The Bad Pack (1997)

Tagline:

Things always heat up when old friends get together!

Movie Review:

What we have here is a movie that takes its influences from places as varied as Seven Samurai, The Wild Bunch, and The Expendables (either one). What? You're still reading? Not dropping this in a digital basket already? Okay, we'll continue.

Close to the Mexican border lies a small town called Los Robles. The people who populate this out of the way place fall into the category of simple folk. They work, they farm, the go to church, they live their lives. They aren't all legal but are generally left alone as long as they work and keep to themselves. Close-by is a camp of militant white supremacists that call themselves the Sons of Texas. Needless to say, they cause a lot of trouble for the peaceful people of the nearby town. And trouble here would be defined as stopping by about once a month to plunder, pillage, and kill.

The poor people of Los Robles have had all they can stands. They can't stands no more! So, they get all the money together that they can, fourteen grand, and send a couple of representatives off to Los Angeles to hire a guy they read about in the back of a magazine. It doesn't go well. After a visual illustration of the DT's, the secretary informs the travellers that she's heard about a man named McQue (Robert Davi) who, it's told, is pretty damn tough. They go to a diner where he is said to hang out but they don't know who they're looking for. Figuring it out becomes easy once a group of robbers enters and starts to harass the quiet guy in the corner. Short version; some are shot, some are beaten down with a cane, and all are left on the ground. Yep, they've found their man.

It takes a serious amount of pleading and no small expression of heartfelt desperation to convince McQue to help, but they do. Like he says, it's not going to be easy to find people to risk their lives for fourteen thousand dollars. But, there's those stories about the millions stashed away at the baddies compound... That went a long way in convincing our beleaguered bike mechanic that stepping up was the right thing to do. There's three weeks until the next raid, give or take, and McQue tells the pair he'll meet them at their home in twelve days as he needs time to assemble a team.

The next section of the film is all about the introduction and assemblage of the characters that will be taking on the mission. And, man oh man, what a group it is! These are some of the most pleasing scenes in the movie as we meet all of McQue's old friends... Dash Simms (Roddy Piper) will be the driver. Kurt Mayer (Ralf Moeller) is definitely going to be the muscle. His skills as a spy and anti-terrorist specialist will no doubt come in quite handy. Now it's off to the mental hospital to grab the prerequisite crazy man, Hoffman (Patrick Dollaghan). Guess who handles the explosives? Yep. Time now to meet Remi Sykes (Shawn Huff). She's the attractive and edgy bad-assassin lady pictured up above there. You're still welcome. They have already picked up a tag-a-long in Jeremy Britt (Larry B. Scott) and it's a good thing, he handles information and travel. Brent Huff's character, Callin, shows up later on. Remember, he was behind the camera this time! So, there you have it! A top-shelf concentration of lower-budgeted action bad-assery!

The team heads down to Los Robles where they are greeted by the like locals the same way Elvis might be when touching down in a big city somewhere. These planning stages give us time to get to know what everybody is about a little bit better. Characterisation! Nice. Also, it's around this time that Mister Huff joins up. He was part of the problem, he had his reasons, but is more than willing to become part of the Pack after being left for dead on a deserted road. Why? Disclosure of that is a one-way ticket to spoilertown. I won't be taking you there, I don't do that. Regardless, his insider knowledge ends up being as big a help as you might expect later on. The 'Sons’ get wind of the mercenaries’ presence and send a small biker squad over to handle things. The ones that aren't lying on the ground or treated to high caliber ear-piercing are quickly sent home with their collective tale between their legs. This does NOT go over well with the head dicktator (purposeful spelling). Shortly after this point... It is ON!

What a fantastic good time! The energy is always high, even in quieter moments, and the whole presentation is surprisingly solid. Brent Huff demonstrates considerable skill as a director, it's filled to bursting with colourful characters in interesting situations, strikes the perfect balance between disarming humour and well-armed excitement, and showcases an effective and properly applied soundtrack backing the on-screen action. Positives are many, complaints are few if any. Over the years, reading other assessments, the common complaint is that this plays like an old episode of the A-Team. Some influence is there, sure, but it's not like this is the only movie to do that, now is it? No. And besides, look at the pictures, see what I'm getting at? A-Team was never like that. And for the record, I like this movie a whole heck of a lot more than the A-Team movie that we ended up with. I'll take BAD PACK any day. ANY DAY!

