Thunder (1983)

Thunder (1983)- * * *

Directed by: Fabrizio De Angelis

Starring: Mark Gregory, Raimund Harmstorf, Paolo Malco, and Bo Svenson

"Thunder will never die!!!"-Kid Running Away

Thunder (Gregory) is a mild-mannered Native American minding his own business and just trying to live his life in Page, Arizona. That is, until a crew of construction workers attempt to bulldoze an ancient Navajo burial site. He goes to the local police station, but Sheriff Bill Cook (Svenson) is no help, and his crew of angry, racist deputies, led by Barry Henson (Harmstorf) only seem to want to harass and torment Thunder. 

After yet another gang of redneck attackers assaults Thunder, he finally snaps – into action, that is. Armed with a bow and arrow, a bazooka, and several bits of stolen construction equipment, Thunder gets in touch with his warrior roots and goes to war with the entire town! Luckily, on his side is the local DJ, who sends out encouraging messages, and a reporter named Brian Sherman (Malco) also gets behind Thunder’s mission. What will be left in the wreckage after THUNDER rolls in?

Here we have the first entry in the Thunder trilogy, all of which are directed by Fabrizio De Angelis (as Larry Ludman of course), and starring Mark Gregory, AKA Marco Di Gregorio. As has been noted before, Thunder is very closely modeled after First Blood (1982), down to the veritable re-creation of certain scenes. That doesn’t detract from its appeal, however. In fact, it only adds to it. Thunder boasts some fantastic location scenery, fights, car chases, and blow-ups. It’s all set to a typically-great Francesco De Masi score and has some familiar B-Movie names we all know and love (though, to be fair, there should have been just a bit more Bo Svenson). 

We really don’t want to repeat what we said in our reviews for the other Thunder movies, especially part two, because much of that could apply here as well. A lot of the same stuff happens in all three movies in the trilogy. For example, the local redneck population call Thunder a barrage of racial slurs, including “redskin” many, many times. The fact that Thunder is played by Marco Di Gregorio, who was born in Rome and is about as Native American as Pope John Paul II, is very amusing. 

The grandfather in the Thunder family steals the movie, or maybe it’s just his dubbing. But we really enjoyed every scene this elderly gentleman was in, and the final third is a satisfying destruction spree you can’t help but love. If you really do love it, you can watch it two more times in the sequels. Everything catches fire (literally) when Thunder hits his Breaking Point – not unlike Bo Svenson himself in the 1976 film of that name. 

Thunder is B-Movie action fun as only the Italians can serve it up. It was perfect for the video stores of the day (even if, let’s be fair, the minimal plot of the deputies chasing Thunder for almost the entire running time does wear a bit thin after a while). But it all ends on an encouraging note with a memorable final line. As an example of classic Rambosploitation, it’s hard to do much better than Thunder.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Warbus 2 (1989)

Warbus 2 (1989)- * *

Directed by: Pierluigi Ciriaci

Starring: Mark Gregory, Savina Gersak, and John Vernon

Johnny Hondo (Gregory), despite what you might already think, is not a cowboy. He is a former Green Beret badass warrior who goes to Afghanistan during the conflict there with the Russians. It’s his father’s dying wish for Johnny to find secret documents left behind in the old, abandoned Warbus. So, off he goes, and he shoots and/or blows up a lot of buildings and/or people during the course of his mission. He links up with a small team of like-minded good guys, led by Ken Ross (Vernon), which also includes Linda Cain (Gersak), a guy named Billy whose main talent is he can eat an unlimited amount of food, and a guy named Norton. Johnny Hondo also has to rescue a POW named Captain Bowie, and he enlists the help of a local boy to show him around. But will the WARBUS make its scheduled stops, and will the baddies be paying the toll?

