Saigon Commandos (1988)

Saigon Commandos (1988)-* *

Directed by: Clark Henderson

Starring: Richard Young, P.J. Soles, Joonee Gamboa, Willie Williams, Pen Medina and Joe Mari Avellana













A murderer known as the “Hollow Point Killer” is running around the streets of Saigon in 1970. Sgt. Mark Stryker (Young) is a member of the 716th MP Battalion, and he and his fellow MP’s are tasked with stopping the seemingly-senseless killings. Along for the ride is AP reporter Jean Lassiter (Soles). As all of this is going on, there is political revolution in the streets. A group called The Association For Good Government (which seems to be a pretty reasonable name) is headed by the revolutionary Tri (Gamboa). However, Tri just happens to be in cahoots with the evil drug lord/gangster Quy (Medina). Why would they try to make the USA look bad and pin the murders on an American? Why would they depend on each other for their own ends? All questions will be answered by the SAIGON COMMANDOS...

By this point in our movie-watching careers, we’ve probably spent more time watching Vietnam movies than some active-duty soldiers actually spent in Vietnam. But this one is a little different as it’s not strictly a jungle slog, it’s more a story about the MP’s and their police work, on the city streets of Saigon. So in that sense it’s a different take on the subject matter. However, Saigon Commandos still comes out as a standard-issue Corman ‘Nam movie that easily could have been directed by Cirio Santiago.

Even though Richard Young was in the far-superior Final Mission (1984), and of course the movie at hand today, we still don’t know what he looks like. Such are his undistinguished features and lack of personality. But he does team up with his great Final Mission co-star Jack S. Daniels. Also onboard is mainstay Joe Mari Avellana (who co-wrote Final Mission), Willie Williams (again of Final Mission, as well as Savage Justice), as well as Cris Aguilar and Louie Del Castillo, who both have been in plenty of movies of this type. On the other hand, it’s nice to see P.J. Soles, who doesn’t often appear in this style of  film, but we felt wasn’t used to her full potential here, playing the cliched reporter role. Unfortunately, we’re a long way from “Always On My Mind”.

The movie has unnecessary narration, but still lacks character development. The action on show is pretty minimal, there are some standard machine-gun shooting scenes and a few chases. This is nothing a better pace and less talking, not to mention more (and better) action scenes wouldn’t solve. Plus the main hero needs to be stronger, and the main villain needs to be more delineated as well. Those are major sins in an action movie. Putting a few rockin’ guitar solos behind what action there is, while welcome, can’t paint over the movie’s deeper deficiencies. So as it stands now, Saigon Commandos is not engaging and falls under the heading of “Box Art Is Better Than The Movie”. (Thank you to Jack J from When The Vietnam Raged In The Philippines for the box art below)

As far as this being yet another movie where the hero is named “Stryker”, we thought that would be a recipe for success. Sadly, it was a disappointment. But we had an idea for a movie called “SuperStryker” (or maybe “Striker” with an I, we haven’t decided yet), where all the action stars who have ever portrayed a character named “Stryker” get together and raise hell in the jungle. We imagine it would star Wings Hauser, Richard Norton, Richard Young, and maybe even Frank Zagarino. (Sure, no one actually called him “Striker” in “Striker”, but hey, he's clearly Striker in all of our hearts. Plus we’ll get that little kid from Hostage who uttered the immortal line “Mommy, where’s Striker?”). Don’t you wish your name was Stryker?

As far as the political scenes, people have homemade banners that say “Our country is a sewer”. This doesn’t exactly help people who read the sign know what they WANT, but they do seem to love statements of fact concerning their destitute situation. The plotline closely follows the “El Presidente” model we’ve discussed many times. But instead of a South America-set actioner, this might be the first Asian “El Presidente” we’ve yet come across. But there is a band in the movie called the “Eurasia Band” who do covers of “House of the Rising Sun” and “Midnight Special”, so that’s a bridge between cultures.

Released by the great Media label, sadly, despite all it has going for it, Saigon Commandos was a letdown.

Comeuppance Review by Brett and Ty

B.O.R.N. (1988)

B.O.R.N. (1988)-* * *

Directed by: Ross Hagen

Starring: Ross Hagen, William Smith, P.J. Soles, Gregory Scott Cummins, Hoke Howell, Claire Hagen, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, and Russ Tamblyn












Buck Cassidy (Hagen) is a big-hearted cowboy who, with his wife Della (Claire Hagen) have, over the years, adopted seventeen foster children. When three of his adopted daughters are kidnapped and thrown into an unlicensed ambulance, the nightmare begins. It turns out innocent people are being taken from off the street, put into dingy operating rooms, and their organs are removed and sold to the highest bidder on the black market. 

Dr. Farley (Smith) is the sinister surgeon, Jerry (Clint Howard) is the creepy male nurse, Liz (Soles) is the secretary, and the super-evil Hugh (Tamblyn) is the agent that acts as the liaison between the desperate families that need the organs and the unwilling participants. So Buck contacts his old buddy Charlie (Howell), a retired LAPD cop, and the two of them search all over the L.A. area for the missing girls. But will they be too late?

