Strike Commando

Plot synopsis:
Sgt. Michael Ransom (Brown) and his team of "Strike Commandos" are sneaking into a Vietnamese base, who are planning to lay explosives. Colonel Radek and Ransom's majors watch from a nearby vantage point. All prove to be successful, until one of the commandos is caught and killed by a sentry, rising the alarm. The commandos have no choice but to retreat, but Colonel Radek who is in charged of the mission demands the explosives be set off as the commandos are still retreating. One of the explosives kill one of Ransom's soldiers as he retreats, and Ransom is blown into a river.
Ransom drifts unconscious in the river until he is found by a village boy, who treat and nurse him back to health. He speaks with Le Due (Pigozzi) a retired French soldier who says the village used to be a church until the Viet Cong kept attacking. Ransom also learns that there is a Russian presence in Vietnam. Ransom agrees to take the Vietnamese village people to safety in an unknown location. As they come across a decomposed dead soldier who has a radio, Ransom calls his home base and tells his commander that he's alive and where he could be picked up. However, he also says that the Strike team demands justice and that he will strike vengeance. Radek sends a helicopter to retrieve Ransom at a specific spot. Ransom and the village people make camp, as Ransom talks to the village boy who saved him about the wonders of America and Disneyland.
The next day, the group run into resistance while trying to cross a river, and are shot down by a nearby patrol boat. Ransom decides to go into the river and take down the boat. However, the group is flanked by a group of VC's who are taken down by Le Due with a grenade. Ransom dumps a huge amount of grenades into the boat and kills everyone in the patrol boat.
Later, the village people still make their retreat out of the jungle. While Le Due stops to catch his breath he is caught and choked to death by a Russian soldier. Ransom finds the corpse of Le Due and finds a Russian patch symbol torn from the soldiers uniform. The Russian soldiers are in search of the village people as Ransom kills them off one by one. Ransom soon discovers, however, that there are too many and that he must retreat. Radek commands the helicopter to retreat to base, but Ransom's major is able to talk the soldier into picking him up anyway. Ransom's major is able to calm Ransom so much so that Ransom volunteers to go back to take pictures of the base so that there will be proof of Russian presence in Vietnam.
Ransom goes back to Vietnam but finds the village people have been slaughtered. Ransom finds the village boy that helped him in the beginning as he is dying. Ransom tells him more things about the amazing Disneyland, just as he dies. Ransom finds the name of the Russian soldier, Jakoda, and seeks revenge. Ransom mugs a VC and he tells him where to find Jakoda. Ransom, enraged, fires at the village with his stolen M60 machine gun. Jakoda finds Ransom reloading the weapon, but he is able to talk Ransom into surrendering by holding a civilian hostage. Ransom's superiors find out that there are Russians in there and that now he is going to be tortured. They brutally torture Ransom by having him do exhausting yard work for hours, beating him, electrifying him, and burning his back with a blow torch. After spending months in a cell with a corpse, Ransom breaks and agrees to make a demoralizing radio broadcast. However, he is able to get the best of the Russian soldiers and kills them. Ransom takes Jakoda's girlfriend Olga (Kamteeg) hostage, he is able to kill some of the soldiers using Olga as bait. He then radios Radek to bring another chopper to pick him up, and he kills more of the soldiers. When Ransom and Olga reach the pick up point, Olga says that they will not pick up Ransom but attempt to kill him. The helicopter flies by but kills Olga and almost kills Ransom. Ransom is able to gun down one of the gunmen and the helicopter retreats. Ransom then comes across an army boat and dives in to go kill some more soldiers. A VC sneaks up on him and strangles him, but Ransom is able to stab him and dives out when the ship explodes.
Ransom comes back to the shore and kills a Russian soldier, but Jakoda boots him in the head and challenges Ransom in a fight. Ransom and Jakoda brutally beat each other until Ransom gets the best of Jakoda and propels him into a waterfall, possibly killing him. Ransom yells in triumph.
