Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Strike Commando Blu-ray Movie Review

Second Blood?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 23, 2021

When is Rambo not Rambo? When he and/or it is Strike Commando and its focal character Sergeant Michael Ransom (Reb Brown). As is openly discussed in a couple of interviews with various crew members included on this disc as supplements, there was an intentional effort to "borrow" a few ideas from First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II, and as such fans of those particular installments of the long running Sylvester Stallone franchise will probably experience at least intermittent flashes of déjà vu as they watch this film. Ransom is part of an elite crew of soldiers who have been tasked with — well, something that requires them to break into what is evidently a North Vietnamese enclave or prisoner of war camp. Unfortunately, the itchy trigger finger of a colonel named Radek (top billed Christopher Connelly, whose name is kind of hilariously misspelled in the credits) leads to a conflagration which takes out all of Ransom’s team, and supposedly Ransom, too, though of course discerning cineastes will know better. What ensues is a crazy quilt of revenge scenarios, with Ransom taking out what seems to be hundreds of enemies, whether they be Vietnamese, Russian or good, old fashioned Americans.

Strike Commando is not exactly a model of narrative clarity or logic, so that little items like Ransom not being killed by floating face down in a river for what seems to be several miles tend to fade into nothingness, but the upshot is that Ransom is rescued by a Vietnamese boy named Lao (Edison Navarro), who nurses Ransom back to health so that Ransom can beguile the boy with stories about the greatness of the United States and Disneyland, not necessarily in that order. The Vietnamese village where Ransom is just naturally assumes that Ransom has come to save them, him being an American and all, but a rather bizarre character named Le Due (Luciano Pigozzi), evidently a holdover from the French occupation and "Indochina" who is still hanging around, lets Ransom know there's all sorts of nefarious activity going on, not just by the North Vietnamese, but also by some nearby Russians.

Since it's already been hinted that Radek may not exactly be the very model of a modern colonel (or something like that), it's perhaps not that surprising that Ransom initially bonds with the Vietnamese villagers and attempts to get them to safety, away from both the Viet Cong and nearby Russians. Kind of weirdly, then, the film takes a brief detour when Ransom finds a shortwave radio and is able to contact Major Harriman (Mike Monty) and Radek that he is in fact alive, though aside from allowing co-directors Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso to work in a bit of helicopter footage, that plot point is left dangling for a little while as Ransom has to deal with various hordes of enemies, all of whom seem to just appear out of nowhere before being summarily executed by Ransom, more or less single handedly.

By the time the ostensible "main villain", a Russian named Jakoda (Alex Vitale), shows up, the body count has already become staggeringly large, and that's before Ransom is ultimately "rescued" by the Americans, only to be sent back into the fray to take out the Russian encampment. Suffice it to say there are more rounds of slaughter on tap, and two kind of desperate ploys in the "heartstring tugging" department as two of Ransom's new friends are among the casualties. It's all relentlessly over the top, perhaps best exemplified by Reb Brown's frequent random screams of, um, triumph (?), which, like those aforementioned hordes of enemies, tend to just kind of erupt out of nowhere, and which were evidently something of a "signature acting method" for him in a number of his films.

If the wholescale near genocide of "natives" in Strike Commando doesn't raise hackles, and if the similar taking out of the pesky Russkies may also not raise eyebrows even slightly, some folks might be momentarily troubled by a brief coda of sorts which sees Ransom taking out a litany of people in an office setting, albeit with ostensibly semi-honorable intentions. The film attempts to inject some goofy humor at times, including a supposed punchline involving Jakoda that wraps up the film, but aside from the generally cartoonish atmosphere of so much of the film, most of the comedy here seems to be definitely unintentional.

Strike Commando Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Strike Commando is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states that the film is "now mastered in 2K from the original negative for the first time". This is a strong presentation a lot of the time, with a nicely suffused palette and some appealing detail levels on everything from the rampant jungle foliage to things like the straw hat that Le Due wears. There are sudden downturns in quality in both the extended cut and theatrical version at various moments, as in the first foray Ransom takes with the Vietnamese villagers, but they tend to rebound. Those brief moments can look relatively rough, with much grittier grain field and some odd color timing that can skew slightly toward yellows or browns. There are also some isolated moments exclusive to the extended version where some relatively bad damage can be spotted, as in a sequence on a boat at circa 21:00, where what almost looks like print through afflicts the frame with rolling vertical stripes. Grain resolves tightly for the most part, but can occasionally look a bit yellow and splotchy. My score is 4.25.

Strike Commando Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Strike Commando features LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Italian. It's kind of a trade off no matter which track you decide to listen to, as various elements sound better in individual tracks, or at least did to my ears. For example, explosions and gunfire can sound kind of hollow and definitely shallow in the English track, while some of the music doesn't quite have the same energy in the Italian track. Obvious post-looping afflicts both presentations, but dialogue in the English track is decidedly more boxy sounding, to the point that it almost sounds like it's on the verge of distortion a couple of times. That said, there are no real problems in either track that prevent hearing anything. Optional English subtitles are available.

Strike Commando Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• War Machine (HD; 19:45) is an interview with Claudio Fragasso, listed on the disc menu as co-director, but identified on the cover as the co-writer. Fragasso does seem to take some credit for directing, but he also leaves one major anecdote about a dangerous helicopter ride just hanging (no pun intended). He starts this out in English, but soon navigates into Italian, with English subtitles.


• All Quiet on the Philippine Front (HD; 13:11) is an interview with writer Rosella Drudi, who talks about her long love of action and/or war movies, as well as the clear instructions she received from Bruno Mattei to "borrow" elements from a certain venerable film franchise. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Strike Commando In Production Trailer (HD; 2:32)


• Trailer (HD; 2:05)


• Either an Extended Cut (HD; 1:42:09) or the Theatrical Cut (HD; 1:31:45) is available under the Play Menu.

Strike Commando Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Strike Commando is obviously a noticeable riff on Rambo territory, but it has its own peculiar charms. The film probably has too many villains for its own good, to the point that it seems like Ransom is going to have execute the entire population of the earth to attain the vengeance he's seeking. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplementary package enjoyable, for those who are considering a purchase.