By Geno McGahee
I have heard good things about Reb Brown. I had seen him in YOR: THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE and he was good in that …damn good, but I never saw him in a true action film. In STRIKE COMMANDO, Brown is Sgt. Michael Ransom, a U.S. soldier in Vietnam that gets screwed over by his own people. He lost his entire team and now he must take on the enemy and seek revenge on some of his own…and there is a mad Russian that is giving him trouble too.
Ransom stumbles upon a village and tries to lead them to safety, but many of them are taken out, including a young boy that he had taken a liking to and hoped to bring to the states to introduce him to Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. When Ransom finds the dead body of the boy, he screams in agony and that scream comes into play quite often. He’s a screamer.
The mad Russian, Jakoda (Alex Vitale), captures Ransom and tortures him via electrocution, hitting with sticks, beatings, and various other mean things in an attempt to make him talk over the radio and encourage American troops to put down their weapons. Obviously, he doesn’t know Ransom very well. He can’t break him, leading to a big showdown between the unbeatable Jakoda and Ransom. In an epic showdown, Ransom is able to win, knocking Jakoda off a cliff whose last word was “Americanski.” I think it’s like a racial slur for Americans.
Now Ransom can focus on Colonel Radek (Christopher Connelly), a traitor to the US that is secretly working for the KGB. With the war over, Ransom tracks him down and kills about thirty or so people in order to get to him and disposes him via grenade launcher. The special effect was hilariously bad, but still fantastic. A shocking return of Jakoda at the end, angry over his perfect teeth being destroyed attacks, but Ransom shoves a grenade in his mouth and blows him to pieces, but not before he can scream “Americanski” one more time. It was hilarious.
STRIKE COMMANDO is no DEADLY PREY, but it is very amusing. It drags here and there, but when it kicks it into high gear, it moves quickly and becomes quite an amusing experience. I highly recommend it if you like over the top action films where a shit load of people die and the bad guy explodes.
Rating: 6.5/10