I have this theory that some people like to hate on movies like this because they feel like they should. I won't say more for fear of the several angry and alienating paragraphs that would surely follow. Seriously though, this is an excellent movie of its kind and if you're a fan of any of the cast, or all of them, you do NOT want to miss THE BAD PACK!

Reviewed by Xtro the Mutilator

Trivia and Notes:

• This was Brent Huff's second film in the director's chair but far from his last. He's still directing today and has projects coming even as I write this. 
• Brent Huff also wrote THE BAD PACK. 
• Yep, Shawn Huff is indeed Mrs. Brent Huff. They've worked together several times. 
• Cameo: Look for The Road Warrior's Vernon Wells as one of the bikers. 
• Cameo: Look for Clifton Collins Jr. as one of the townspeople. 
• Cameo: Look for character actor Joe Unger as the fight promoter.
• Ralf Moeller has had quite a career but is probably most recognisable to most as having played Conan in the TV series of the same name. 
• Sven Ole Thorsen has also had quite a busy career but will also be best known to many by his Conan association. He had roles in both of the original Conan films. There aren't too many 80's Schwarzenegger films that he wasn't involved with. 
• In Moeller's introduction, he is seen fighting a man mountain in a human cockfight. That opponent's real name was Jeep Swenson. Jeep's career in movies and TV was starting to take off at this time but he sadly died very shortly after making THE BAD PACK. 
• Larry B. Scott was famous as the effeminate Lamar Latrelle from the Revenge of the Nerds films. The first name of Dollaghan's character in this movie is Latrelle. 
• Extras details: The cast bios are light, to put it politely, and feature only three players. The text synopsis is wrong.  
• DVD shown and reviewed is the original Canadian release from 1999. The American DVD did not come along until 2004 and features slightly different packaging/art and, though out of print, can still be found for purchase at places like Amazon. There is a German PAL Region 2 DVD from Splendid Entertainment that, depending on where you look, promises a 1.85:1 widescreen image and an English language track. I found out the hard way that neither one of those things is true.

Trailer:

Armed Response (1986)

Tagline:

Pushed too hard. Pushed too far. Now they're pushing back!

Movie Review:




Jim Roth (David Carradine, Kill Bill, Kung Fu, Deathrace 2000) owns a bar which is frequented by his father Burt (Lee Van Cleef, The Good The Bad The Ugly, Escape From New York) and his brother Tommy (Brent Huff, Cop Game, Strike Commando II). Third brother Clay (David Goss) and partner Cory are private investigators hired by crime boss Akira Tanaka (Mako) to retrieve a stolen jade statue from a couple of professional crooks. The trade of a suitcase full of money for the statue, of course, goes sour and Clay is killed. Now it is up to the rest of the Roth clan enact their ARMED RESPONSE and avenge their brother.

Sometimes you put a DVD in the player, hit start and you can't wipe the smile off your face for the next hour and a half. That was this film. I thought I would be in for a good time when I saw the cover: David Carradine. Lee Van Cleef. An exploding car. This was going to be vintage 1980's action and it was going to be awesome. But the second the credits rolled it was even more awesome than I was expecting. The aforementioned Brent Huff. Mako from The Perfect Weapon as the crime boss Tanaka. And Directed by genre stalwart Fred Olen Ray - whose 80's films are a guarantee for a good time - what more could you ask for?



The names keep coming too. This film is just filled to the brim with 'that guy' guys. As well as the previously mentioned names from the credits, we also get Michael Berryman (a very unique looking man, most famous for The Hills Have Eyes, Cut and Run, Weird Science) who plays lead thug for Tanaka, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in a non-speaking thug role that would traditionally go to Al Leong - I was actually waiting for him to show - and the 'that guy' to end all other that guy's, Dick Miller. His scene as the criminal with the stolen statue is so short they probably kept his car running, but his amazing red suit jacket is totally worth the price of entry.

Is the film violent? To quote Clarence Boddiker from Robocop; "Guns, guns, guns!" Shotguns, machine guns, massive .44 Magnums, sniper rifles, grenades exploding that throw a guy into the air backwards in a fireball, Japanese torture, knives, bottles of scotch over the head - and it wouldn't be a David Carradine film without some kung-fu! All it needed was a freaking crossbow. You won't be disappointed with the action in this one.



There's some choice dialogue to be heard here, primarily from the Roth clan. Jim, in reference to the statue; "Take your jade suppository and get outta here!". Burt in discussing Tanaka's style; "He's a two-bit thug in a three-piece suit." and best of all, Clay after Cory blows away a blonde with a well-endowed chest; "You shot her tits off!" Wow. Just, wow.