Ransom is able to find his way back to base and is enraged and looking for Radek. He fires at Radek's office. But Ransom's major says that Radek has gone AWOL. However, one of the generals finds out where Radek is hiding.
Ransom finds out that Radek has actually become an importer/exporter in Manila. Ransom arrives at the building where Radek is, and goes to the front desk lady. He then lays a 2-minute grenade on the ash tray on the desk. The lady then alerts all the people. Ransom roams the halls of the building using his M60 and mows down all the men. He then loads a grenade on his gun and fires at Radek, blowing him up.
Ransom then leaves the building, but he finds that Jakoda is back and that he has got a pair of metal teeth from their last fight. Jakoda tackles Ransom, but Ransom puts a grenade in Jakoda's mouth; Ransom runs and Jakoda explodes, leaving only his metal teeth behind and the echo of Jadoka screaming, Amerikanski!.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
Imagine a movie that cheerfully includes the hackneyed scene where the hero looks over the carnage wreaked by the bad guy and dramatically shouts his name out really long.Special note should be made of our lead man's character-building scene where he tearfully brags about the food and candy at Disneyland to a dying Vietnamese boy.
While boasting production values somewhat higher than usual for Italian war movies shot in the Philippines (the modelwork is kept to a minimum, and there are plenty of big explosions), and there are plenty of genre it takes somewhat of an effort to get through the first half.
Forget Stallone and Arnie, Reb Brown is the King, "there's no one who can touch him, not in your whole damn army!" This has all the necessary ingredients for a top notch piece of one man and a lot of weapons against an entire country of soldiers and mercenaries action!!
After and excellent finding the bodies of massacred friends and screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to the sky scene, our hero sets off on the trail of Chacuuda and manages to kill an entire army before defeating the evil villain in hand to hand combat!
Reb Brown stars in an incredibly bad, yet still very entertaining popcorn action flick set in the jungles of Vietnam.
The combat scenes basically consist of Brown firing his M-16, AK-47 or some other high-powered weapon in the general direction of the enemy, who all fall down.
In support, Alex Vitale is a scary-looking but never really frightening Russian bad guy, who's storming around the jungle helping the VC try to kick American butt.
Add to the list of goof-ups and stupid stuff one long, pointless scene involving Vitale and a snake; a real actor replaced in mid-scene with a child-sized dummy in a different position; some really bad-looking explosions; a man obviously clad in asbestos cloth as he's "burned" by a flamethrower; really, really badly edited Vietnam-era stock shots of helicopters flying around Vietnam  the list goes on and on.
It's a really bad movie - technically bad, badly written and badly acted - but it's an entertaining 2 hour trip into the world where the good guys always win despite insurmountable odds.
After all who is this Reb Brown guy and i am sure that Amercanski is not really Russian for American added to that some of the most awkward one liners in the history of world cinema.
Strike Commando was it seems one of Bruno Mattei's most successful films of the 80's, bringing in enough cash for an further assortment of action trash in the latter half of that decade, including a sequel.
And so like any red blooded soldier would do in the face of atrocity and impossible odds, Ransom sets off for some vengeance time...
This wouldn't surprise me in the least as a good half or more of Mattei's filmography consists of ripping of other peoples work, but I can't say for certain as I've never seen Rambo 2.
Frankly after Strike Commando I have little intention of even bothering, as rather than a lightweight like Stallone Strike Commando has Reb Brown, a man so irrefutably badass that he makes Stallone look like your elderly maiden aunt who has a steel pin in her hip from the time she fell over while gardening.
Not only that but he brings a tragic grace to emotional scenes worthy of a five tissue weepie, especially when telling a dying child about Disneyland (where apparently popcorn grows on trees).
Well matched is the main villain of the piece, Jakoda (or Jaaakodaaah!!!!), played by Alex Vitale, a big brawny slimeball played by Alex Vitale who enjoys killing and torture but even worse makes fun of the hero by calling him Americanski (a sure sign of utter villainy is someone who makes light of God's one nation!).
