Final Mission (1984)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Ah - 1980's B-movies, you just can't beat 'em!They possess a peculiar certain style and cheesy charm that is sadly completely lacking in modern movies of the same nature. Straight off the bat, just check out the rock soundtrack in this film for starters - you already know that this is going to be a great ride from the very opening riff!Then we come to all the clichés that seemingly by contractual obligation MUST be present in all films of this ilk of the time.....a warehouse shootout complete with stereotypical crooks who launch tirades of expletives at the surrounding law enforcement officers, a scene set in a seedy strip joint complete with a lingering shot of the dancer taking off her bra, our heroes family getting slaughtered by the bad guys, our hero tossing in his police badge etc etc etc - it's all here!The film is completely unapologetic in its utilisation of such clichés and in addition it merrily rips off scene after scene from movies it is copied from. But who cares when a movie is this much fun!The plot? Well compendiously we first meet our hero in 'Nam in 1972 as he beats seven shades of sh- ahem, excrement out of a traitorous comrade who has joined ranks with the VC. Fast forward to the present day (well the 1980's anyway) and our man is now a tough as nails police officer who sorts things out the good old fashioned way i.e he kills the criminals with extreme prejudice!Not everyone is impressed with such forceful methods however and a local gang of hoodlums decide to teach our boy a lesson which involves breaking into his house one night to presumably murder him and his family......bad move, for our hero slaughters all of the miscreant scum bags bar one who runs back to his boss to ask for help.And who is the crooks boss? Why it's none other than the traitorous toe rag from the pre-credits sequence!To cut a short story shorter, the boss (a typically sadistic 1980's movie psycho villain) manages to blow up our hero's family thus prompting our man to swear an oath of revenge which he resolves to carry out in true Charles Bronson style.But what an anti climatic revenge it proves to be! Our hero simply grabs a big machine gun out of a store window and blows his nemesis off of a roof top in an amazingly lacklustre scene (someone should alert health and safety about leaving fully loaded guns where the public can get hold of them!)Was that it? Well as it happens no that's not the end, for the film suddenly takes a different direction....it just so happens that the dead villains brother was the local towns sheriff who now swears an oath of revenge himself!This prompts him to assemble a rabble of Rednecks to hunt our man down like a wild animal! Yes folks we're in First blood territory now as our misunderstood hero is now forced to employ all of his Vietnam learnt skills in order to survive (including in one bizarre scene presumably lifted from Dr Dolittle, our man hypnotising a dog!!!!!)Of course a bunch of hillbillies are no match for a decorated Green Beret and he makes short work of the fools thus necessitating the sheriff to next call out the National Guard!Matters further escalate out of control with all the stress causing our hero to have a mental breakdown of sorts and subsequently believing that he is back in the war!Lots of shooting and grenade throwing ensue with casualties aplenty for the ill prepared soldiers.What can I say? The movie is certainly no masterpiece and it's as derivative as hell but frankly as I said earlier, who cares - it's tremendously entertaining in a 'so bad it's good' type way.The final shot has our boy, now perilously short on ammo, screaming like a maniac whilst opening fire against overwhelming odds just before that cheesy rock track kicks back in and the picture freeze frames - genius!!!For fans of cheesy 1980's action movies, this is a must see!

Final Mission (1984) is one of those cheesy, no budget First Blood rip-offs. Unlike the other Rambo wannabes, this movie's great. The director has no shame, he blatantly copies scene-for-scene and shot-for-shot from First Blood. Others may see this as a rip-off, I see it as a funny, horribly acted, badly written and cheesy as hell action picture. There are many scenes from this movie that still boggle my mind. Even today I still wonder if a Gun shop would have an M-60 machine gun (with a full cartridge box) in a storefront window display or is it really sanitary to use a dirty knife to pop out a bullet? I highly recommend this movie, it plays like a comedy instead of a serious action/revenge film. A word of advice, stay away from open motor boats. They always seem to explode in these type of movie.Highly recommended.A (for the cheese factor) F (as a straight movie)

Of all the "First Blood" ripoffs that hit the screen in the eighties this filipino-made movie is clearly one of the better ones. Acting is pretty lousy (with the notable exception of Kaz Garas as the sheriff) but the movie has its good moments.

I bought this movie for .99 cents at a video store, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't even worth that. It's low budget with bad editing and is a total rip-off of Sylvester Stallone's "First Blood". Don't bother, rent the "Rambo" movies instead!