The 80's-ness of Armed Response is spectacular. All the cliches you want to see are here. Carradine has a Nam flashback (I swear this footage is pulled from one of Carradine's numerous Nam films, too) when he pulls a shotgun on a guy in his bar. The ubiquitous scene at a titty club. Yakuza vs. Tongs. A car chase that involves a car smashing through a phone box and a trolley full of tin cans, and a cop car flying up the back of three other crashed cars, then exploding. Carradine quipping "Go in pieces" after blowing up a guy. The electro-rock soundtrack with wailing guitar solos. Chicks with machine guns.

Armed Response never bothers itself too much about a complicated plot or any subplots at all. It's a very simple revenge-vigilante flick and it works so well for that. It's all here, folks, and it's all amazing. And at 82 minutes long it never, ever gets boring.



Highlight:

I mentioned a few choice lines above, but this exchange made me truly laugh out loud.

Mako: "Tell me where the statue is!"
Huff: "Go play with yourself!"

Trailer:

Scorpio One (1998)

Tagline:

At the edge of space, patriotism and terrorism are about to cross the line.

Quick Blast Review:

The Scorpio One is an orbiting research station and it's just been sabotaged, leaving all the occupants dead. NASA has no idea what has happened so sends up a new team lead by Commander Wilson (Steve Kanaly), Carter (Robert Carradine), Pilot Hutton (Michael Monks, Hijack) and Shannon Brey (Robin Curtis, Saavik from Star Trek III and IV), with the assistance of a squad of marines captained by Jared Stone (Jeff Speakman) and Till (Brent Huff). After docking the shuttle with the doomed Scorpio One, the rescue team board and are immediately attacked, leaving one member dead. An attempt is then made on Stone's life but he manages to escape and inform Commander Wilson that one of their own team is responsible and trying to steal the scientific research from Scorpio One. That's when Till and his allies take over the shuttle by force, demanding the research computer discs or hostages will start dying and ships start exploding!

You can rely on Royal Oaks to deliver a decent 90 minute time-waster as much as you can bet on Nu Image and PM Entertainment. In that regard, this was pretty decent, even a bit more cerebral (only a bit, mind you) then I was expecting. It's not often these made-for-TV actioners involve political intrigue and espionage, but this one did. We also got two separate sources of action that tied up both ends of the story, which itself is also unusual, but appreciated. Whilst the by-the-numbers Die Hard on an Orbiting Space Station goes on (ala Fallout), down on Earth a deadly plot implicating a Senator in the Scorpio One sabotage is discovered by CIA Director Wilfred Parlow (George Murdock, adding some class to the picture), who sends a small team of two to break into a security facility to gather evidence, and random Agents being knocked off with a roll-on deodorant that makes your heart explode.

The special effects in the film are rubbish (probably the worst shuttle model I've ever seen, and why are these people firing lasers in 1998?) and the science offensive - in one sentence Brey says that the space station's artificial gravity is functioning perfectly, but that there is a gaping hole in the ship that has sucked out all its atmosphere - but it moves at a fast pace and is enjoyable enough. Huff doesn't do much for 45 minutes except drink coffee, but once he shows his true intentions (beginning with ejecting one of the astronauts into the airlock and depressurising it, blowing him into chunks) he appears solidly for about twenty minutes being a bad guy. Speakman only gets two quick hand-to-hand fights but he gets to remind the audience that he is good at this Kenpo thing and can swing a roundhouse-kick or two - one of them pointed at Huff's head.

Special mention has to go to the pointless but highly entertaining ten minutes at the beginning that sees Speakman rescuing a soldier in Iraq from captors in a bloody melee, then being choppered away while yelling "Nooooo!" to his man left behind. And I've not mentioned Carradine much in this review because, well, despite his top billing he really doesn't do anything.

The Final Fifteen:

Hutton (who turned bad) has run off with the space shuttle after Stone kicked Till into the airlock and into outer space. With Scorpio One rigged to blow, the only option is the single escape pod. Back on Earth, Speakman has found out that Director Parlow is just as corrupt as the Senator and gives him the option of a trial or driving his car off the top of the building - he chooses the latter.

Sourced From:

I found this on VHS at a charity shop for 20c. You can get a DVD as well in most territories.

Trailer:

Hijack aka The Last Siege (1999)

Tagline:

Never Surrender.