So, aside from the cut-rate cinematography, it's hard to complain about anything else in "Strike Commando", because it delivers what it promises: non-stop action and mayhem, and a high body count.
If you're in the mood for mindless commando-type violence, this movie is better than many similar American flicks.
This film has about all of what one would expect from a film about "a lone hero in the Vietnam-War", but where many of the other films in this genre is so damned serious, this film is somewhat refreshing by being a little less serious in its approach, without falling for the temptation of being a complete parody or even a comedy.As one could expect there are a lot of shootings and explosions, stabbings, (no throat-cuttings), classic ambush-scenes borrowed from other films, Russian villains (of both sexes), a treacherous American Officer - courageous villagers, cute children and a Frenchman (that later on are brutally massacred by the Vietcon's) - torture of American POW's and the hero escaping from a Vietnamese POW-camp.
Strike Commando (1987) * (out of 4)Reb Brown plays a Green Beret in Vietnam who is on a secret mission but gets screwed over by his team.
Pretty soon he finds himself in a POW camp but he breaks free and then heads out to destroy a campy villain and an entire Army.STRIKE COMMANDO was directed by the one and only Bruno Mattei and that should tell you all you need to know.
Very few of them were any good but hte majority of them did fit into the "so bad they're good" category and that's pretty much where this movie is.There's no question that the performances are horrid, the dubbing awful and the direction is laughable at times.
Yes, there are no bullet holes, blood or anything else.This film was obviously an attempt to rip-off RAMBO.
In pure Italian cinema terms, this is an awful film on so many levels but at the same time there's a certain charm to the badness.
Directed by Vincent Dawn (ie Bruno Mattei) this is quite the shoddiest and worst acted war film in living memory.
The plot "Ha!" is a direct steal from Rambo First Blood Part II with loser actor Reb Brown as a poor man's Stallone seeking revenge on a Colonel who deserted him and his buddies in Vietnam.Brown continually shouts "Rah!" and "Die!" about a million times and good job too as when he is required to act, his lines are delivered in an atrociously wooden manner.
I do feel (and hope) that director Vincent Dawn (Zombie Creeping Flesh) was taking the pi** slightly - if not then he is surely the worst film-maker in the entire world.There are many hilarious moments such as when Brown awakes from a nightmare screaming and for no reason everybody else in the room stars screaming - including a small monkey.
By the time Reb Brown and Jakoda were squaring up for the most half-arsed punch up ever committed to film, I was dragging my wife away from feeding our kids to see the randomly appearing waterfall, poking her in the shoulder with my finger, crying 'listen to Reb Brown's weird voice'.Oh, to have been there in 1986 or 1987 when someone probably sneaked a bag of weed onto the set of Strike Commando, causing Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso, and Reb Brown to say 'Ah, we're too stoned to carry this one out, let's just botch it!' turning Strike Commando into what started out as a First Blood 2 clone into something much more profound, and we the audience get to see the actors and staff involved struggle to deliver a coherent film as Brown continually gurns for the camera.
I hail Bruno Mattei for Strike Commando, truly one of the greatest product to emerge from Italy..
Utter tripe, but worth viewing for:1) The fight scene between the Russian officer and Strike Commando near the end - particularly the head clash after running at each other head on from 20 ft.2) The Russian officer managing to utter his final word: "Amerikanskiiiii!!!" despite having already have had his head blown off by a grenade rammed in his mouth!See it!.
Shameless, yes, but STRIKE COMMANDO works as a beyond-insipid "unstoppable warrior with a vendetta" vehicle for the incomparably bad Reb Brown.
Brown is so bad as "Michael Ransom" that he actually makes the movie more enjoyable; factor in Bruno Mattei's typically doltish direction, and you've got a movie that may make your brain stem separate from your skull.
Strike Commando is probably my favorite of the Bruno-Reb collaborations.
Reb Brown as Mike Ransom does not fail to entertain.
