Rangers

There are two sure ways to identify a movie filmed on a low, low budget.

One is when blaring mistakes are made in the continuity and detail of the movie and not caught by the film maker. For instance, when a character is introduced as a sergeant in one scene, and then in the very next scene, he's a lieutenant. Or, when a boat is rented for a scene and the flashing red lights of the burglar alarm are left on outside the entrance to the cabin while filming the sequence. This in and of itself isn't that bad, but, when the scene starts off with a burglar breaking into the boat right next to said flashing red lights, one can't help but notice and wonder how that got missed. That's right, you guessed it, these are but a couple examples of the myriad of mistakes made in `Rangers'.

The amount of footage stolen from other movies is the other way to quickly ID a cheap movie. Of course, I've seen movies where a few seconds of a scene from a different film is used without it being noticed to much. But `Rangers' goes way to far in this respect. Twenty five minutes of footage is used in `Rangers' from the Chuck Norris flick `Invasion U.S.A'. In fact, during one stolen scene, one can see the main bad guy from `Invasion U.S.A', Richard Lynch, leading his band of terrorists on the assault of a government building; a scene which is suppose to be from `Rangers'. It's almost like the writer of `Rangers' ran out of ideas in the middle of making the movie and decided to stick any old chunk of film in there to fill the hole. A little advice to any aspiring film makers out there, don't steal footage from a really bad movie and add it to your own really bad movie. This only makes for a really, really bad movie. And that's my opinion of `Rangers', a really, really bad movie.

Army Rangers and a CIA operative sneak into a fictitious Mid-East country to kidnap a Political/Terrorist leader. The mission is a set-up and one man gets left behind. He believes he was betrayed by the Ranger Team and his CIA handlers. For five millions dollars and a chance at revenge he turns renegade. Now there is no need to watch the movie.

EXCEPT, this has got to be the worst movie never made. That's right never made. It consists of copied footage from a lot of movies. And that's about the only thing about it to recommend. You can turn this piece of crap into a trivia game. Name the stolen movie footage. The winner never has to watch it again.

Look for footage from Navy Seals, Delta Force, Invasion USA, Hidden, Invasion USA again and again and Red Heat. And that's just the ones I spotted. Its not hard there is no continuity and the film stock doesn't even match. My favorite scene is during the car chase when the antihero Glenn Plummer shoots out the rear windshield without hitting the front windshield.

You have been warned

Hilarious. Priceless. Terrible. These are three of the many single words that I would use to illustrate "Rangers", one of those action pictures that seem to run on cable at around 10 at night. One of those films where it looks like many of the action scenes were shot in the director's backyard and several scenes look like stock footage. After a title sequence that looks wonderfully 80's, we're launched into the story itself A group of commandos is sent to bring back a terrorist from an unnamed country, but find out that the group knows they're on the way. After a few remaining members barely make it out, they find out that they'd been set-up, or something like that. One of their rangers they thought they'd left behind is actually working for the bad guys and suddenly comes back looking for revenge. Every other line is some other variation on, "you have no idea what I've been through!" or "the mission! We must not forget the mission!". Every action-movie cliche is spoken at some point throughout the film - but what makes it occasionally unintentionally hilarious is the straight-faced, wooden acting that attempts to take every single like incredibly serious. Ok, so there are occasionally some decent production values (a few respectable explosions), but as with all of these low-budget action films, the script seems to have been made up along the way. Obviously, these films don't cost a great deal and can end up being bought for cable or home video release (as Fox has done with this film and the equally terrible monster picture "Python"). The storyline almost doesn't even matter in a film like this one (nor do a few continuity errors) - the movie simply attempts several old-school, low-budget action sequences (according to the commentary, apparently some bits of the final action sequences are new, but many are actually cut in from a different, old action movie altogether). Corbin Bernsen receives top billing for, according to the commentary, three hours of work. The director and the main actor discuss their work on the film's commentary track and thankfully seem fully aware what they've created.

Okay...this movie is terrible. However, I'd almost have to recommend it. First of all, the plot holes are hilarious. Second, just watching the main characters fire their guns is hours of entertainment -- they are so afraid that they can hardly keep their eyes open. But best thing about this movie takes planning, patience, and heavy drinking. Go and rent this, Navy Seals, Red Heat, and Invasion USA. Watch all of them, saving Rangers for last. You will fall out of your seat laughing, especially if you've planned the proper refreshments. Nearly every action scene in Rangers is cut directly from the other three movies. Not copied, cut directly. In order to retain some semblance of continuity, the piss-poor actors of Rangers have to change costumes three times in the opening action sequence to match the clothes with the actors in the scenes they spliced in. It is painfully and comedically obvious, however, when the footage switches between movies. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it -- I would guess over 25 minutes of 90 minute film are pulled out other movies. If you are bored and want a laugh, try it some time.

Matt McCoy stars as Scott,a Navy Seal who is the target of wrath of Shannon (Glenn Plummer) who thinks Scott sold him out, he didn't but that doesn't stop Shannon from abducting Scott's wife, or blowing up various figures in the pentagon, once again absurd plot twists come up and the flick rips off many action sequences to give it a more explosive look in this terrible yet funny movie. Where do I even start with this one? Well for one the whole commentary in which Wynorski keeps referring to the footage stolen as Delta Force 2, but it's actually Delta Force 1! Other such action sequences are from Red Heat,Invasion USA and Navy Seals. Rangers is utterly absurd with acting so wooden, action sequences so obviously lifted and plot angles so over the top ridiculous that you cannot believe they are serious. For instance the guy (footage necessary from Invasion USA) blows up his friend's house, not even knowing that his friend wasn't in on it? Or how the government don't do anything to stop this guy after he blew up the pentagon, jeez how dense are these guys? It gets even funnier if you pretend that McCoy is playing his Police Academy or Seinfeld character. However let me just conclude this is as hilarious as terrible movies get.

1/2* Out of 4-(Awful)