The Bad Pack

Hmmmm, a small town of peaceful farmers is taken over by bandits who force them to do what they want, and give them all of their food and supplies.

No, I am not talking about Seven Samuri, nor the western remake The Magnificent Seven. I am not even talking about the Disney remake A Bug's Life.

Except instead of 7, there are only 5 or 6 heros in this movie. And instead of Yul Brynner we get Roddie Piper. He does an OK job of acting, but the tired worn out script was so bad, nobody could have saved it.

I can only say that I bought the DVD for $3 on sale, and the movie was worth the $3. But I would not pay anything more for this thing.

Two brothers set out to hire mercenaries to defend their small border town from militants.

Brent Huff's offering is an action throwback that predates The Expendables and channels the dynamics of The A-Team, with a dash of Three Amigos in terms of its plot and border setting.

Interestingly, Huff and Douglas L. Walton's script portrays the surge of militia activity in the United States during the 80's and 1990s, mercenaries for hire, as well as issues surrounding both legal and illegal migration, which, though shifted, remain topical and just as contentious today.

Elevated by its familiar cast ensemble, Robert Davi (Die Hard, License to Kill) leads the crew, joined by Roddy Piper (They Live), Ralf Moeller (Gladiator), Marshall Teague (Road House), and Patrick Dollaghan (Rapid Fire). Shawn Huff leaves an impression. Each brings charisma, making their mismatched team entertaining enough.

Sven-Ole Thorsen (Conan the Barbarian, Red Heat, The Running Man and the late professional wrestler Robert Swenson also appear. Veron Wells cameos.

While the budget shows, Huff compensates with some stunt work and explosive action (mostly in the third act) and 90's DTV charm.

A watchable talky action outing with familiar faces for fans of mercenary and vigilante B-flicks.

I stumbled upon this on a Home Screen and noticed how many actors I recognized from different movies. It's like the original 90s Expendables of b list actors. Ralph Moeller, Sven O Arnies buddies he always cameos. Lamar from Revenge of The Nerds. Roddy Piper! Jeep Swanson. The crazy Australian guy from Road Warrior and Weird Science. It's crazy how many people were this. If you watch it for just fun it's enjoyable and has heart. The heroes have honor. If you watch some scenes you can see some funny mishaps. Lamar dude is drinking a Corona but he slams it too hard and it starts to bubble up so he has to sip it or ruin the scene. The blonde is about to snipe a guy and Roddy happens to look right at the barrel as she shoots w no eye protection. You know that was not planned. I didn't expect to enjoy it when the first long training mo rage was playing out but as soon as all the good guys were on screen I was I to it. The 50 cal firing off w just a fire out of the barrel looked so fake but it's a fun movie if you don't take it seriously.

OK, let me start with the best (if not the only good) thing in this movie: Shawn Huff. I don't know if the word "WOW" is enough to describe her. Her portrayal of an expert markswoman / assassin is picture-perfect, and she delivers with conviction such lines as (after shooting two guys point-blank) "Hell yeah I think you're afraid of me!". I think she is Brent Huff's wife, but she's so good in her role that I don't care if she got it only because of that. The rest of the film, however, is one disappointment after another: Roddy Piper is an ex-wrestler. Does he fight in the movie? No. A big German guy is shown at first as an underground fighter. Does he have any more fights? No. The villains (a para-military group) are shown training during the opening credits. Do they get to put their training to use? No. And so on. The action (what little there is of it) is of generally poor quality, apart from a few decent motorcycle stunts. Ultimately, "The Bad Pack" is the poor man's "The Magnificent Seven" (*)

Not sure how this movie was as bad as it was as it had a couple of stars, a mildly good premise and what one thought was going to be a very violent conclusion with guns blazing, but here we are. None of the stars seem interested, not even ones who should if they wanted to keep getting roles, the premise did not work because the big bad conclusion one expects in a film like this turned into a slight pit stop. I have been in fast food drive in lines longer than the 'explosive' finale lasts...

The plot, a town on Mexican Americans are being harassed by a group of racist militia types. Who do they turn to for help? Well, a group of highly trained solider of fortunes, a kind of A-Team if you will, only they are more like the C-Team; however, that being said as easy as they take down the militia, the Mexicans could have just bought guns and skipped the middle man and done the whole job themselves...

So we get Davi who is good as a villain, but not so good as the hero, who for reasons unknown wears a confederate hat. Not a rebel flag hat, but an actual confederate soldier hat making me wonder who thought that was a good idea. Then there is Rowdy Roddy Piper who plays guy who drives. Seriously, there are more members of the team, but they are so poorly fleshed out as the rest are just crazy guy, buff guy and good shooting girl. Meanwhile, a dude who just joins up for no reason gets more screen time and is fleshed out better. I mean sure, guy stops a bank robbery in a diner I'm at, I wish to serve him like a toady forever...not!

So, the film should have been good, but was instead very weak. Not taking inspiration from 80's hardcore action films, but instead kind of being tepid. The bad guys are completely inept and the townspeople should feel embarrassed to have been terrorized by them. Still, good for a laugh or two as we watch this team of misfits get their fairly simple plan to stop the evil doers together.