Cocaine Wars

"A Lone American Hero Challenges The Might Of A Vicious Drug Empire!" Cliff Adams (Schneider) is an American in South America. He works for drug super-kingpin Reyes (Luppi) and his partner General Lujan (Rodolfo Ranni) as their personal pilot and assistant. However, Cliff is a DEA agent working hard, undercover, to bust Reyes' organization. When Marcelo Villalba (John Vitali), a revolutionary, "power to the people"-type politician starts gaining some political momentum, Reyes gets worried, because Villalba is anti-drug. Reyes asks Cliff to kill Villalba. This unleashes a chain of events that sweeps up Cliff and his love interest/reporter Janet (Witt) in the violence. Will Cliff be able to protect Janet, Villalba, and their friend Bailey (Dano) from the thugs of Reyes? Will Reyes succeed in his nefarious drug-running plans? And who are those strange German characters? "Cocaine Wars" somehow manages to be pretty silly, yet unmemorable. Odds are, you will forget this movie very shortly after watching it. Maybe it's the unclear, disjointed way the plot rolls out, or some of the stilted dialogue and wacky dubbing (things that normally make these types of movies worth watching), but there it is. The unshaven John Schneider, who, here at least, is best described as "flatly charismatic", does a competent job as Cliff. His hirsute status gives him a doglike appearance, perhaps a golden retriever. I mean this in the best possible way, of course. Luckily, his mustache saves the movie.

There are the standard car chases and shooting-based action scenes, and the movie would definitely have been remiss in denying Schneider the all-important torture scene. There are some parallels to the Peter Fonda movie Fatal Mission (1990), as well as The Dogs of War (1980) and The Expendables (2010). The main music cue is very similar to the opening notes of Beverly Hills 90210. You think Schneider, after running people off cliffs and such, will at any moment walk into the Peach Pit.

Cocaine Wars is a very 80's subject, and this Roger Corman production, released on the great Media label, perhaps could have been executed better. But at 82 minutes, you can't really go wrong.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Hilariously awful Rambo knock-off has John Schneider, The Dukes of Hazzard's Bo Luke himself, as Miami DEA agent Cliff Adams, out to take down a South American drug kingpin. The story is completely ridiculous and involves Schneider's reporter girlfriend getting kidnapped in an attempt to blackmail Cliff into killing the president, but no one is really going to watch this movie because you actually thought it would be good, right? "Cocaine Wars" is an absolute 80s cheese fest in the best sort of way. Cheesy music, a cheesy star, and a cheesy ripped-from-the-headlines story about scary drugs. Produced by Roger Corman's New Horizons, that should be a major tip-off for that this would be a silly action flick (that or the fact that Rotten Tomatoes has no critic or audience score this movie because it's so low budget and/or so forgotten). Venerable Hollywood character actor Royal Dano does appear in the film, but the only reason to watch this film is for so-bad-it's-good 80s nostalgia purposes.

"Cocaine Wars" is almost exactly what you want from a movie with that name from that year. It has over the top macho main character, hilarious performances and dialogue and schizophrenic editing. Is it bad? Absolutely! Is it entertaining? Yes, especially with a group of friends who understand what they're in for. Add to the mix some gorgeous nature and a bit of nice female nudity and you have yourself a treat if you like this sort of stuff. My only complaint is that the poster of the movie would make you think you will watch nonstop action with firearms, while in reality, our main character starts shooting only at the end of the movie.

All in all, if you know what to expect, "Cocaine Wars" can offer a nice entertaining afternoon before it fades from your memory and frankly, that's all it needed and wanted to accomplish in the first place. 6/10!

Fresh off "The Dukes of Hazzard", John Schneider is a bad ass agent in South America battling a cocaine lord. Back in the 80's, cocaine was big. Coming from South America, and a federal agent from Miami is out to stop the dope king. His partner is killed, and he wants to avenge him, and end the shipment from hitting the United States. This movie is low budget, but has plenty of action and intrigue. Some of the choreographs are cheesy, but it is not boring. If you like John Schneider as Bo Duke, then this is right up your alley. There's no sliding off the hoods of cars though. A rainy day type of thing here. 2 out of 5 stars.

This film begins with a pilot named "Cliff Adams" (John Schneider) landing his small airplane onto a makeshift runway near a plantation in South America which is owned by a drug lord by the name of "Gonzolo Reyes" (Ferderico Luppi). It's during this time that his colleague flying with him is killed in cold blood because he was suspected of skimming off some of the proceeds. Needless to say, this displeases Cliff quite a bit because he knew that his friend had been set up. From that point on, however, Cliff becomes a target by others within this criminal organization due in large part because of his attitude and the fact that he knows too much about those within the business. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that films like "First Blood" and "Missing in Action" were quite popular during this time period and this fact inevitably resulted in a plethora of copycats-with this particular picture being one of them. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the better ones as it suffered from poor acting, a bad script and more than a few unrealistic action scenes. In short, I didn't find it that appealing and have rated it accordingly. Below average.