Finally, the scene with Ransom and Jakoda is reminiscent of the infamous Jason vs Ivan battle from 'No Retreat, No Surrender'...except it's good!This is my favorite Bruno Mattei film; he makes use of a previous explosion scene from Robowar (and shows it at least 5 times here!).
It has countless, high-quality explosions, guard tower blow-ups/falls, non-stop action, stunts, and shooting, waterfalls, and of course the prerequisite torture scene.
We won't spoil them for you here, but trust us, you will love this movie and you have to find it if you don't already own it.While we also strongly support the later collaboration between the great Reb Brown and director Bruno Mattei, Robowar (1989), we believe this is the superior team-up of the two men.
God help you if you get on his bad side.Like Jungle Assault (1989), the soundtrack is inappropriately 80's (it being the Vietnam war and all) - but here the music cues are just so great it doesn't even matter.
Bruno Mattei directs the ultimate commando masterpiece of all times!
Reb Brown plays Michael Ransom, a Green Beret sent on a risky mission which goes wrong.
See a man yelling after his body has been blown to bits by a grenade and much more in this highly entertaining RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II rip-off!
But still, even though the idea of a "Rambo" clone sounds totally uninteresting, you should definitely check out "Strike Commando" because this literally is a non-stop feast of dumb plotting, atrocious acting performances, grotesquely absurd action sequences and hilariously fake sentimentality.
Reb Brown – according to the VHS cover the newest world star – plays the deadly one man Vietnam commando squad Michael Ransom.
Apart from all the unintentionally laughable moments, "Strike Commando" is actually a very violent film, with countless explosions and people dying from machine gun artillery and/or knives randomly flying around.
great explosions and good action are under cut by increasingly silly plot gyrations including some very silly torture sequences.
He is captured and tortured by Soviet and Vietnamese bad guys.Testosterone pumped action film gets sillier and sillier as it goes on, with torture sequences that will have you on the floor laughing.
You will not believe that anyone could have been even remotely serious in this out there exploitation film that is nominally a rip off of the Rambo movies.
However, having watched many of his films I am left convinced that the sly old fox must be actually in on the joke.Take for instance the film in question.....I simply refuse to accept that any movie that showcases such a lofty combination of hilariously bad acting, side splittingly awful dialogue, woefully inappropriate incidental music and a plethora of jaw-droppingly silly scenes can have ever been intended to have been taken at all seriously in the first place.
The second half of this movie especially seems to play like an all out comedy, further proof surely that Mattei was parodying the film that this was copied - er- I mean modelled upon (Rambo: First Blood Part 2)Either way, intentional or not, the end result is the same; this movie is utterly hilarious!B-movie god Reb Brown, star of many a cinematic craptacular, appears here as Michael Ransom, a super tough commando who has a predilection for yelling at the top of his lungs whenever he fires off an automatic weapon (which as it happens turns out to be a frequent occurrence) In fact if one were to base a drinking game of one shot for every time our Reb starts screaming, then you can fully expect to be in a coma by the end of the movie!Actually there's a bit more to the plot than the above, not much mind you, but I'll reveal it anyway....
At the start of the movie our hero and his buddies are shown infiltrating a compound deep behind enemy lines in Vietnam.
Inevitably, (but not unpredictably) the poor little lad gets killed later on in the film by the aforementioned Russian miscreant thus eliciting what surely must rank as one of the most painful scenes of bad acting I have ever had the joy to behold from our Reb as he tearfully cradles the dying child in his arms and relates to him the joys of Disneyland (!!!) Promptly after the ill fated youngster expires (whilst dreaming of Mickey Mouse and co) our Reb goes mental with his M-60 whilst repeatedly yelling the name of the murderer of his little buddy.
....Infact he goes on and on hollering the villains name and wasting bullets until he is finally captured!Various arduous torture scenes ensue (including electrocution, a blow torch to the back, and leaving Reb in a cell with a decomposing body!) as Reb's captors attempt to break his will.But our man, being the tough commando sort that he is just won't crack and eventually breaks free to wreck yet more havoc (whilst yelling loudly yet again!)Finally our man must face his Russian nemesis in hand to hand combat (having by now laid waste to pretty much every one else in the cast!) And what a fight!!!!!
