The Firing Line

A Pentagon man working in Latin America ends up siding with rebel forces when he discovers that his own side have been carrying out a series of atrocities. He ends up with an innocent woman on tow. I watched The Firing Line a couple of weeks ago and already I am struggling to remember anything much about it. What I do remember quite clearly though was that I thoroughly disliked it. It's a low budget action movie that seemed to be similar to the Commando (1985) template. But the problem is that, while there is a lot of action, it was very poorly delivered indeed. There's lots of shooting and explosions. But it was all very tedious, that much I can say with some certainty.

This '80s action film is set in a fictional country in Central America. The protagonist, Mark Hardin, is an American military advisor working with the government forces. A successful operation leads to the capture of a rebel leader but when he is murdered rather than put on trial Harbin starts to think his employers might not be the good guys. Events lead to him fleeing with fellow American, Sandra Spencer. They soon run into trouble and are captured by the rebels. His actions during a government attack persuade them that he can be trusted; soon he is helping them in the fight back against the oppressive regime.

Amazon Prime gives the impression that this is a new film but I doubt anybody will get more than a second into it before they realise it is really a straight to video film from the eighties! The 4:3 picture ratio is the biggest clue but it is backed up by the less than perfect picture quality, obtrusive music and acting that is adequate at best. The plot is pretty basic but does at least serve to deliver plenty of low budget action. You know the sort: 'good' guys shoot from the waist but still manage to hit every time, explosions cause people to fly through the air and nobody appears to bleed significantly! It is trashy and there isn't anything really good about it but it is strangely entertaining if you aren't trying to take it seriously. At least the jungle looked good. Overall this is one for fans of low budget, straight-to-video '80s action; not worth paying to watch but okay if you have a Prime account.

See this film if you are into lousy movies. The acting is terrible. Where did this guy Reb Brown come from. The action choreography is lousy. In some instances you could hear people scream before they is actually shot. Saw XXX the day after I saw this film. Took a point away from Firing Line and gave it to XXX.

Reb Brown plays a military adviser who changes side and helps out the rebel when the rebel leader was killed without trial. Now he is on run with an innocent lady (Shannon Tweed) and teams up with the rebels to fight never ending (boring) battles in this standard action film. Brown has a geeky mustache in this film and Tweed looks bored. Not recommended.

In THE FIRING LINE, intergalactic megastar Reb Brown is military bada$$ Mark Hardin. He's sort of like a lobotomized Rambo. Betrayed by his comrades, Hardin must join a rebel force, consisting of soldiers in sparkling clean, mint-condition uniforms, in spite of their having spent months in the jungle! Their cool hats are right off the sporting goods store shelf!

Meanwhile, Hardin's ex-pals wear what appear to be freshly-pressed UPS uniforms!

Soon enough, these two factions are running around shooting and blowing each other up. In the end, it doesn't really matter who lives or dies since the characters are so bland and generic.

Indeed, Shannon Tweed is also in this monkey turd. She manages to keep her hair soft and manageable in spite of the infernal jungle heat...