My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.
"Fortress of Amerikkka", a/k/a "The Mercenaries", is an old-fashioned sexploitaton film that will appeal to that fringe which enjoys truly bad acting, t&a and gore effects.
Second Troma release from filmmaker Eric Louzil, pic is a slight step from his "Lust for Freedom", but still suffers from awkward direction and the annoying Troma practice of adding hokey dialog and sound effects to fill up dead air.
Handsome, low-key Gene LeBrok (he looks like Christopher Reeve playing Superman) plays an Indian halfbreed fesh out of prison who has a score to settle with the Georgia County, California, sheriff (stolid David Crane) who killed his brother in cold blood.
Personal grudges soon take a backseat to the main problem: a band of mercenary soldiers calling themselves "Fortress of Amerikkka", led by evil William J. Kulzer, is camped nearby. Instead of mere survivalist wargames, this coed bunch is killing folks right and left. Pic's anticlimax -coming after the sheriff is wiped out -is the townsfolk and cops banding together to fight the mercenaries.
Until then, Louzil contrives to include as many scenes of women going topless as time will permit. Heroine Kellee Bradley abstains, but exotic porno star Kascha shows off her surgical implants memoably, given a run for he money by busty blonde Karen Michaels. Oddly enough, the statuesque blond featured on the film's poster doesn't show up in the film; she's the same model who was postergirl for anothr recent pic, "Shotgun", without appearing on screen int that one either.
While LeBrok glides theough the picture without losing his cool, there is hysterically bad acting provided by Kulzer (a regular in Louzil films who also handles the stuntwork). Crane and especially Michaels, who smiles (unintentionally) in the face of danger. Pic's campiest scene occurs when Kascha and her boyfriend recite patriotic sentiments, echoed by th foolish narration.
Apart from scenic views of forests and mountains, film's technical credits are weak. The background score is extremely poor.
