Roger Corman and Concorde get topical with this silly but moderately engaging B level action flick. John "Bo Duke" Schneider plays Cliff Adams, and Cliff is a Miami DEA agent working deep undercover as a pilot for maniacal cocaine exporter Gonzalo Reyes (Federico Luppi, "Cronos"). Cliff is asked by his "employer" to assassinate a crusading politician (Juan Vitali) who is anti-drug. Cliff will have none of that, and thus becomes a target. He must not only deal with Reyes, but a crooked military figure named Lujan (Rodolfo Ranni) and a vindictive pair of German-accented creeps (Ivan Grey and Ricardo Hamlin). Among the folks on Cliffs' side: his reporter girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Witt, "Philadelphia") and amiable old dude Bailey (folksy, deep-voiced character actor Royal Dano, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space").
Don't stop to think about this one and you can have some fun, even if it's rather undistinguished overall. But certainly the prospect of a hirsute Schneider trying to be a low-budget version of a Rambo-type one-man army is good for some amusement. The finale, where Cliff storms the Reyes compound to unleash some Hell and rescue Janet, is a hoot. Throughout the picture, there is the requisite amount of gunfire, explosions, and sex to ensure that B movie enthusiasts don't ever get too bored. The performances are all adequate to the occasion, with Luppi a standout as the bad guy. However, those aforementioned German (?) guys get eliminated so soon that it's kind of a shame. One might wish they had more to do so they could stick around for the finale and die even more glorious deaths. The filmmaking, in general, is competent if not particularly stylish, although there is one great chase scene for Witt and the bit players acting as her pursuers. Adding an appropriate amount of cheese is the loud, insistent, throbbing techno-score composed by Jorge Lopez Ruiz. Some people may find the scene with Cliff getting tortured by the bad guys to be rather interesting.
Filmed in Argentina (presumably, another one of those "tax incentive" projects for ever-budget-conscious Corman) and Mexico.
Five out of 10.
Don't stop to think about this one and you can have some fun, even if it's rather undistinguished overall. But certainly the prospect of a hirsute Schneider trying to be a low-budget version of a Rambo-type one-man army is good for some amusement. The finale, where Cliff storms the Reyes compound to unleash some Hell and rescue Janet, is a hoot. Throughout the picture, there is the requisite amount of gunfire, explosions, and sex to ensure that B movie enthusiasts don't ever get too bored. The performances are all adequate to the occasion, with Luppi a standout as the bad guy. However, those aforementioned German (?) guys get eliminated so soon that it's kind of a shame. One might wish they had more to do so they could stick around for the finale and die even more glorious deaths. The filmmaking, in general, is competent if not particularly stylish, although there is one great chase scene for Witt and the bit players acting as her pursuers. Adding an appropriate amount of cheese is the loud, insistent, throbbing techno-score composed by Jorge Lopez Ruiz. Some people may find the scene with Cliff getting tortured by the bad guys to be rather interesting.
Filmed in Argentina (presumably, another one of those "tax incentive" projects for ever-budget-conscious Corman) and Mexico.
Five out of 10.