Nightforce

If Leonard Pinth-Garnell, the Bad Cinema maven from SNL, ever compiled a list of ten examples of "Truly Bad Cinema," this epic would have to be on it. Now, I usually don't consider films like this one to be worthy of mention on a bad-movie list. Normally, I prefer the grand turkeys like "Conqueror" and "Exorcist II." Still, Linda Blair is Linda Blair, and it was her starring in it that got it made. So I guess we can blame her for this turkey. The fact that these college-age dudes and babes can suddenly shoot like Green Berets is a variation of Roger Ebert's "thirty-second genius" motif. That is where the lead hears the whole plot from somebody in 30 seconds, and immediately knows what to do. In this case, the kids practice shooting for a couple hours, then are ready to do battle with an entire army. My favorite bad moment is when the kidnapped girl is ravaged by one of the enemy soldiers. The Commandante comes along, shoots the soldier, then has HIS way with her. She must have had more Latinos land on her than the Bay of Pigs. My favorite character is the American soldier-of-fortune, played by Richard Lynch. They should have called him Pizza-Face Jones, since a) Lynch's face has more holes in it than the Van Wyck Expressway, not far from where Lynch grew up in Brooklyn and, b) he acts like Harrison Ford on 'Ludes. There's not much more to say, but if you must see it, try to catch it, unedited, on one of the premium movie channels. If you rent it, do so on two-for-one night, along with something that you know is good. A couple beers will help you bear it.

Linda Blair must be the only actress in the world whom I love more with every new and utterly lousy movie of hers that I watch! Never mind the immortal horror classic ("The Exorcist") or the socially relevant TV-drama's ("Born Innocent", "Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic") she starred in during the 70s; the sleazy and trashy B-movies she made throughout the 80s are what define her as the ultimate cult cinema siren! Now, admittedly, for "Night Force" you need to have a lot of Linda Blair fondness, because the film itself is terrible.

The one thing that is really great about "Night Force" is, ... the plot description! It sounds like a cool rip-off/variation of "Red Dawn", with a bunch of friends spontaneously deciding to go and rescue their friend who got kidnapped by a Mexican crime cartel and taken to a primitive jungle prison. The girl's fiancée is too cowardly to do something, and her father - a senator - cannot act because he swears by not negotiating with terrorists.

The rest of the film is a sore letdown, to be honest. The 'mission' is quite dull, the action sequences are poorly staged, Linda Blair disappears without a trace half of the time, the locations and scenery are uninspired, and the climax is unremarkable. Highlights, next to Blair, are the flamboyant performance of Richard Lynch, and the gratuitous nudity provided by Claudia Udy.

I once took a job at a crappy, buffet-style restaurant to pay bills and I quit in less than a month. I hope that's the only reason Linda Blair decided to do this movie. I'm on a quest to see everything she's been in, and I love Linda Blair but jeeeeeez. BAD movie!

In a nutshell, a wimpy damsel in distress, daughter of a senator, is kidnapped by clichéd Latino terrorists and hauled off to some banana republic as a hostage. Now her father, a senator who pushes for no negotiations with terrorists, decides he'd rather loose his kid than his job and we are made to believe that the United States government is absolutely NOT going to recuse a senator's daughter. (Come on, that little country would have been turned into a parking lot)

Enter her 5 college friends. They are old enough to be legal to purchase guns, but still young enough to be stupid. Somehow, in a matter of hours, they procure machine guns and a bazooka and set off to shooting in the local dump without alerting the authorities. They then pile all the weaponry into the back of their jeep, cover it with a tarp, miraculously avoid the border patrol and just mosey down into South America looking for their friend.

Naturally they get into trouble. Enter Bishop, the Vietnam vet mercenary who, out of the goodness of his heart, equips the kids with better, bigger guns he happens to have lying buried in his backyard, training and cameo gear. How nice. And thank god he knew how to fly a chopper else they may have had to walk home at the end.

So now, the newly expert commandos, having bypassed the years of training necessary to fight the terrorists, rush in to rescue their friend and end up blowing up everything in sight. It's a good thing these terrorists who probably were given guns for Christmas toys as kids have no aim. In the process, 2 of the guys are killed, but hey, as long as they rescued the idiotic girl, then it's OK. Trade one certain death for 2 accidentals, it's all good. And despite the fact that all the bad guys are dead, they don't go back to retrieve their friends' bodies. I'm sure their families will understand. And how many times did this blond chick have to show her breasts or be raped? I think she wears clothes for all of 3 minutes of her screen time.

Now I WILL say this, Linda Blair did pretty damn good with what she was given. She was no wimpy, clichéd girl usually seen in these testosterone laced flicks. She had the best lines, watching the boys shoot off bazookas in the dump, tricking them into taking her along, and it was kinda cool to see her run, all decked out in cameo, shooting up some bad guy butt. However, for all her character's enthusiasm in rescuing her friend, she only got to shoot in the last sequence. The majority of the movie had her ducking behind cars as the boys shot the bad guys.

So why did I shell out $5 to a used video website and another $5 for shipping? As I said, I'm on a quest to see every movie Linda Blair's ever been in, even this one.

There *IS* one good thing that might make this video worth it to Linda Blair fans....the opening and ending credits has a rather catchy rock and roll song playing, and it is sung by none other than Linda Blair! She sounds a bit like Pat Benatar, not too bad either! She should have looked into a singing career instead of making this movie.

Hats off to Linda, major BOOOS to whoever wrote this swiss cheese of a plot story.

My review was written in May 1987 after watching the film on Lightning video cassette.

"Nightforce" a/k/a "Night fighters" during lensing, is a desultory action picture covering the corny territory of youngsters going south of the border on a mission to save their friend. Plot line was handled better in previous films "Toy Soldiers" and "Let's Get Harry".

Linda Blair is cast once again as a tough young babe, who insists on going on a commando raid with her male buddies when her best pal Christy (Claudia Udy) is kidnapped by terrorists. Her father, a U. S. senator (Cameron Mitchell), has opposed any negotiation with terrorists in his legislation and similarly the government's "hands are tied". Led by Christy's boyfriend Steve (James Van Patten), the youngsters head for Central America.

They're getting nowhere fast when a good samaritan Vietnam vet Richard Lynch protects them against Mexican baddies and volunteers to help out. Pic sags miserably during an uneventful middle section, followed by a corny climax (Christy has become militant and picks up a gun to shoot one of her tormentors).

Okay stunt work and Udy's randomly inserted nude scenes are the main diversions here, while Blair capably sings a theme song over the opening and closing credits.

Extremely slight actioner features clean-cut, country club kids who become suburban Rambos after one of their friends--a busty blonde, no less!--is kidnapped by nefarious Mexican terrorists (naturally, these brutal nasties keep their caged hostage half-nude, but it isn't sexy because she's crying all the time). Straight-to-tape low-budget trash served as veteran actor Cameron Mitchell's swan song. Linda Blair, cashing a paycheck, seems placed amongst the cast only to get her name on the video-box (she has absolutely nothing to do). Why not make Blair the focal point and do a distaff variation on "First Blood"? Apparently nobody involved with this rinky-dink thing was really thinking--not director Lawrence D. Foldes nor his three-count 'em-three-screenwriters, Russel W. Colgin, Michael Engel, and Don O'Melveny. These guys are not hidden talents, they are hacks. NO STARS from ****