Movie Review:

I just can't get enough of these Die Hard clones, I really can't. Here we are again with a cheap made-for-cable film starring Jeff Fahey and Ernie Hudson called Hijack (and in some territories, The Last Siege), brought to us by our friends at Royal Oaks Entertainment, responsible for other cheapy action films such as Executive Command, Moving Target and Maximum Security. Sitting in a two-buck bin I couldn't say no to a cast this promising. The Lawnmower Man and the fourth Ghostbuster! What a great combo.

You can probably work out the drill here. Eddie (Fahey) is an ATF agent with a vendetta. He botches a bust operation to capture the ruthless bad guy Anderson by letting him get away and is fired. Being home with nothing to do except stew on the failed arrest causes a strain on Eddie's marriage to Senator's aid Valerie Miller (Beth Toussaint). She flies out to assist Senator Douglas Wilson (Hudson), who has a strong anti-gun viewpoint that is ruffling a few people's feathers. With no work keeping him in town, he decides to surprise his wife with a bunch of flowers on the train that she is on with the Senator. What nobody realises is that the Senator's regular security guard has been replaced with a new guy... and the train conductor isn't all he appears to be, yet he seems to be familiar to Eddie.

"Somebody's overridden the override system!"

This is decent enough time-filling material. You get exactly what you expect from a cheap Die Hard clone. Jeff Fahey takes on the role of Bruce Willis here, making himself scarce when the train is taken over by Anderson posing as the conductor and his team of grunts - the "Brotherhood of Vengeance" (?!) - who have placed a nuclear device on board. And just like any good Die Hard clone, he picks off the bad guys one by one until just the lead bad guy is left standing. He protects the senator, makes amends with his wife, jumps from a helicopter onto the moving train and derails it causing a massive fireball. I know I say this a lot, but you truly have seen all this before. But whatever, it was still entertaining.

You can't help but like Ernie Hudson, no matter what film he is in. He's just a likeable guy. Hudson gives a solid performance as the Senator and has a nice shouting monologue at the Anderson character about guns versus patriotism. He also has to deal with the ultimate irony of firing an automatic weapon at a person in the last act. One thing I didn't realise until afterwards is that Ernie Hudson Jr. is in the film, playing a small fry role as the ATF phone operator. Another little tidbit of trivia; the false security guy and Anderson's second in command is played by Patrick Kilpatrick - who also played a bad guy mercenary in Under Siege 2! Talk about type-casting.

"I like killing politicians. I'm good at it."

Oh, and speaking of Anderson; did somebody say.. Brent Huff? You got it! Bad guy Anderson is played by the same Brent Huff we've featured in Cop Game and Strike Commando 2, those glorious jungle films from Bruno Mattei. This was a real surprise to me as his name is not mentioned at all on the front or back cover of this DVD, and boy did I fist-pump the air when his name appeared during the opening credits. Of course it's a decade later so I wasn't expecting him to be a tough-as-nails mercenary. What we got was a refined and subtle manic leader with a plan, who mainly got his grunts to do the dirty work. I have to say I was disappointed in the lack of hands-on action Huff got in this film but he does play the restrained, articulate bad guy pretty well. I still wanted him to mow down people with a machine gun though.

Apparently scenes from this film were cut into the Brian Bosworth film Mach 2. I've not seen that one yet, and based on the scathing review over at our good friends The Direct to Video Connoisseur, I'm not likely to get to it any time soon. What I found interesting was that in their review, it's mentioned that Bosworth starts the film by jumping onto the back of a train and taking it over from some hijackers, spouting witty one-liners as he goes. I have to assume that it's the same train footage used from Hijack. I wonder if it's actually Jeff Fahey running around on that train in Mach 2, with only close-ups of Bosworth? Clarification on that alone makes me want to seek that film out.

There's a review on IMDB that refers to this movie as "Under Par: Dismal Territory", in an amusing and degrading reference to Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. That's a little unfair I think. You get what you pay for here - a made for TV clone of a bigger budget, bigger starred film. It kept my interest for 90 minutes, didn't particularly insult my intelligence more than any other action film, and was reasonably well acted for the most part. Under par? Perhaps. Dismal? Not at all. See it cheap or better yet, see it on TV.

The Video:

Pleasing enough fullscreen picture that just screams "midday movie" at you. Accompanying sound is as fine as it is unremarkable. Runtime approx. 90 minutes.

