Striker (1987)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Disturbing yet enthralling

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

When journalist Frank Morris (JPL) is jailed by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the one and only John "Striker" Slade (Zags) is sent in to rescue him because he's the "best in extraction from hostile territories". While in country posing as a Canadian photographer, he teams up with a local woman, Marta (Rodgers), who acts as his guide and confidante. Soon enough, the Strikester proceeds to decimate the population of Managua. But the true baddie behind it all is Kariasin (Steiner). His name even sounds evil (i.e. "carry a sin".) With the odds stacked against him, will Striker be able to complete the mission and make it out alive? Find out today! Striker is very fun, classically 80's action and one of the better Rambo knockoffs we've seen to date. Marrying that with another popular DTV genre of the day, the El Presidente movie (don't forget Nicaragua was a hot subject at the time and in the news a lot), and tied together in that wonderfully Italian way by co-writer Umberto Lenzi and the great director Enzo Castellari, there's plenty to enjoy here.One Frank Anthony Zagarino, or Frankie Zags as we like to call him, has one of the better (?) super-wooden monotones committed to film. His speaking voice is the equivalent to a hospital life-support flatline. He makes Don "The Dragon" Wilson sound like Crazy Eddie. His elocution aside, he has some radically awesome sunglasses that say to the world "the ultimate badass has arrived". Plus he has a wide variety of ways to kill his enemies. Some movies contain just constant shooting and that can get boring after awhile. The makers of Striker has the good sense to realize that variety is the murderous spice of life. Famously, he even has a killer slingshot, making him look like Dennis the Menace in a fit of 'Roid Rage.Striker is, for all intents and purposes, what we normally call a Jungle Slog, but thankfully there's really not much slog. There's too much highly implausible and funny action on display. The movie basically succeeds in spite of the performance of Zags. For as little energy and screen presence as he brings to his dialogue scenes, that is counterbalanced by John Phillip Law (or JPL as we call him) - he really is at his absolute best in this movie. Plus Striker has one of the better exploding helicopters we've seen in a while, and naturally it has the prerequisite torture scene.Not to be confused with any of the many other action heroes named Striker in the 80's, this one has enough entertainment value to raise it above the level of many of its contemporaries. Chalk up another winner to AIP. Plus Jeff Moldovan is credited as a "Special Action Supervisor", and Daniel Greene is on board in an uncredited role as a trucker. So you really can't lose.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

By the mid to late 80s the once unique Italian genre film became harder to identify from the pack of American post-Nam post-nuke films they started to ape. This is not to say however that these films weren't entertaining, they just aren't necessarily as memorable as the best Spaghetti Westerns, Gialli, and Poliziotteschi. Then there's Enzo G. Castellari's STRIKER, a Rambo rip off so big it will blow you to pieces (just like the film's countless Sandinista baddies). Full of slow motion and squibs, the film centers around the one man army that is reluctant mercenary John Slade (Frank Zagarino). Slade is sent on a mission to Nicaragua to save a kidnapped journalist (John Phillip Law) from the clutches of the evil Russian villain Kariasin played by John Steiner (sporting a hideous rat tail like haircut). From there the action rarely lets up as as throughout the film Slade slingshots, stabs, and machineguns whole platoons with an Uzi. Plot is pretty standard merc film fair complete with countless twists and double crosses. While clearly a very cheap, cheesy film, STRIKER is highly entertaining and has become one of my favorite 80s Italian Rambo ripoffs.Fun fact: the film's screenplay was written by Eurocrime veteran Umberto Lenzi. It also features one of the most intense electric shock torture scenes I've seen outside of THE MINSTREL KILLER.

My Co-workers and I were watching this movie while we were on we were working on Mid-shift. And yes, at times our line of work is boring since we were resorted to watching of this caliber. It was the worst movie I have ever seen. The acting in the movie had the same quality as an average porn flick. The cinematography was similar to an early 70's late 60 TV movie. Did they use 8mm film? We never even finished watching the movie. And the music wasn't music at all. Did the director hired a 6 year old kid to push buttons on a keyboard? The reason I ask that is is that that's what is sounded like. My co-worker commented that he could play the same notes on his keyboard when he was a kid on an early 80's keyboard you can buy at Toy's R Us. Frank Zagarino needs to take acting classes or find another line of work. If the other actors in the move were smart, I'm sure they would not have given up there day jobs. No stars deserved.

Fans of Frank Zagarino will get what they expect here. The plot involves a one-man-army who wreaks havoc on a band of evil-doers. There's plenty of action with little time wasted on romance, humor, or characterization. Jaws are punched, stomachs are kicked, and various kinds of vehicles get blown up. Zagarino finds several opportunities to take his shirt off and flex his muscles and, as usual, he must undergo lots of suffering -- mostly notably in a scene which has him shocked with jolts of electricity while he's hanging by his wrists. If all this sounds like an appealing way to spend an evening, then belly up to the trough and suck it up.