Zone Troopers (1985)

Such a frustrating disappointment

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Zone Troopers is a movie that I'm glad I got to watch but that's about it.Watching it once was enough for me.The entire time I was thinking I'd like to see the aliens fighting along side the Americans against the Nazis & it does happen but when it does, there's less than 10 minutes left in the movie so it was like when you wait awhile for something to happen, only to think after it's over, I wasted all this time, just for that??? The aliens lazer guns, ray guns, whatever you want to call them were weak looking.When they shot them at the Germans & the Germans vanished into thin air, it was weak as well.I don't know what I was expecting but even for a low budget movie I expected something better.Not all of the movie was bad though.There were a lot of times where I either laughed out loud or chuckled.I didn't HATE Zone Troopers but I wasn't all that into it as much as I expected to be either.When I read the description I thought this movie is going to be AWESOME & after watching it, I'm just sitting here like....... It did have a 1950's Sci Fi vibe to it for a movie made in the 80's which I think was pretty cool (Maybe that's why the lazer/ray guns effects were so weak.It was done on purpose to give it that 50's Sci Fi effect.I might have to give it a 2nd look someday) Even though I wasn't all that into it, I'd recommend checking it out if you were thinking about watching it.It's worth checking out at least once

I can understand the appeal. I grew up in the 60's watching every 1940's to 1950's b-movie I could on Saturday nights. I love science fiction. I even like bad movies. But this one just doesn't get it right.I found nothing in the story that made ANY bit of sense. It's like the horror movies of that time (1980's) where stupid characters make stupid decisions despite the dangers around them - all without the slightest nod to any trepidation or common sense.1) You don't leave a trail of American-brand cigarette butts all over the Italian countryside with Germans on your heels.2) If your supplies are limited, your fallen countrymen wouldn't mind if you took their spare ammo.3) When you're holed up in some barn, you don't make a fire which can be seen through a gate that looks like a bunch of third-graders put it together.4) When you're on the run and hiding from Germans in the area, you don't shout to each other.5) When you're the Germans and the Americans have their backs to you, don't wait until they are able to turn around and use their recently-acquired alien weapons on you.I'd also like to know why an alien civilization wouldn't think of their own type of grating rather than resorting to a design that resembles Terran chicken-wire.Even in my giddiest of moods I would find this movie difficult to watch because of the dreadful lack of regard for common sense in every scene.

7 1/2 out of 10I was scanning some titles at a local video store when I happened upon a bizarre little film called Zone Troopers. A group of American soldiers in WW II stuck behind enemy lines, run across a crashed alien spacecraft. The box art looked promising, but my expectations were low. Surprise! This movie was actually entertaining. Sure there were some gaping plot holes, the script wasn't exactly academy award material, and the alien costume left a little to be desired, but I had no trouble getting into this film. It never got boring, I even became attached to a few of the characters. This won't top anyone's movie list, but it's definitely worth a watch. For Full Moon fans out there you'll be happy to know that Tim Thomerson, the "Dollman" himself, acts as the Sarge in Zone Troopers, easily my favorite character of the bunch.

Why are some people reviewing Zone Troppers as if the makers had intended to make a serious sci-fi film? This movie was intended as a satire of both alien invasion flicks and cliched World War II movies. While not all the jokes worked, I found the movie throughly enjoyable, and so did several friends who watched it with me at a later date. Band's Empire Pictures did indeed make some real clunkers. But this is no clunker. This movie reunites most of the cast of the earlier Charles Band production "Trancers." That movie was also a satire, though Band's direction was so flat it was hard to tell. Danny Bilson, who directed Zone Troopers, seems to understand the spirit of fun much better. Some of the movie's best bits have been mentioned by other posters, but I would add the beginning sequence when the young Lieutenant rashly runs over the hill thinking reinforcements have arrived, and is machine gunned by the Germans. "Damn green kid," Thomerson (as the tough as nails NCO) mutters, in perfect deadpan echo of hundreds of B war movies of the late forties and early fifties. And did anyone catch the "Buy War Bonds" tag at the end of the credits? How about the fact that the first shot morphs from the cover of a comic book Mittens (Art Lefleur) is reading? That should have served as a hint of the filmmakers' intentions. This movie is a hoot, and was intended that way. I have never seen Bilson's follow up, the Wrong Guys--equally low rated by most posters. But based on Zone Troopers, I sensed he might have the talent to go a long way. However, it appears he was only able to find a career in TV.