Strike Commando (1987).
“Russian dentists make pretty good dentures.”
Directed by Bruno Mattei
Written by Rossella Drudi
Starring Reb Brown, Christopher Connelly, Louise Kamsteeg, the jungle, and lots and lots of sweat and grenades
The Stage.
After being left for dead by his own military, Michael Ransom make it back to his squad, only to be thrown back into the fire on a recon mission. Unfortunately he’s captured, and has to survive a POW camp as well as a pack of traitorous Americans.
The Review.
Strike Commando feels like four 80’s movie segments wrapped into one long film that has one scene in particular that is so bad that it’s amazing.
Although it was filmed in the Philippines like many low budget 80’s war and adventure movies, the story takes place in Vietnam. The first segment sees Michael Ransom and his gang of red shirt commandos leading a strike on a Vietnamese armory. It’s reminiscent of the opening scenes of Navy S.E.A.L.S. and Sniper, and ends with Ransom double-crossed for no good reason by a team of traitors on his own team. Luckily, he survives the attack and finds himself in a Vietnamese village where they heal him up so that he can find his way back to civilization. Along the way he befriends a tween Vietnamese boy which pays off in a hilarious way. More on that later.
The second segment sees him trying to get back to his squad while sheltering the Vietnamese townspeople he’s trying to liberate. It’s clunky and slow and I assumed that this was going to be the rest of the film - Ransom trying to outsmart the Vietcong while trying to get back to a squad that would rather have him dead for no reason, but he immediately gets back to them and then the film starts ramping up.
After a debriefing, Ransom is immediately sent back out for recon for the third segment, which we’ll call the Rambo: First Blood, Part 2 ripoff. He finds the Vietnamese people he befriended slaughtered, although in true low-budget fashion, you can see all the actors portraying dead bodies breathing. The boy has a few last words, and it leads to one of the best comedic movie moments of all time as he tries to explain Disneyland to the kid, clearly having never been there himself.
In the last segment, Ransom breaks out of a POW camp and goes after those responsible, killing the Vietnamese, Russians, and Americans that get in his way. The film is mostly bloodless which is a bit disappointing. The people who get blown away by the non-stop barrage of bullets mostly just spin and fall while smoke packs pop from the ground. The best kill happens when Ransom (who seems to have a great affinity for just leaving big bundles of grenades as deadly gifts) stuffs a live grenade into someone’s mouth, blowing them into smithereens. Speaking of bundles of grenades, another Strike Commando highlight happens when Ransom swims out to an enemy scouting boat, drops a fresh bundle in, and swims away as the boat explodes. The boat is clearly a miniature, a tactic used by many filmmakers in the 80’s to save money, but Bruno Mattei decided to put tiny toy soldiers on board that look absolutely hilarious when they pop into the air as the boat disintegrates.
The End.
Strike Commando is a pretty standard Rambo-style 80’s ripoff but it does offer a bit of charm because of the character of Michael Ransom. His determination, overacting, and unlimited supply of bullets are kind of fun to watch as he trudges through the jungle and his Disneyland explanation is on par with those so-bad-they’re-good film moments you see in Troll 2, Tough Guys Don’t Dance, and The Room.
The Severin disc looks really nice and has some extras. If you’re a fan of war movies and are interested in the low-budget hilarity within, Strike Commando is probably a worthy addition to your collection.