Mark Gregory – both Trash and Thunder, as Italian exploitation fans already know – wears a cool leather coat and proceeds to decimate the population of Afghanistan, as well as the commies, in this A-Team-esque sequel to the original Warbus (1986). He shoots a lot of people, blows up multiple helicopters with ease, and few buildings are left standing. Despite all this, and the presence of John Vernon (who is, unfortunately, dubbed here), this is no Rambo III (1988). It’s actually rather forgettable. Not bad, mind you, but it’s kind of, “another day, another blow-up”. There isn’t much in the way of character development or emotion, but maybe that’s unfair of us to ask for that. It does have nice camerawork, as well as a catchy, military-style score by Elio Polizzi.

Speaking of Polizzi, he seems to exclusively score these Mercs-type movies, including Just A Damned Soldier (1988), directed by Ferdinando Baldi, director of the original Warbus. If Baldi – who also directed Ten Zan: Ultimate Mission in 1988, bails, that’s probably not a great sign. But as Ten Zan was his last movie, perhaps he wanted to go out on a Frank Zagarino-in-North-Korea high. So, in the event, we were left in the capable hands of Mr. Ciriaci. We’ve now seen and reviewed all four of his directorial outings: Delta Force Commando (1988), Soldier of Fortune (1990), and who could forget the convolutedly-titled classic Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990)? It’s probably fair to describe him as a workmanlike director, and he goes through the appropriate motions, neither offending with badness nor delighting with awesomeness. This particular Warbus just kind of rolls along until after about 90 minutes or so when it runs out of gas.

It’s funny the way they really make you wait for the Warbus until the final third of the movie – almost like they were under the mistaken impression that the audience really gives a flying flip. It’s not exactly like they’re unveiling something mysterious or legendary – it’s a school bus. The anticipation level you’ll feel as an audience member is roughly similar to what you may feel like while waiting for the actual bus. It’s not really too much of a revelation. The whole “fixing up the bus” scene may remind you of American Commandos (1985) or perhaps The Gauntlet (1977), but…so what? Also Johnny Hondo gets the Prerequisite Torture treatment and there are relevant references to Iranians and Pakistanis.

There are a lot worse things in the world to watch than Warbus 2 – we’d prefer this to almost any currently-produced Hollywood product. But, on the other hand, even in the world of Italian-made blow-em-ups, this would rank towards the mediocre middle. Only you can decide what your level of fandom and interest is – and along the way John Vernon, Mark Gregory, and plenty of blow-ups accompany your journey.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Thunder III (1988)

Thunder III (1988)- * *

Directed by: Fabrizio De Angelis

Starring: Mark Gregory, Werner Pochath, Jeffrey Domo, and John Phillip Law

Thunder (Gregory) returns in this third installment, wrapping up the trilogy. This time around, our old pal Thunder is STILL trying to live in peace in the American West, even mentoring a young Indian boy named Little Owl (Jeffrey Domo) in his Native American ways. When a group of rowdy rednecks led by Magnum (Pochath) assault and even torture Thunder, seemingly just for kicks, Thunder wants retribution. 

Yet again he seeks the help of local law enforcement, this time in the form of Sheriff Jeff - yes, just Sheriff JEFF (JPL). Naturally, Sheriff Jeff is unable to help Thunder, so Thunder takes the law into his own hands once again. Because he was promised a rather modest sum of $53,000 to rebuild his Indian village, and he didn’t get it, Thunder just goes on a rampage of large-scale vandalism and property destruction, eventually blowing up the businesses of the local good ole boys who wronged him. Will Sheriff Jeff be able to stop the madness? Or will the one-man Native American wrecking crew that is Thunder proceed to take down the whole local economy of Las Cruces, New Mexico?

If you’re watching Thunder III (by now, the filmmakers are assuming we’re so familiar with the character that they dropped the “Warrior” from the title), it means you really care. And if you do indeed care about the Thunder saga enough to stick through three entries of what is essentially the same movie over and over again, then this movie is for you - and only for you. It almost feels like one last send-off for fans of the trilogy, because there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, and it appears the filmmakers did indeed presume some prior familiarity amongst the viewership. In other words, no one’s going to START with Thunder III. You’re here because you want to be.