Sourced From:

Cheap $2 RRP disc from a variety store, put out by Payless Entertainment/RAAM Multimedia here in Australia.

Trailer:

Unfortunately I couldn't locate one, and there wasn't one on the disc.

More Screens:

Cop Game (1988)

Movie Review:

"I'm gonna put your asses in a sling!"

I adore Bruno Mattei's films, I really really do. Only he can make schlock this entertaining. Made the same time as Born to Fight and Strike Commando 2, and with the same star Brent Huff, you know you are going to be getting some Vietnam War mayhem filmed in the Philippines and that can mean only one thing: exploding huts!

Not a straight-forward war movie like Phantom Soldiers or the previously mentioned Strike Commando's, there are scenes of urban action in this as well. From the beginning: some masked soldiers in American military uniforms attack and kill a member of the elite Cobra force while he's taking a bath. Obviously this looks bad for the American army so they want it dealt with quietly. That's when two cops, an American, Morgan (Brent Huff) and a Vietnamese, Hawk (Max Laurel) are brought in to find out who wants Cobra force dead and to deal with the situation outside of military jurisdiction.

That's the plot in a nutshell. I really don't need to explain much more do I? I'm sure you can picture it already, and what you picture is probably right on the money. Morgan and Hawk run around Saigon streets chasing informants through food markets. Morgan and Hawk get involved in a car chase that sees them flying over train tracks just in the nick of time. Morgan and Hawk burst through doors with artillery laying waste to half the Vietnamese army. When they make it into the jungle it gets even more explosive with rocket propelled grenades, helicopter mounted chain guns and exploding hut after exploding hut. That's also when the plot, such as it is, thickens as Morgan and Hawk learn new truths about who they are looking for.

Morgan: "Jesus Christ cock sucking mother fucking son of a bitch!"
Hawk: "You took the words right out of my mouth!"

It goes on like this for 90 minutes, barely stopping three times to visit the same nightclub to watch the same six people dancing.  Oh and there's a smoking hot blonde informant that may be a Russian spy. Some of the plot doesn't make a great deal of sense, and the continued use of the Vietnam war theme - even though we clearly see late 1980's cars and clothing - has been seen and done a million times before, but it really doesn't matter. Seeing soldiers declare that the scenery is beautiful before tearing it up with mounted artillery never gets old. Bruno Mattei, I love you!

Huff is on top form again, roughing up anyone that needs roughing up to get answers out of them, or just plain shooting them when they don't co-operate, spilling out a few hilarious lines as he does. Max Laurel - as far as I can tell a native Filipino - is a great second banana, getting in on just as much action as Huff does, and also another grunt from Robowar (Mattei sure likes using the same actors again and again). However, the best part about the movie is the music. Sure most of the music is standard electro-symphonic rock like all these 80's Italian/Filipino movies, but most other movies don't get their own theme song! Cop Game features the song Cop Game played half a dozen times, and only half of those times is it really appropriate, but all of the times it's just glorious. Don't believe me, listen to it yourself.

"His name's Captain Kirk, just like in Star Trek!"

Romano Puppo, another Italian and Filipino action movie staple, is in this too. He was Cpl. Neil Corey in Robowar, Alex Bross in Born to Fight, Ratchet in 2019: After the Fall of New York... and it goes on like that. He's not the focus of the movie but he is the one that "knows just the two guys" to pull off this mission and makes a few appearances throughout. Mattei had the balls to call him Captain Kirk as well, which is just hysterical.

The gorgeous Candice Daly plays the female of the piece, Annie, first showing up when she leaves a message in lipstick for Morgan on a bar room mirror that she has information for him. It's a shame she didn't have a bigger part really but when she was there she provided a nice contrast to the otherwise male-dominated movie.

So it's pretty obvious that I really enjoyed Cop Game. Stuff explodes, countless clips are emptied, cars are chased and the day is saved. The journey may make little sense but it's a fun ride all the same. You're only going to find this on Dutch or Japanese VHS or grey market DVDRs sourced from the same tapes, but it's completely worth your time. Not quite Strike Commando or Robowar quality but not far behind.

The Video:

If you've seen any Italian or Filipino action film on Japanese VHS before then you know what you are in for. Soft, desaturated, murky blacks and overly bright whites. Still, it's perfectly watchable and in widescreen to boot. Runtime approx. 90 minutes.

Sourced From:

eBay, for more than a little, less than a lot.

Trailer:

More Screens: