Special guest blogger: Matt Reddick is more than just a sports enthusiast. He's a movie buff in the truest sense who appreciates cinema from all areas whether it be the cinema of Bela Tarr or the cinema of Chuck Norris. The artist who put together the official trailer for the Expendables sequel knew exactly what he was doing. When you watch the preview there's that slow motion moment in the trailer when everything goes silent and it seems like the world just stops for a second when Chuck Norris first appears on screen and it makes us go: 'YES! The manliest manly man has been added to the cast of Expendables 2!"
There was no way we were getting through this without someone touching on a Chuck Norris movie. And what better Chuck Norris movie to touch on than The Delta Force? I'll just say that Matt is a brave man for doing this review. If Chuck Norris ever comes across it he may kick Matt's ass. Just sayin...
Enjoy...
I’m not sure why I picked this to start. It rang a bell and
I wasn’t sure if I had seen it when I was younger. It will be hard to talk
about this without bringing up politics, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I kind
of feel like I have to bring it up, though. There was NO FIGHTING until 1:15
into the movie! The audience is introduced to the passengers on a plane, which
is later hi-jacked. The terrorists have a hard time trying to find a place to
land, yet never really give a reason for what they’re doing. They are just
anti-American and anti-Semitic. There
was so little action, my mind started projecting reasons for this. The
filmmakers are Israelis (Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of Cannon Films) and
they clearly have an agenda. Looking over his (or their) many many movies, they
specialize in low-budget action flicks (or genre exploitation, if you will): Kinjite:Forbidden
Subjects, Death Wish sequels, Bloodsport, Missing In Action series, and even
The Forbidden Dance (The Lambada!) I was not prepared for this
Reagan-era/pro-Israeli sermon. The terrorists are all sweaty, unkempt and
wild-eyed. They viciously assault the passengers and crew. But wait until they
find the American Navy men (who they ignorantly keep calling Marines)! And then
they find out Jews are on board! That’s all a pretense for other characters to
lecture them. A Catholic priest(played by George Kennedy) and a German flight
attendant (Hanna Schygulla, bleached blonde to accent her Germanic heritage,
maybe?) take turns explaining to the terrorists why they are so wrong. The
issues or grievances that the terrorists have are never addressed but instead
it seems like the producers were trying to produce modern-day Hollywood Nazis.
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| The iconic logo that flashed across the screen before the many action movies we all watched growing up... |
Politics aside, the first hour is still terrible. It drags
on and teases us with the impending clash between Chuck Norris and the
terrorists. They even show Delta Force training for boarding the plane! Are we
to believe they need practice?! Then the plane is re-routed…. Then they
discover there are way more terrorists than first thought and they retreat.
Once the main action kicks off and they start investigating and planning the
rescue, you feel relieved. These are the familiar steps of action movies: car
chases, motorcycles equipped with rockets, bad one-liners and a final showdown
between the bad guy leader and the hero. For myself, I was already aggravated
by the first hour and it couldn’t be redeemed. I was mildly impressed with the cast as they
were introduced in the beginning: Lee Marvin, Bo Svenson, Martin Balsam, Shelly
Winters, Joey Bishop, Marc Foster, and Robert Vaughn. They all do a decent job.
I can’t really recommend it unless you are curious for the conservative
preaching or are willing to fast-forward through it.
-Matt