At one point both combatants run straight at each other from about 20 feet apart only to collide in a mutual head butt!!!!!Eventually our hero manages to knock his enemy over a cliff after which he lets off the mightiest victory cry yet!However, there are one or two loose ends remaining.....The General at the start who ordered the explosives to be prematurely detonated is revealed to be in cahoots with the Russians!
I really can't understand many of the derisory reviews I've read about it for whether the director intended it or not, this film is without doubt one of the most hilarious movies I have ever had the pleasure to sit through.Funniest scene?
Well there's so many to chose from but for me it's a bizarre bit where a Vietnamese soldier jumps out on our hero to kill him prompting our man Reb to utter the woefully misplaced line, 'Dammit, you scared the sh*t of of me!' before effortlessly knocking him out with a rifle butt!!!Forget the humourless, sickeningly and blindly patriotic Rambo, simply put, one can not say to have lived until one has experienced the wondrous spectacle that is Strike Commando!.
Bruno Mattei's most entertaining movie is a laughably bad Vietnam effort (read RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II clone), financed in Italy but shot in the Philippines, where film stock is cheap.
The film is a so-bad-it's-good classic, which starts off pretty seriously before degenerating into chaos about halfway through.
It's an under-directed, over-acted bad film masterpiece without an ounce of common sense in its head, and this is why I love it so very much.
Helicopter shots are grainy stock footage, then there's a hilarious interlude with a ship which explodes (an obvious miniature).Taking the lead is wooden beefcake Reb Brown who overacts for all his worth.
Brown is appalling, yet his attempts at acting give the film some of its most hilarious moments, like when he goes berserk firing his gun, shouting "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!".
The dubbed dialogue is also particularly funny in this film, whether it be Brown running in the jungle shouting "JAKOOOOOOOODA!" or the cheesy Russian bad guys ("I'm going to kill you, Amerikana!").As the 'plot' plays out, Brown finds himself tortured on an electric fence (just like Stallone) before escaping and shooting hundreds of inept Vietcong.
Cheap huts explode, thousands of rounds are shot through the trees, and Ransom's trick seems to be throwing knives in the chests of his enemies – again, just like Stallone.
Reb Brown (of "Uncommon Valor" fame and "Space Mutiny" infamy) stars as Sgt. Mike Ransom, a member of a commando unit which is betrayed by their superiors while on a mission during the Vietnam War. Ransom is the sole survivor, linking up with a group of Vietnamese refugees and attempts to link up with his superiors, in order to get back home.At this point, the story starts to get a tad bit familiar...so he's betrayed by his rescuers, is captured by the Russians, is tortured, is told to speak into a microphone and doesn't say what he wants his captors to say, escapes, takes down the enemy one by one, has a female acquaintance who gets blown away, and runs around screaming while stuff blows up...hmmm...now where have we heard this before?
Yes, this movie pretty much becomes a Rambo II ripoff after the end of the first act.
The only thing it was missing was a showdown with a Russian helicopter at the end (I doubt they could afford it with the budget).As one might expect with a low budget rip off of Rambo II, the acting is poor, the action scenes your usual staple of a guy waving a gun around while baddies flail their arms and fall down, etc.
Most notable is the scene where Ransom holds a dying Vietnamese child and tells him about Disney World, and all the while Reb Brown is trying to feign sadness.
The acting and directing is terrible from grenades going off and taking out large amounts of people, over-reacting and corny lines to the funniest one-liners you'll ever see it's a film which never ceases to make you laugh!!!
A must see for anyone who likes Rambo or who want's to see really bad acting.Also, Alex Vitale at the end with the 'americanskiiiiii!' line when his head is blown off and the sound still carrying is nothing short of genius!Seriously, you'll laugh and laugh and laugh!Must buy!