Thursday, April 16

Phantom Raiders (1988)


Directed by Sonny Sanders, Dan Harvey
84 Minutes / DigiView Productions DVD / Unmatted Full Frame

Mike Monty has turned heel against U.S. armed forces and set up a training camp for Vietnamese soldiers. After an "intense" training session, ultra badass Miles O'Keeffe sounding just like Dirty Harry and his band of former GIs go in to stop him. That sounds great, right?

But the problem is that's it. I really never thought I'd dislike a mindless action flick as much as this, but I did hate Kill Crazy...might have to reevaluate that one. I guess it delves well below my crap threshold. The film sets up Monty's evil doings in the beginning, the "good guy" training involving shurikens and live ammo, and a quickly redundant raid on the traitor's compound rounds out the last forty minutes. The action is poorly staged and unimaginative. The dozens of small explosions aren't timed well and the never ending waves of little evil brown men seem to suffer instantaneous death upon just hearing gunfire. The heroes are untouchable and swing their machine guns side-to-side like they're weed-eating. Worst of all, everyone kinda blends into the stupid action and it doesn't matter that O'Keefee stars, especially when much of the time he's seen wearing a "ninja" hood. The funniest aspect is O'Keeffe's team being comprised of three over the hill guys that look much more interested in cracking open a beer (and selling crack) than battling in the jungle again. Ugh, I guess this proves you can't fuck with the Italians when it comes to Rambo rip-offs.

Film : 1.5/10
DVD Picture: 7/10 (besides some darkness, I'm impressed for a Dollar Tree cheapie)
DVD Sound: 5/10

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sehnzeleid: I have just given you a Splash Award. I just recently discovered your blog and I love it. I haven't even asked to trade links yet (wanna trade links? http://bmoviesandbeyond.blogspot.com/) but your site was one of the first that came to mind when I had to choose which blogs to give this award to. "The Splash award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring blogs." Check out my home page to see my listing of you and the award. Ideally, the recipient of a Splash
should:

1.Put the logo on your blog/post.
2. Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your Splash award."

Starmummy at B Movies and Beyond

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

Basement of Ghoulish Decadence, Basement of Ghoulish Archive, and all original material Copyright © 2009-present by Jayson Kennedy. All rights reserved.