The Firing Line (1988)

Director:

Jun Gallardo

Writers:

Jun Gallardo (writer) &
Sonny Sanders (writer)

Genre:

Action

Plot:

An American military advisor becomes disillusioned by the brutality and corruption of the Central American government which hired him...

Plot Keywords:

American | Rebel | American Woman | Gunshot | Kicking

Cast

Reb Brown	...	Mark Hardin
Shannon Tweed	...	Sandra Spencer
Kahlena Marie	...	Laura
Mel Davidson	...	Milton Green (as Melvin Davidson)
Carl Terry	...	Montiero
Tony Calderon	...	Gouverneur
Jerry Beyer	...	Carlos
Andy Jacobson	...	Captain Delgado
Dick Isaac	...	Col. Nunez
Mike Monty	...	Rodriguez
Jane Fullerton-Smith	...	Rebel (as Jane Fullerton)
Cybil Wilcox	...	Rebel
Liza Baur	...	Rebel
Wendy Stone	...	Rebel
Gwen Cameron	...	Rebel

Runtime:

USA:90 min (DVD)

Country:

USA | Philippines

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Grade-Z Howler

Bottom-of-the-barrel stinker is so bad it's beyond funny. The "plot" is about an American mercenary, played by Reb Brown (in the film he's called a "military adviser" but it's not really clear if he's in the American military or not), helping the army of a Latin-American country fight guerrillas who winds up joining the guerrillas when the government turns on him, imprisons and tortures him. Shannon Tweed is a "sports equipment saleswoman" he picks up in a bar who gets caught up in all the intrigue. That description actually makes the movie sound better than it is, because it's really a stinker of almost Biblical proportions. How bad is it? Well, Shannon Tweed turns in the movie's most professional acting job. If that isn't an indication of just what a 12th-rate piece of junk this turkey is, nothing is From mismatched sound effects to a music score that sounds like it's from a 1940s "Z"-grade horror flick (and may very well be) to the same footage (i.e., armored personnel carriers going down the same jungle trail) reused constantly to some of the most ineptly staged "action" scenes in recent memory, this laugh-a-minute sludgefest has to be seen to be disbelieved. Tweed looks bored, Brown looks hung over, and by the time this thing is finished--if you can last that long; I couldn't--you'll know just how they feel.

Although there are a lot of explosions and gunfights, this can't be considered an "action" picture by any stretch of the imagination. It's boring (there's a scene in the back of a truck where everybody just stares at each other for three or four minutes), repetitive (the same "rebels" and "soldiers" being killed over and over), illogical (when a group of rebels is caught in an open field by a government helicopter gunship, instead of breaking for cover they just stand there staring up at it), inept (soldiers and rebels falling "dead" when no gunshots are heard, a gun battle inside a house where combatants standing against walls are machine-gunned but miraculously the walls escape undamaged) predictable (when the "Governor" says to offer a reward for Brown's capture because "someone" might turn him in, you know exactly who that "someone" will be, and it turns out to be exactly who you thought it was) and just downright stupid (pretty much everything else in the picture). Inept, brainless and stupid beyond belief. Don't waste your time.