digitalconquest Blog

Under discussion:

Strike Commando  (1987)

Michael Ransom is the leader of the Strike Commandos, an elite group of soldiers sent in as a final option when all else fails. When an operation goes bad it’s thought that the team is finished, but Ransom survives. Attempting to make his way back to safety, he discovers a crazed Russian soldier whose purpose in the area is a mystery. He is sent back behind enemy lines to gather proof and is captured. Ransom is not a man they can break and when he gets his chance to strike back against those that have deceived him, there’s gonna be hell to pay! Brown is awesome here; he does some of his best ever screaming and gun-waving sweeps. Connelly is fun to watch as yet another cold-hearted bastard who is on Brown’s bad side from the word go! There is also a very cool soundtrack by Luigi Ceccarelli (credited as Lou Ceccarelli) that raises the whole thing up a notch. An amazing amount of explosions and interpersonal mayhem help this become one of Mattei’s most entertaining action movies!

Under discussion:

Supervivientes de los Andes  (1976)

In the later months of 1972 a plane crashed in the Andes Mountains and those not killed went to the furthest imaginable extremes to survive. This is that story. The focus is on the plight itself, the business of living through the circumstances these unfortunate people have found themselves in. Due to a miscalculation concerning the plane’s course and equipment, the rescue parties are never searching in the right place! When the weeks pass and the food runs out those still alive must come to a horrible realization… the only way they can go on is by eating the flesh of their friends who have already died in the accident! This is a fantastic and gripping film that has as many touching scenes as it has grisly ones; there is no shortage of either. Survive is intense and unrelenting but it is also hopeful and, in many ways, uplifting. For a long time you could only see this highly recommended movie on late night cable and that was often the cut version. Definitely see it uncut!

Under discussion:

Thunder Warrior 3  (1988)

Just as your mind stops reeling from the final moments of Thunder 2, here comes part 3! Thunder is back yet again and this time he isn’t alone! It all starts when a group of ridiculously sadistic redneck militant survivalists led by Pochath (?!) burn down an Indian community and send the people scattering to the hills. They murder horses, try to kill a young child, and whip Thunder within an inch of his life! The law offers no help so Thunder begins to exact his revenge on the town. When things go too far and a man called Magnum kidnaps Thunder’s hairy arm-pitted wife the whole Indian community will go to war! This is the most racially slanderous, the most over the top, the most ridiculously far fetched, the most inadvertently hilarious Thunder yet! It’s a damn trash classic! You have to see some of the miniature work to believe it and man, oh, man… that dialogue! This is the kind of movie that creates bad-film aficionados! Although the whole thing is shockingly absurd on just about every level, there is something really entertaining about all this. For those unfamiliar with the tag line on the domestic version it went something like – “They took his wife… but he’s still Walking Tall, they drew First Blood, but he’s Fighting Back like Billy Jack!” That may not be it exactly, but it’s very close. And really, that about says it all! The soundtrack on this installment is a collection of previously used tunes from Francesco De Masi’s career. Strangely, it might be the best soundtrack of the three.