The main reason we sought this movie out is because it contains most of the cast and a lot of the crew from one of our favorite movies, Action USA (1989). B.O.R.N. is almost like a dry run for their later masterwork. Ross Hagen, Claire Hagen, Gregory Scott Cummins, William Smith and Hoke Howell all reconvened the next year after B.O.R.N. to make the great Action USA, and the second unit director for B.O.R.N., John Stewart, became the director for Action USA, and later Cartel (1990). So when we heard that the Action USA team had tried their hand at a horror-themed film about a “Body Organ Replacement Network”, obviously our interest was piqued.

But you can tell they wanted to do an action movie all along, because there are shootouts, fisticuffs and car chases in B.O.R.N., making it less a straight-up horror movie and more a thriller with some action and horror elements.

William Smith is delightfully unintelligible as the main surgeon. Sure, it’s odd to see Smith as a surgeon, but that adds to the weirdness. PJ Soles is almost unrecognizable as the big-haired Liz. Russ Tamblyn stands out as one of the more evil baddies we’ve seen in a while. Clint Howard, playing, surprisingly, a creepy rapist, later reprised his role in Street Corner Justice (1996) (and probably a lot of his other roles as well). Rance Howard is also on board and he resembled Night Court’s Harry Anderson more than his brothers Ron or Clint.

At first it’s hard to tell who’s who in the movie, because everyone is inexplicably wearing cowboy hats in modern-day L.A., but eventually you can discern who the characters are. The editing is almost as choppy as Dr. Farley’s scalpel-work, but then there are some oddly funny moments to distract you from that, such as when Buck and a large group of people are at a large dance called “Adopt A Grandparent Day” and they’re all dancing in a circle singing “Beautiful Dreamer”.

 And sure, there’s a bit of what you might call “surgery gore”, but the main problem is that the movie needed to be tightened up. Most of the running time consists of Hoke and Hagen searching around town for the missing daughters. It’s almost like the B.O.R.N. concept couldn’t fill 90 minutes on its own. There should have been more going on plotwise. But there are enough silly/Un-P.C./worthwhile moments to keep the movie afloat.

In the music department, a band called Pigmy Love Circus plays at the aforementioned “Adopt A Grandparent Day” (good gig!) and Dawn Wildsmith is uncredited as the singer. Wildsmith was also in Cyclone (1987) with Russ Tamblyn and John Stewart, not to mention Armed Response (1986) with Ross Hagen. The end credits song (which also appears in one of the many scenes when Hagen is searching the city in his van) is “sung” by Ned Albright. It seems this was his first attempt at singing. Not just in front of a microphone at a recording session...I mean EVER. Is this the best they could have gotten? NED ALBRIGHT?

In all, B.O.R.N. is an amusing curiosity, and its claim to fame, besides its cast, is that it paved the way for Action USA.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

The Power Within (1995)

The Power Within (1995)-* * *

Directed by: Art Camacho

Starring: Ted Jan Roberts, William Zabka, John O'Hurley, Gerald Okamura, P.J. Soles, and a Special Appearance by Don "The Dragon" Wilson










In this entertaining PM effort, Ted Jan Roberts, or, "TJ" as we like to call him, plays Stan Dryer, a shy 16-year-old kid who wants nothing more than to go to the prom with Sandy, but is too meek to ask. When an old man, Master Yung (Okamura), gives him half of a powerful ring that gives him confidence and excellent martial arts ability, his life changes for the better. The only problem is, the other half of the ring belongs to the dastardly Raymond Vonn (Zabka). Vonn desperately wants the other half of the ring so he can control the world. Will Stan defeat Vonn and make it to the prom? Find out today!

TJ has formidable martial arts ability. He does impressive kicks and can knock out many baddies at once. Before Stan gets the Power Within, he is failing all his classes in school. After he gets it, he begins to ace his classes and is quite knowledgeable about the cold war, easily discussing "Gorby" with style and aplomb. At the prom, in the vein of Corey Feldman, with whom he co-starred in A Dangerous Place (1995), Stan strikes a Michael Jackson-like pose. Maybe The Power Within isn't ALL good.

 Zabka as Vonn puts in a fun, over-the-top performance. He adds a lot of life and energy. He wears a blue kimono numerous times and chops cinderblocks with his hands. He has some memorable quotes, such as "If you keep pestering me, I'll send for your soul!", "Obey me or die!", and the strangely homoerotic "Remember me, Stan? The man of your dreams!" (Stan has weird dreams that feature Vonn, usually laughing maniacally). Also, one of Vonn's henchmen resembles Gene Simmons sans makeup. That is pretty intimidating.

Stan's brother Deke is the obnoxious little brat who likes to play his Game Boy and yell "Yeah!" He also admonishes his brother that he's "missing Magic Kid!" For those who don't know, Magic Kid (1993) and Magic Kid II (1994) both feature Ted Jan Roberts. How meta.

There is an inexplicable cameo by Don "The Dragon" Wilson. He is introduced, as himself, to a martial arts class. He gives Stan some life lessons. It's always nice to see the fan favorite, even if there is basically no reason to. He must have been on break from filming the PM vehicle CyberTracker (1994).

In all, The Power Within is a fun action/martial arts romp meant for teens. If you can find it, see it!

Comeuppance review by: Ty and Brett