User Reviews

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.

Warning: synopsis/spoilers -

Duke boy John Schneider act's kinda like Indiana Jones, a smuggler (pilot?) who gets drawn into bad guy double-cross plots. Some cool scenes (a bar with one pinball machine? Meeting your informant/connection at his run down brothel with aging ugly hookers). Big firefight at the end with lots of explosive barrels.

Ah, back to the simple times. Back to the simple movies. Movies that deal with serious issues, but not as realistic as they could be. For a movie with a small budget, it was pretty good. I was buying a few VHS's at Vintage Stock when I saw the title. I'm a big fan of movies and documentaries that deal with the war on drugs because while I'm opposed to meth, cocaine, heroin, and pills, I have supported the NORML for 6 years. Many narcotics were illegalized in the late 1930's in America. Yet we still haven't even begun to make much of an impact. Most of the emphasis is put on marijuana, which is why we didn't make an impact during the crack epidemic, and there's no sign that we will with meth because in order to do so you must not discriminate.

But enough about politics. This movie is about a DEA agent in a foreign country going undercover in a cocaine ring. He's constantly insulting and threatening the kingpins, who apparently don't know how to their job. For example, if I worked under Escobar and I get screwed out of some money, the last thing I want to say to someone like him is, "One way or another, I'm going to get it from you. Just wait and see." I would be killed so fast, I wouldn't see it coming. So instead of the kingpin having the main character executed while he's surrounded by his personal army, he allows him to leave and waits to sends very few dimwitted thugs who easily get beaten. They put up less of a fight than the rape victim from Deliverance.

There is also one pointless scene where the main character is walking to a bar and is offered an Uzi from someone on the street. For no reason at all, he takes the gun, looks at it, puts it between the guy's lips and say's no. Come on, the man was just making an offer. Typical DEA agent! That's not what he's being paid for! This man is more cocky than the freaking' criminals are.

Anyway, he hooks up with his girlfriend, they escape death a few times, they have sex, protect a politician, etc. Then, they both get kidnapped. He gets briefly tortured and she gets smacked around. He escapes torture as easily as Seagal in Above the Law because these gangsters or whatever can't fight.

Now we get to the end of the film where our hero must rescue his girl who is kept alive even after he arrives at their "trap." You're supposed to use the woman he loves to lure him and then get rid of both of them. What's the point of keeping her alive while the hero is killing all of your men. Aren't these criminals supposed to be ruthless. I'm sorry, but I hate it when the bad guys have this much mercy. Why not do what Death Wish IV did, kill the girl just seconds before Bronson gets his man. Teach the viewers that you can't always get a happy ending.

Just like in Commando, there is no moment where you are given any doubt as to whether the hero will prevail or not. It just seems way too easy. Movies like this need some kind of tragedy or else they become forgotten or uninteresting. When the hero's woman is killed, the audience feels for him. Braveheart is a good example of this. When Wallace's wife's throat is slit, the audience is captured and their mouths drop wide open. This movie, as entertaining as it is, left me a little disappointed. It was as predictable as a made-for-TV movie and leaves you wondering what difference was made. So he destroyed the supply. What else? Did he go after the others? Were troops brought in? Did drug use decline in this country? Oh, what am I saying? They probably went back to their original plan: Spraying the crops with poison, even though it only affects the users.