Saturday, February 24, 2018

Movie review - "Invasion USA" (1985) **

Not one of Chuck Norris' best remembered films despite the delirious ambition of the concept - Chuck helps fight off an invasion of the US by commies. Because it isn't about that, not really - it's about a bunch of commies, led by Richard Lynch (an old nemesis of Norris') who arrives in the US and does this grab bag of terrorist activities: shooting up a boat load of refugees, trying to blow up a shopping center, trying to blow up a bus load of kids, randomly shooting people on the street, shooting a couple making out on a beach. They keep taking out time to try to kill Norris.

It's all hopelessly difuse and unfocused, which is why the film was a disappointment (and set back Norris' career after the breakthrough of Code of Silence). What's the terrorists plan? To unleash terror and... that's it? But Lynch keeps trying to kill Norris - indeed at the end Norris is able to gode Lynch's entire army to attack just to get Norris. It doesn't make sense.

It's a shame because there's some great action - car chases, over the top fights, a glorious battle at the end with National Guardsmen and baddies, and Norris kicks some serious arse. There's good ideas too - Norris starts off retired living in the everglades, the commies are in cahoots with drug smugglers (a promising subplot just thrown away). But its nonsensical - there's no real logic to the character's actions. They needed to focus it all down in terms of time and space - a specific attack.

No comments: