lopez), who subsequently commits suicide.
Bent on revenge, Mitchell accepts a mission assigned by vaguely CIA operative Brady (Ken Metcalfe, film's co-writer who frequently pops up in Far East pics) to go to the Golden Triangle and wipe out drug operations there. Mitchell recruits members of hisold Vietnam War platoon for the job and, despite treachery within his unit, wipes out numerous Filipino bit players pretending to be Thais. In flashbacks the Filipinos pretend to be Vietnamese.
Mitchum's stone-faced non-acting here ets new low standards for the second-generation thesp, while the Filipino victims are quite funny in their exaggerated, choreographed death scenes. Opening reel in which the Philippines awkwardly doubles for L. A. is a hoot, with Mitchum sent to Siesta Inn (Filipinos doubling for Chicanos) for a rendezvous at what is described in the silly dialog as an "AC/DC joint".
Much of the action footage involves the outnumbered heroes working out of an armored van, which looks like a cheap version of tv's "The A-Team", perhaps an homage to that show's co producer John Ashley, who pioneered in making U. S. action films in the Philippines in the 1960s.