It feels like there’s less budget to work with this time around, and there probably wasn’t a sky-high budget to begin with for the other two movies. Thus, it has a junkier overall feel. But that also may be because they stretched out what, in another movie, would be one or two sequences into a whole 82-minute feature. Consequently, there’s not much actual movie here. 

The lack of substance makes the whole thing feel a bit off, like you’re expecting some context or some other events to occur - but, as stated earlier, maybe Ludman felt that was not needed because, in his view, the audience had all the context they needed. So Thunder can be free to beat Bounce fabric softener boxes off store shelves with a bat with impunity.

Pochath stands out, as usual, as the leader of the rednecks, and there are some nice locations and decent blow-ups, but it’s kind of “been there, done that” - Thunder faces the usual red tape, he gets revenge, there’s the Prerequisite Torture of the hero, and some “Indian racism” by the evil whiteys (who have goofy “Southern” accents even though it doesn’t take place in the South). 

Instead of Bo Svenson as the sheriff, as he was in the previous two entries, now it’s John Phillip Law, or JPL as we call him. We’d love to know what JPL thought about all this. Someone should make a documentary about the actors that appeared in these Italian productions. Maybe we can somehow know Oliver Reed or Richard Harris’s feelings about their time making these things.

As you might imagine, by the time of Thunder III, everyone was out of ideas and the franchise ran out of gas. There wasn’t really all that much there to begin with. It’s more a testament to the ingenuity of the Italian film industry than anything else. They could whip up a movie out of nothing, like taking a little leftover garlic and pasta and coming up with a reasonably satisfying meal. Unfortunately, nothing here sticks to the ribs. Even still, it was released on Imperial on VHS in the U.S., meaning the whole Thunder saga made it to American video store shelves in the 80’s - which is more than you can say for a lot of other productions, Italian or otherwise.

Thunder III is - pretty much exclusively - for fans of the first two. It’s hard to imagine anyone else getting on board with Thunder’s antics for a third go-round. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Just A Damned Soldier (1988)

Just A Damned Soldier (1988)- * * *

Directed by: Ferdinando Baldi

Starring: Peter Hooten, Mike Monty, Romano Kristoff, and Mark Gregory 

In Cambodia, a four-man strike force led by Bolan (Hooten), stages a raid on an industrial complex. After shooting a lot of people and blowing a lot of stuff up (a trend that will continue throughout the proceedings), the men - which also includes Mark Gregory of the Thunder and Bronx series - steal a large cache of gold. The man whose compound was raided, top dog arch-baddie Mr. Titelman, wants revenge on the strike force. 

Based on who is sending and receiving the gold, Titelman states he doesn’t “want to see the tense political situation in this country explode”. Truly that’s not the only thing that’s going to explode. Titelman is tied in with the Cambodian authorities and will be in deep trouble if he doesn’t find his men. Thankfully, he has loads of cannon fodder to disperse throughout the jungles of Cambodia (i.e, the Philippines. Let’s not forget Mike Monty is involved as a suit named Schaffler). Who will survive...and who will get the gold?

Oh, Hooten, we hardly knew ye. Truly Peter Hooten could have been the next Steve Guttenberg. (Peter Hootenberg?) At least they have a similar look about them.  Hooten and the aforementioned Gregory lead us through yet another Italian-produced jungle romp, where the machine guns fire with abandon, and huts were made to be blown up. If you like that sort of thing - and we’re supposing you do - Just a Damned Soldier (great title - even better than Titelman) will win you over. It’s a quality example of this sort of movie, and there were plenty of them in the late 80’s. It’s no Commander, but what could be? JADS does what it does quite well, and praise goes to writer/director Ferdinando Baldi, using his normal anglicized name of Ted Kaplan. 

Baldi ended his lengthy career, which dates back to the 1950’s, by making some jungle-set blow-em-ups, and what better way to cap off a life in cinema? His final three movies are Warbus (1986), Ten Zan - Ultimate Mission (1988), where he infamously sent Frank Zagarino to North Korea - and the movie we’re currently discussing.  Baldi re-teamed with his Ten Zan composer, Elio Polizzi, whose great music goes a long way in helping things stay afloat. The music also helps to give the whole movie a “Contra” vibe - soldiers in the greenery, shooting, 1988.

