Fortress of Amerikkka

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Fortress of Amerikkka", a/k/a "The Mercenaries", is an old-fashioned sexploitaton film that will appeal to that fringe which enjoys truly bad acting, t&a and gore effects.

Second Troma release from filmmaker Eric Louzil, pic is a slight step from his "Lust for Freedom", but still suffers from awkward direction and the annoying Troma practice of adding hokey dialog and sound effects to fill up dead air.

Handsome, low-key Gene LeBrok (he looks like Christopher Reeve playing Superman) plays an Indian halfbreed fesh out of prison who has a score to settle with the Georgia County, California, sheriff (stolid David Crane) who killed his brother in cold blood.

Personal grudges soon take a backseat to the main problem: a band of mercenary soldiers calling themselves "Fortress of Amerikkka", led by evil William J. Kulzer, is camped nearby. Instead of mere survivalist wargames, this coed bunch is killing folks right and left. Pic's anticlimax -coming after the sheriff is wiped out -is the townsfolk and cops banding together to fight the mercenaries.

Until then, Louzil contrives to include as many scenes of women going topless as time will permit. Heroine Kellee Bradley abstains, but exotic porno star Kascha shows off her surgical implants memoably, given a run for he money by busty blonde Karen Michaels. Oddly enough, the statuesque blond featured on the film's poster doesn't show up in the film; she's the same model who was postergirl for anothr recent pic, "Shotgun", without appearing on screen int that one either.

While LeBrok glides theough the picture without losing his cool, there is hysterically bad acting provided by Kulzer (a regular in Louzil films who also handles the stuntwork). Crane and especially Michaels, who smiles (unintentionally) in the face of danger. Pic's campiest scene occurs when Kascha and her boyfriend recite patriotic sentiments, echoed by th foolish narration.

Apart from scenic views of forests and mountains, film's technical credits are weak. The background score is extremely poor.

Nearly incomprehensible and total garbage, this Troma produced vehicle is so bad it hurts. The only redeeming quality is that it sets up a good drinking/smoking/whatever-helps-you-get-through-this-mess game every time the title is referenced. When you black out and forget this experience you'll thank me later. Watch the first 15 minutes to get a very good taste as to how bad this film is in nearly every single aspect possible. And it never gets better. Proof that ANYone can make a movie. The director has made other bad films so you can understand what you're getting yourself into, but Troma usually has much more entertaining (albeit usually bad) fare than this turd.

If you are expecting the usual Troma humor with usual Troma bad acting and violence then this is not for you..this truely is a terrible..but yet hillarious movie to watch. This Lloyd Kaufman , Michael Herz production directed by Eric Louzil who directed Class Of Nuke Em High 2:Subhumanoid Meltdown for Troma is quite possibly the worst acted movie I have ever seen in my life...seriously porno is more top notch in acting than this but the lines and dialogue are so ridiculous and Kaufman's " evil government conglomerate elitist" rhetoric was basically the foundation for the entire movie that has no explanations for any of the actions

For some reason a government militia is killing people at random for no reason , what exactly the militia who are called the Fortress Of Amerikkka are doing is not explained , the hero of the movie is an ex con just released from prison who has beef with the sherrif who killed his brother..why the hero was in prison is never explained..but no explanations aside just prepare yerself for a funny but awful movie I give it a

7/10 on a Troma scale...other viewers beware

A vigilante group form a military camp called the Fortress of Amerikkka. They terrorise a small town (presumably Tromaville). A wrongly convicted criminal, John Whitecloud and a band of townsfolk try to put a stop to them.

I've been a Troma fan since the early 00s when the films used to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK as part of 4Later. Fortress of Amerikkka is bad even by Troma standards. Bad acting, bad script and cheap production values. Even the nudity is lacking compared to some of their films. The gore effects are on point, with a knife in the throat looking particularly good. The plot should be a lot more interesting than it is. Uninspired dialogue delivered badly ruins it and the climax of the film fails to impress with poor stunts. The voiceover is excellent making it feel like a 1960s exploitation film. The gung-ho tongue-in-cheek patriotism doesn't go far enough; it took something like "Team America" to absolutely nail it.

Versions: I saw the Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome which features an absolute superb print struck from 35mm negative, 100% accurate subtitles and sound about as good as it gets without it being remixed to 5.1. The UK VHS version is cut, but it's unclear what has been cut. Earlier VHS versions are washed out and most likely from a second or third generation print.

Director Eric Louzil went on to direct the sequels to Class of Nuke 'Em High which are truly terrible, even worse than Fortress of Amerikkka which is at least watchable trash.

The threadbare aimless 'plot' has some sort of militia camping out in a park & killing anyone and everyone they come across for no reason what so ever. Meanwhile, John Whitecloud, an ex- con, has a grudge with the racist sheriff who had killed his brother. Meanwhile John's ex-lover fights with her current lover. Do any of these plots come together? Not really in any coherent way. In fact I feel that I'm less intelligent for having watched this mind-numbing 'thing', (i hesitate to even call it a movie for fear of sullying that word) And don't even get me started on the seldom periodic awful 'dubbing'. I know Troma films are to be judged on the lowest end of the bell curve and are an acquired taste, but this has to be among the worst of the products that they have put out.

My Grade: F

Eye Candy: Alley Kane, Lisa Star, Alison LePriol, and Karen Michaels get topless (as does Lori Anne Trezzo, but her character is dead at the time)