Invasion U.S.A. (1985) is a mess in its own absurdity. It's an idiotic movie meant to be a star vehicle for Chuck Norris. Not one minute did I believe in anything that was happening on the screen. Not one.
The movie stars Chuck Norris as a former agent who is recruited to take down a vicious terrorist leader named Rostov, whose intent is to bring total anarchy upon America by blowing things that have an American-style image to them, such as churches, shopping malls and neighborhoods.
This includes a really vile scene in which his gang use bazookas to destroy a suburban neighborhood.
The movie was co-written by Norris and his brother, Aaron, a stunt coordinator for Lone Wolf and Code of Silence. Those movies at least had thrilling action sequences, and interesting characters. Invasion U.S.A. movie is full of plot holes, one-dimension characters, continuity errors, and lots of violence.
Norris is wooden as his action hero, who only arrives when needed. Here, he arrives at the place of the action, sports a one-liner or two, outsmarts the bad guys, and then blows them away. He has very little dialogue in this movie, much like Charles Bronson in the Death Wish sequels. Let's face it: he's just a mindless symbol of violence.
The movie even attempts to make an invisible figure; Like a horror movie character, one moment, the bad guys'll see him, but when they turn away, he's gone just like that. It works in some of his films, but here, it's been overused and it's just plain ridiculous.
Melissa Prophet plays the movie's most annoying and thankless character, though, a loud, foul-mouthed reporter, who stands around at the scenes of all the many violent crimes in this movie, snapping photographs and being angry. There is no depth to this character, she's just the token female sidekick who also comes when needed.
The movie was made Cannon Films, which sometimes made good movies and more often made a lot of bad ones. Their marketing ploy was that a big-time action star will help their movies make millions. It's the same attempt that destroyed Charles Bronson's career and Chuck Norris seemed to following in the same footsteps. I would choose an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger over this any day.
The movie stars Chuck Norris as a former agent who is recruited to take down a vicious terrorist leader named Rostov, whose intent is to bring total anarchy upon America by blowing things that have an American-style image to them, such as churches, shopping malls and neighborhoods.
This includes a really vile scene in which his gang use bazookas to destroy a suburban neighborhood.
The movie was co-written by Norris and his brother, Aaron, a stunt coordinator for Lone Wolf and Code of Silence. Those movies at least had thrilling action sequences, and interesting characters. Invasion U.S.A. movie is full of plot holes, one-dimension characters, continuity errors, and lots of violence.
Norris is wooden as his action hero, who only arrives when needed. Here, he arrives at the place of the action, sports a one-liner or two, outsmarts the bad guys, and then blows them away. He has very little dialogue in this movie, much like Charles Bronson in the Death Wish sequels. Let's face it: he's just a mindless symbol of violence.
The movie even attempts to make an invisible figure; Like a horror movie character, one moment, the bad guys'll see him, but when they turn away, he's gone just like that. It works in some of his films, but here, it's been overused and it's just plain ridiculous.
Melissa Prophet plays the movie's most annoying and thankless character, though, a loud, foul-mouthed reporter, who stands around at the scenes of all the many violent crimes in this movie, snapping photographs and being angry. There is no depth to this character, she's just the token female sidekick who also comes when needed.
The movie was made Cannon Films, which sometimes made good movies and more often made a lot of bad ones. Their marketing ploy was that a big-time action star will help their movies make millions. It's the same attempt that destroyed Charles Bronson's career and Chuck Norris seemed to following in the same footsteps. I would choose an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger over this any day.
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