I cinque del Condor

If there's one thing in life you usually shouldn't question, it's the brutal character of an Italian mid-80's action flick. There was a truckload of them overflowing the more hidden shelves of raunchy video stores back in the late 80's and they pretty much all looked similar. They had deliciously appealing VHS cover art, complete with heavily muscled and testosterone bursting males firing off big machine guns, and provocative taglines like "Shoot first, ask questions … never" or "They Shoot 'em all up!". On the backside of these VHS boxes, there were several more enticing stills depicting pure mayhem and carnage. The good thing about these images is that they're 100% reliable! These movies truly are a non-stop spitfire of extreme action, gratuitous mega- explosions, muscle showcasing and horrible macho dialogs. "The Wild Team" is Umberto Lenzi's contribution to the popular trend, but it actually was a bit of a disappointment. Especially in comparison with other contemporary jungle mayhem highlights (like Bruno Mattei's "Strike Commando", Antonio Margheriti's "Commando Leopard" or – most of all – Ruggero Deodato's awesome "Cut and Run"), "The Wild Team" is rather tame and unmemorable. The plot contains all the required ingredients and clichés to guarantee pure entertainment, but the film simply lacks the essential panache! The cast is stupendous (Antonio Sabato, Ivan Rassimov and Werner Pochath!) and the body count is tremendous, but the adrenalin and kicks aren't bursting from the screen like supposed to. When the son of the popular President of Manioca, a small Southern American island, gets kidnapped by the henchmen of the communist dictator who took over the power. They threaten to kill the boy if the President would even just consider to take up his former position again. A multinational in Florida supports the President – because he guarantees free access to the country's profitable silver mines – and hires a quintet of rough mercenaries to go on a rescue mission. The search and rescuing of the boy goes rather fluently, if you don't take into account a shamelessly overlong para-sailing sequence, and after about 45 minutes you wonder what'll happen next because everything looks solved. But then, of course, Lenzi begins with all the dire but inevitable sub plots including treason, corruption, self-sacrifice and getting saved from the jungle by an annoying 12-year-old. There's nothing exceptional or remotely remarkable about the jungle action sequences and it's never a good sign when even the shootout sequences start to look boring after a while. Stelvio Cipriani's score is undoubtedly the best thing to mention here, but unfortunately the music doesn't suit the tone and subject matter of the film. His best scores are for mysterious and sleazy horror films or gialli, like "What have they done to our Daughters", not brainless action flicks.

In the 1980s, the films of the Italian Cinecitta film industry were becoming increasingly poor. This also applies to this mercenary film by Umberto Lenzi (1931-2017), which belongs to the popular genre of macaroni and kombat films. At least an illustrious cast was secured for filming in the Dominican Republic. And this time, it's not about World War II or the Vietnam War, but about a military dictatorship in Latin America.

Although the politician Cordura has been expelled from his homeland of Manioc by the military dictatorship, he is preparing to return home. Just then, his young son is kidnapped by military henchmen. A five-man mercenary squad (Antonio Sabato, Ivan Rassimov, Werner Pochath, Sal Borgese, and Julia Kent) sets out into the jungle to rescue the kidnapped boy. It goes without saying that this will be more difficult than expected. The plot, at least, is consistently unraveled without any major surprises.

This film is certainly only recommended for die-hard fans of Italian cinema. Thanks to the involvement of the West German LISA FILM, three German-speaking actors are also involved: Julia Kent, Werner POCHATH, and Manfred SEIPOLD as the military antagonist. Julia Kent, who appears here under her real name Juliane FÜRSICH, at least offers a few surprises as the clever explosives expert.

Veteran Italian divos like Antonio SABATO (1943-2021) and Ivan RASSIMOV (1938-2003) merely recite the obligatory program.

This film is often disregarded, but for undemanding fans of Italo exploiters this is a very pleasant diversion for ninety odd minutes.

Set in an imaginary South American republic, Thunder Squad churns out all the old clichés of the action genre, but the project is handled with style and verve that many a young wannabe could learn quite a bit from. If there is a complaint, it is in the lead casting of Antonio Sabato. One can only surmise how different it would have been with say David Warbeck or Fabio Testi.

So, for a wicked little romp taking in Kidnapping, jungle fighting, double cross, and shady Government dealings check this one out.

Viva Lenzi

What happens when you mix THE WILD GEESE + "The A Team" + Uncommon Valor, but then mix in a bunch of Eurocult actors (including Antonio Sabato in one of his last meaningful roles), and add a touch of scifi? You get WILD TEAM.

Generally this film is pretty trashy and low quality, especially in the writing department and of obviously low budget. However, Umberto Lenzi skillfully directs the film well enough to inject it with enough energy to keep things moving. The cast of recognizable faces plays to each one's strengths (Werner Pochath as the creepy guy, Ivan Rassimov the stern know-it-all, Antonio Sabato as a smarmy leader, and Sal Borgese as the goofball). The odd woman out is Julia Fursich (Kent) who looks very angry and uncomfortable most of the film, which adds a layer of humor to the experience.

There's plenty of pyrotechnics and lackluster action on display; enough to make Bruno Mattei, Ignazio Dolce, or Antonio Margheriti blush. It's all handled pretty cheaply with no blood squibs or creativity to any of the deaths, but moves along at a quick enough pace that you won't care too much.

