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Avenging Force (1986)

Dir: Sam Firstenberg

Captain Matt Hunter (Michael Dudikoff), a Government Agent, lives with his young Sister, Sarah (Allison Gereighty ) and their Grandpa Rick (Rick Boyle). Both Matt and Sarah were orphaned when their parents were killed.

Matt and his Family go to New Orleans to visit Matt’s ex-Army friend Larry Richards (Steve James), who has gone into politics to help his people (stop me if you feel like throwing up with all that sickly sweetness I’m feeding you).
But Larry has enemies who do not like the thought of a Black man getting into power and a secret group called ‘Pentangle’ are gunning for him.

‘Pentangle’ hides under the name of the ‘American Survival Association’, and is a White supremacist, hard right organisation with brutal methods.
It’s head members are Commander Jeb Wallace (Karl Johnson), Senator Wade Delaney (Bill Wallace, “The Delta Force”), rich businessman Charlie Lavelle (Marc Alaimo) and their boss Prof. Elliot Glastonbury (John P. Ryan, “It’s Alive”).
They are also a bunch of thrill-seeking psycho’s who like to test themselves by hunting Human prey in the Bayou.

One morning during a street carnival for his campaign, Larry and his family are attacked by ‘Pentangle’s men in an assassination attempt, and soon Matt and his friend are fighting together once again. For their lives….

 

Written by “Zulu” star James Booth (who also appears as Matt’s Government boss) “Avenging Force” is chock full of typical 80’s, ‘Cannon Films’ (for more info on 'Cannon' see HERE), ingredients but actually still works today as a full on, serious action thriller with more to it than just nostalgia tinged cheesy fun.

Sure there are some very 80’s, rather cheesy elements in here, but there are far less of them (and they are not as important to the film) than normally seen in ‘Cannons’ canon of movie gold.

The main cheesy goodies come in the shape of the costumes that Galstonbury and his comrades wear, and they are silly indeed!

Lavelle is dressed as a Ninja (complete with white mask), Delaney looks like GI Joe, Jeb dresses like he’s ready to butt fuck the night away in an S/M fetish club and Glastonbury sports a half-face birdman mask that is wonderfully hysterical.

As with almost all 80’s action flicks the bad guys in “Avenging Force” are just that…BAD. Total, full-on nasty Mutha’s who do plenty of really nasty, cruel and sadistic things before payback is forthcoming.
In fact this movie has some of the nastiest villains you will ever see! It makes for good action/revenge cinema but it does not make for ‘happy, happy, joy, joy’ viewing while waiting for retribution to be rained down upon them. “Avenging Force” delivers a very serious, hard punch.

Action wise “Avenging Force” also delivers some hard blows.
Much of the gunplay and gun handling is slightly awkward and clunky (as with many American 80’s action flicks which is why John Woo was such a revelation) but people get routinely shot at point blank range with multiple bullet squibs, Cops arrive at action scenes for no reason other than to get shot, we have tons of violent slow motion stunts (some really impressive, some weakened by too much of that slow motion) including a wonderfully nasty looking, but damn funny, falling off a roof stunt involving a child (or at least it’s dummy stand-in).

The Martial Arts/Fight scenes are violent, rough and tough and very much reality based as far as technique and speed goes, so don’t look for Hong Kong style flashy moves here. But they work well and most certainly deliver the violence goodies during the rain-soaked, bayou set finale. All in all the film is packed with good, solid, tough action.

Plot wise the film is rather comic book, but always takes itself seriously and as such it means the film has aged very well. Some good twists and turns keep the viewer from getting complacent (there is a late twist though that is actually made obvious early on by a throwaway remark about ‘Pentangle’) and the dark tone means that there are almost no ‘camp’ elements that much of ‘Cannon’s output now has.
The dialogue can be rather over the top (Glastonbury’s ranting speeches) or just plain saccharine;
“Matt, why would anyone want to kill a good man like Uncle Larry”?
“Because sometimes in politics Sarah, we have evil men who won’t stop at anything to get rich and gain power over other people, and Uncle Larry’s trying to stop that”. *sniff sniff* Fun…but awful. In fact the dialogue (or at least most of it) is the only part of the screenplay that does actually whiff of cheese.
It’s certainly an eventful script as well, with many changes in plot direction and locales.
And as we are in the Bayou it would be re-miss not to shove some crazy Cajuns into the mix!
Here they are debauched, hooch swilling, dancing and prancing, corrupt Cajuns (including a prancing trans-sexual with a fake French accent) and you have to wonder if Cajuns get pissed off at the constantly negative impression of them seen in movies!

The excellent work the cast does also keeps the film from sinking into a ‘so bad, it’s good’ cheese fest.
The sadly late Steve James looks like an ebony force of nature when he sheds his shirt and kicks ass and he has some class moments. He also works well with his regular partner (most famous for their work in ‘Cannon’s’ “American Ninja”) Michael Dudikoff.
Dudikoff may not be the impressive sight as James, but he has just enough screen presence to carry off the lead role and he gets fully stuck in to the bruising fights.

John P. Ryan, (always an intense actor) makes for a marvellously arrogant, whacked-out, sadistic head villain as well, but like Kien Shih in “Enter the Dragon” he does not make such a good combat opponent for the finale and is in fact doubled for some of it by a guy in a bad wig. He’s certainly enthusiastic though.

Some of the music by George S. Clinton has shades of the Wang Chung score for 1985‘s “To Live and Die in L.A.” amazingly, and basically it’s your typical 80’s synth heavy score that blends into the background for the most part but suddenly leaps out at you at certain moments.

The direction by ‘Cannon’ stalwart Sam Fastenberg (“Revenge of the Ninja”, "American Ninja 1 & 2") is punchy and he manages to keep the twisting, changing plot moving at a fast enough pace that the viewers mind never wanders. He handles the action with a no-nonsense, violent energy but never turns things flashy. It’s typically 80’s all round in the way the action plays out. It can seem ‘slow’ compared to today’s bombastic action flicks but this is the way things were done then, and it’s still perfectly acceptable.
As in fact is the film itself.
Good, well made, solid, tough, violent, well plotted, serious 80’s action movie making. What else do you need?

The actual ending to the movie is left slightly open though. It does end the story, but leaves the viewer with the certain knowledge that Matt’s fight is not over.
Sadly, if this was aimed at drumming up a sequel it failed to do so as “Avenging Force 2” surprisingly never materialised.
There is a confused, probably coincidental, link to ‘Cannon’s’ earlier, far more famous, “Invasion U.S.A.” though as both Davidoff ‘s and Chuck Norris’s characters share the same name.
The jury is out whether or not, somewhere down the line, this was meant to be a sequel or that it’s just a coincidence. Perhaps we shall never know.
But who cares, with a film this enjoyable. Go buy it now and re-live some prime 80’s movie making.