In South Vietnam, 1975, the war is winding down. However, ex-military man Len Jordan (Vincent) is "waging his own war in the Mekong Delta!" (to take a quote from the movie). Along with Lt. Henderson (Lottimer), and some other soldiers, Jordan heads a crew on a boat heading down the aforementioned Delta. To increase the danger and risk, the men are escorting a nun, a gaggle of orphans - including the precocious Mickey (Redillas) who warms the hearts of the hardened soldiers - and filmmaker Mary Jackson (McWhirter), who is making a documentary on Jordan. Will this boat trip dock successfully?
Cirio never seems to tire of the jungles of the Philippines, so here we are again with yet another shoot-fest with some exploding huts and helicopters on the side. We suppose this outing is a little different, because it involves a boat and is a little more aquatic than most other 'Nam jungle epics, and the kid that plays Mickey is actually very good and steals the movie, but this doesn't offer all that much new to the "jungle slog" genre.
The film features Philippines mainstays Henry Strzalkowski and fan favorite Nick Nicholson (in a criminally tiny part), as well as Jillian McWhirter, who's no stranger to the DTV world, having starred the fellow Corman title Hard Way Out (1996) as well as PM's Rage (1995) and the excellent Last Man Standing (1996). McWhirter puts in an especially P.J. Soles-like performance as the documentarian. What's good about her role is that it's not another stupid reporter, like so many of the token female roles we see. There's actually a bit of substance to her character. So she was probably happy about that.
But the true star of the show is undoubtedly the one and only Jan-Michael Vincent. Here, he's obviously the coolest and most badass 48 year old kid to ever brandish a machine gun. When he's not rockin' some awesome shades, he's rockin' some awesome eye-squints and some awesome hair. Even though he single-handedly takes on half the VC, and they all have machine guns, somehow NONE of them can hit the only dude out there with blonde hair and a blue tanktop. Sure, he wears the blue tanktop for 98% of the movie's running time, but hey, once you've found perfection, why mess with it? Plus, JMV looks jaggedly - even randomly - cut into the footage of this movie. The fact that it was edited from Nam Angels (1989) might explain that.
Additionally, the sound quality of this movie is not good. Add to that a blurry-sounding VHS tape, and a drunken JMV slurring his speech, and most of what he says is not comprehendable. He's about 10 times more unintelligible than Mako, but English is JMV's first language, so what's his excuse? And don't say alcohol. But we don't mean to beat up on the guy. We love seeing him, and we especially love his more besotted roles, which this one seems to be. You cannot do today what JMV did. He truly is one of the last of the "man's man" actors.
So while Beyond the Call of Duty lacks originality, a strong, central villain, or JMV parachuting out of an airplane on the box cover (couldn't they at least have super-imposed his head on the cover model's body?), there might be barely enough meat on the bone for fans of JMV or Cirio to check this one out, but don't spend too much money doing so.
Cirio never seems to tire of the jungles of the Philippines, so here we are again with yet another shoot-fest with some exploding huts and helicopters on the side. We suppose this outing is a little different, because it involves a boat and is a little more aquatic than most other 'Nam jungle epics, and the kid that plays Mickey is actually very good and steals the movie, but this doesn't offer all that much new to the "jungle slog" genre.
The film features Philippines mainstays Henry Strzalkowski and fan favorite Nick Nicholson (in a criminally tiny part), as well as Jillian McWhirter, who's no stranger to the DTV world, having starred the fellow Corman title Hard Way Out (1996) as well as PM's Rage (1995) and the excellent Last Man Standing (1996). McWhirter puts in an especially P.J. Soles-like performance as the documentarian. What's good about her role is that it's not another stupid reporter, like so many of the token female roles we see. There's actually a bit of substance to her character. So she was probably happy about that.
But the true star of the show is undoubtedly the one and only Jan-Michael Vincent. Here, he's obviously the coolest and most badass 48 year old kid to ever brandish a machine gun. When he's not rockin' some awesome shades, he's rockin' some awesome eye-squints and some awesome hair. Even though he single-handedly takes on half the VC, and they all have machine guns, somehow NONE of them can hit the only dude out there with blonde hair and a blue tanktop. Sure, he wears the blue tanktop for 98% of the movie's running time, but hey, once you've found perfection, why mess with it? Plus, JMV looks jaggedly - even randomly - cut into the footage of this movie. The fact that it was edited from Nam Angels (1989) might explain that.
Additionally, the sound quality of this movie is not good. Add to that a blurry-sounding VHS tape, and a drunken JMV slurring his speech, and most of what he says is not comprehendable. He's about 10 times more unintelligible than Mako, but English is JMV's first language, so what's his excuse? And don't say alcohol. But we don't mean to beat up on the guy. We love seeing him, and we especially love his more besotted roles, which this one seems to be. You cannot do today what JMV did. He truly is one of the last of the "man's man" actors.
So while Beyond the Call of Duty lacks originality, a strong, central villain, or JMV parachuting out of an airplane on the box cover (couldn't they at least have super-imposed his head on the cover model's body?), there might be barely enough meat on the bone for fans of JMV or Cirio to check this one out, but don't spend too much money doing so.