Striker (1987)

the audience applauded

A Disappointing Continuation

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

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.

Here's yet another of those undemanding one man army ala Rambo, type affairs to emerge from Italy following the enormous success of Stallone's genre setting film.It's actually not half bad if you know what you're getting into and features a particularly enjoyable performance from the always superb John Steiner, here playing the hiss-able villain with much aplomb.I've also got to say that this film features undoubtedly one of the most beautiful actresses I have ever had the pleasure to behold, Melonee Rodgers; Every time she appeared on screen, I instantly forgot the films many shortcomings.There's a fair bit of action throughout, most of it fairly well executed bar a few instances whereby the budgetary constraints overtly reflect in some of the set pieces - but hey, this is a B-Movie after all.I've got to say though, that if there is one major underlying problem with this movie then it sadly concerns our hero played by a young Frank Zagarino. To describe his acting skills as wooden here would be to praise him unduly; Even the foliage he hides behind throughout the film outshines him! The scene in which he tries desperately to wring out some emotion following the death of his wartime buddy is utterly hilarious though. In fact not since that king of B-movie bad acting, the mighty Reb Brown, demonstrated a similarly painful to watch sequence in Strike Commando following the death of a small native boy, has there been such a rivetingly awful instance of an on screen performance.Overall grade: 6.5/10

Comic-book-level action yarn, with plenty of then-trendy anti-Communist propaganda, and Enzo Castellari's trademark crazy camera angles and energetic editing, which, however, are not much help here. Frank Zagarino kills about 200 people in this one, but the film is less exciting than even Bruno Mattei's "Strike Commando", and I think that should tell you something. (*1/2)

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.