Much like CROSS MISSION of a year later, this action film features a hilariously out-of-place sci fi touch in the form of a group of psychics (!), including Gabriella Giorgelli (!!), used to locate the film's MacGuffin, and are able to somehow tap into a powerful supercomputer for more accuracy (!!!). There's also a pretty good Stelvio Cipriani score on display, certainly a cut above most mercenary movies of the period. He certainly brings in a lot of cues inspired by his earlier work on THE GREAT ALLIGATOR and TOUGH TO KILL, which certainly beat this movie to the punch of Italian WILD GEESE knockoffs shot in the Dominican Republic. They weren't quite done though, as the film THE LAST MATCH, a few years later, would go on to squeeze what little juice was left in the genre.

All in all a serviceable time waster.

... And Mr. Salvator Borghese, two of my favorite, dearest character actor heroes from first the Sword & Sandal Peplum era, the Pirate Swashbuckler era, then the Spaghetti Western era, then the initial 1960's Euro War era, the Euro Horror era, the Giallo Years, the Polizi Euro Crime era, the Italian Star Wars & Giant Shark fads, Car Racing binge, Modern Italian Horror and Later Period Spaghetti Western + Italian Commando crazes, of which this film is a serviceable if uninspired example of. These guys saw it all, and if you look at lead actor Antonio Sabato's credits list you'll see basically a historical summary of the Euro Genre B movie cinema era.

Franco Fantasia earned his name originally by being the guy who taught the other stunt performers how to fight with swords without maiming each other during the Pirate Swashbucklers of 1959 - 1962. Along with his frequent comerade in arms or dueling partner Benito Steffanelli, Fantasia found himself cast into bit roles & supporting character gigs, usually as the town sheriff or other minor authority figure, usually a good guy though my favorite of his roles the gun toting, whiskey drinking, thigh-grabbing thug from 1972's MURDER MANSION. He never graduated into a leading man but usually ended up stealing all of his scenes just by being Franco Fantasia, something he pulls off marvelously here. Though he never interacts with the primary cast & likely directed his own scenes (he gets an assistant director's credit).

Sal Borghese also started out as a stunt performer who's unique face and ability to do amusing things with it caught the eye of the Peplum producers he started out working with. Salvatore was something of an acrobat and along with his frequent castmate Nick Jordan can be seen doing backflips, tap dancing and clowning around in dozens of low budget European action films like the WW2 "Dirty Dozen" clone FIVE FOR HELL, Giuliano Carmineo's later SARTANA fims, and most of the THREE SUPERMEN Italian superhero fantasies. Borghese's stereotypical Guido-ish face is usually put to comic effect and just seeing him grinning & mugging for the camera in his first scene was worth all of the crap I had to go through just to see this movie.

The director is of course Umberto Lenzi, best known in North America + Britain as a director of gross-out horror movies with lots of zombies, cannibals, and animal killings. Back at home Lenzi was more regarded as an action film director of Polizi crime thrillers. And even more importantly one of the progenitors of the Giallo sex murderer thrillers like ORGASMO and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL, which upped the ante of on screen nudity & gore from its arty beginnings at the hands of Mario Bava. Lenzi also directed one of the most effective of the Italian Euro War potboilers DESERT COMMANDOS in 1967, a thought provoking little mini-epic that also has a mini-starring role for Franco Fantasia.

I collect Sal Borghese and Franco Fantasia movies, and having them in the same one is sort of a casting dream come true even though they never have any scenes together. The bulk of the action scenes from the film were shot in the Dominican Replublic and the Suit Scenes all look to have been filmed back in Miami, where Fantasia plays the president in exile of an armpit banana republic who's annoying, insufferable son is kidnapped. He uses his muscle to have director Umberto Lenzi's favorite leading men Antonio Sabato & Ivan Rassimov, the insane Werner Pochath and Borghese (with his quiver of arrows which never gets depleted now matter how many guys he skewers) undertake a scheme remarkably similar to COMMANDO to rescue the lad. Along for the ride and to add the sex appeal is a blond actress I did not recognize, who's first appearance in the film is bent over while wearing hot pants. They blow things up, shoot a lot of people, and go through the usual plot twists, hair raising escapes, War Is Hell scenes, and obligatory Heroic Sacrifice.

While a decently enough made movie, something about the formula doesn't work well, and even in spite of a passable 80s musical score by Stelvio Cipriani. Like a Spaghetti Western or Peplum Hercules film, it's a disposable entertainment who's shelf life expired pretty much right after this Italian Commando Craze died out -- and there are much more enjoyable examples of it, Bruno Mattei's outrageous ROBOWAR being my personal favorite. At least that one had the good sense to rip off interesting movies, I never really got into COMMANDO and their attempt to capture some of that spirit is lost on me. It also goes on for about fifteen minutes too long fitted with an ending that is about the worst ever. Which isn't so much a problem as a footnote for the movie. Bad endings are par for the course.

But it has Franco Fantasia, and Sal Borghese. And its an Umberto Lenzi film with a Stevio Cipriani music score. For those reasons alone there's room for it on my shelves in some form, though recommending it to anyone other than fans of 1980s Italian Commando thrillers is pointless.

4/10