McBain

Christopher Walken leads a batch of Army buddies against Colombia to avenge the death of his friend at the hands of the military regime. Since their Army days, Walken and his merry men have become successful and/or affluent, and seeing them take off as a group on a dubious military adventure requires some pretty heavy suspension of disbelief. But that's just the beginning. You'll see middle-aged men out-fighting hardened government troops. Pistols and Bic pens find uses their inventors never dreamed of, and desperate field surgeries are performed under the worst conditions, with 100% success. All of it done in an appallingly casual way, that is deader than the deadest deadpan humor. You'll truly laugh your butt off - nonstop yuck-yucks from the guy who brought us Shakedown and The Soldier. See McBain as a double feature with Taking of Beverly Hills if you want to see how durable your spleen really is.

If you like Christopher Walken, and you like hard-core unbelievable action and unnecessary violence, rent this movie tonight. The amazing array of hilarious faces that Walken makes in this movie is more than enough to justify renting it. If you want an action movie that is exactly what you'll get, Mcbain truly delivers action like no other.

Okay, 'enjoy' is a pretty relative term, but flexibility is in order when you're dealing with a filmmaker of James Glickenhaus' calibre.

McBain is truly one of the most ridiculous, over the top action films I've ever seen, without the nasty edge of The Exterminator. Other reviews have commented on a suspension of disbelief regarding the film's heroic middle aged commandos, but how about making a film in the Philippines that is set in Colombia? All the extras are Filipino. In fact the only character who looks remotely Hispanic is good ol' Victor Argo as the much reviled 'El Presidente'! Oh yes, we also have Maria Conchita Alonso overemoting like crazy as a rebel leader. There are tons of explosions and bodies flying everywhere in this amusing paean to the glories of American imperialism.

Typically period-movie, not very good, not exceedingly bad, clear division between the good and the bad. Story about a handful of mercenaries supplying revolution to south- America. Simon Bolivar and Rambo in one package. Anyone familiar with the Stallone vehicle The Expendables will recognize the similarities between this picture and the Expendables fighting El Presidente. This might be called the unauthorized prequel so to say without the bravado and speed of the Stallone picture. Not very uplifting, cliché-filled, but worth every teenage penny, if you like the thrill to be fast and easy and like the old style novel with torn banknotes and honour-killings. I lacked the patience to concentrate dully on this movie, harvested from a rumble sale. Not memorable and soon forgotten. Nicer period-character is Mrs Fletcher from Murder she Wrote. Thrown in the problem of US POW's after withdrawing from Nam, solving it with an ambush and killing th bad guys.

My review was written in September 1991 after a Greenwich Village screening.

Boasting excellent production values, "McBain" is a silly action film geared mainly toward overseas audiences. It represents a strong video title for the Shaprio Glickenhaus banner after its theatrical exposure.

James Glickenhaus, in his first writing-directing assignment since "Shakedown" three years earlier, has assembled the elements of an A-grade picture but failed to create an engrossing or believable narrative. Pic becomes a spoof of itself an the genre early on and never recovers.

Prolog has Chick Vennera and fellow soldiers rescuing POW Christoper Walkenon the day the Vietnam War ended in 1975, so Walken owes him one. When Vennera is killed in an abortive coup of the Colombian government 18 years later, Walken agrees to help Vennera's sister, Maria Conchita Alonso, overthrow the drug cartel-run dictatorship there and let the common people come to power.

This timely theme of revolution is treat4ed with a flippancy reminiscent of Sergio Leone's "Duck, You Sucker" and other Italian political Westerns, but Glickenhaus makes it far too easy for Walken and his group of Vietnam vets to reach their objective. Cartoonish action is amusing but never gripping.

Walken, no stranger to uch roles ("The Deer Hunter", "The Dogs of War") appears awkward and bored with a stiff-upper-lip assignment more suited to Glickenhaus' 1980 "Exterminator" leading man Robert Ginty. The extreme earnestness of Alonso as the freedom fighter is overdone. There is no romance in the picture and zero chemistry between the two leads, a glaring deficiency.

Supporting cast of reliable thesps such as Michael Ironside and Steve James mainly provides comic relief. Best acting is by Luis Guzman, who brings panache to his role as a philosophical major domo of a New York crack den. Filming in the Philippines instead of South meria results in Filipino extras who definitely don't look authentic.

Dominating the humans is topnotch special effects and stunt work that lift "McBain" above the norm in the action genre. This technical accomplishment is the pic's raison d'etre and will help it cross national and language barriers.