This is the film that treats ninjas the way ninjas should be treated: it shoots them with automatic weapons. Sure, it's dumb, but only compared to good movies. Compared to pretentious, noisy garbage like THE ROCK, or incompetent failures like THE CONTRACT, or any movie with Steven Seagal or the word Rambo in the title, this is hugely satisfying entertainment.
What's not to like? Burt Young with a Fedora and a MAC-10, Bo Hopkins on shotgun, Mako in bad old age makeup, Caan and Duvall making up ridiculous dialog, and a drunker-than-thou Gig Young barely managing to get out of a chair without falling down: this is fun stuff. A cocaine- and whiskey-fueled Peckinpah makes 1975 San Francisco even more colorful by blowing up Chinatown and blasting holes in some of its residents. The high point is when a bunch of Japanese guys bring pajamas to a gunfight.
No question, this movie is pretty idiotic. But the premise of international assassins driving to work in Marin County is so weird, it's inspired. The very idea of the CIA hiring a free-lovin', dope-smokin' black ops team based in Baghdad by the Bay is a hoot. And it's all capped by one of the least likely endings in hired-killer filmdom, when Caan abandons his wards to fate, robs a dying man and convinces Burt Young to leave his wife to come sail around the world with him. You can take the boy out of San Francisco...
What's not to like? Burt Young with a Fedora and a MAC-10, Bo Hopkins on shotgun, Mako in bad old age makeup, Caan and Duvall making up ridiculous dialog, and a drunker-than-thou Gig Young barely managing to get out of a chair without falling down: this is fun stuff. A cocaine- and whiskey-fueled Peckinpah makes 1975 San Francisco even more colorful by blowing up Chinatown and blasting holes in some of its residents. The high point is when a bunch of Japanese guys bring pajamas to a gunfight.
No question, this movie is pretty idiotic. But the premise of international assassins driving to work in Marin County is so weird, it's inspired. The very idea of the CIA hiring a free-lovin', dope-smokin' black ops team based in Baghdad by the Bay is a hoot. And it's all capped by one of the least likely endings in hired-killer filmdom, when Caan abandons his wards to fate, robs a dying man and convinces Burt Young to leave his wife to come sail around the world with him. You can take the boy out of San Francisco...