Because plot is minimal (not a complaint; they had to make time for more exploding huts), things do slow down at times, but JADS is still solid and has a lot going for it. They sure don’t skimp on the blow-ups and shooting. Also Titelman is a Taekwondo arms dealer. Featuring the songs “The Shadow of Your Eyes” by Gatsby and the truly memorable “I Just Have Had Enough” by Paula, Just a Damned Soldier is a Damned good time. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Ten-Zan: The Ultimate Mission (1988)

Ten-Zan: The Ultimate Mission (1988)- * * *

Directed by: Ferdinando Baldi

Starring: Frank Zagarino, Mark Gregory, Sabrina Siani, and Rom Kristoff









When a scientist invents a serum, extracted from the bodily fluids of both humans and animals, that can recreate the “master race” of the Nazis, an American hero named Lou Mamet (Zags) travels from his native Mattituck, Long Island, all the way to North Korea, of all places, to stop the scientist. Helping him out along his way is fellow soldier of fortune (?) Ricky (Kristoff), but they’re going to have to face off against the evil Jason (Gregory) and a ton of local North Korean goons. And what does the mysterious Glenda (Siani) have to do with any of this? Thankfully, Lou Mamet and Ricky have plenty of firepower to pull off the mission...or do they? Find out today!

Interestingly, Ten Zan was indeed shot in North Korea (or NoKo as we call it). This was a smart move on behalf of then-Supreme Leader Kim Il-Sung. Unlike his successors Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, Kim Il-Sung clearly realized that the way to become a valued part of the international community and endear yourself to the rest of the world was to get Frank Zagarino in there and blow the crud out of some huts. Whether this was truly in the spirit of international brotherhood, or just a ruse to make people think they’re not a rogue state on the world stage, it was truly the best - nay - the ONLY logical move. 

It has been said that Kim Jong-Il was a huge movie buff and had a VHS collection consisting of thousands of titles. It has even been said that he loved action movies, the First Blood series in particular. Perhaps his love of movies culminated when he kidnapped a film crew and actors from South Korea and forced them to make a movie in the North. But the real question is: Is Ten Zan: Ultimate Mission in that large collection? Odds are it is. There’s a very good chance that a madman with nukes has seen Frank Zagarino, Romano “Rom” Kristoff, and Mark Gregory romping around in an Exploding Hutter. It truly boggles the mind.

While Ten Zan doesn’t quite scale the lofty heights of the truly awesome Commander (1988) (though it would be unfair to compare every Italian Exploding Hutter to that masterpiece), we can still chalk up another in the win column for Frankie Zags. Thankfully, he’s as wooden as ever. 

We wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course, once again, he gets tortured. Backing him up is Mark Gregory - Trash and Thunder himself - almost unrecognizable here with short hair and very clean-shaven. The presences of those two stars amongst a panoply of exploding huts is enough right there to recommend the movie, but the North Korean connection just puts the weirdness level over the top.

Ten Zan was the last film of director Ferdinando Baldi, coming not long after his Warbus (1986). We’d say Ten Zan is a bit better than the one-note Warbus, but they’re certainly cut from the same cloth. Without a doubt, there are enough blow-ups to go around. You just have to love the 80’s. It’s just so cool to see the words ULTIMATE MISSION on the screen. Ultimate Mission. You just wouldn’t see that in a movie released today. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t get wide distribution - only officially released in the Netherlands and Japan (the Japanese get everything!), with no U.S. VHS release. That is a shame, as it could have developed into something of a cult classic - but did the North Koreans purposely prevent it because they hate America? Perhaps we’ll never know.

Ten Zan: Ultimate Mission is an Italian Exploding Hut movie that was filmed in a rarely-seen location, featuring some of our favorite stars of the genre. If you can see it, see it.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett