This is a typical gung-ho action outing of the early '90s. This era of 'guy cinema' was pretty stupid, probably best envisaged by Van Damme's DOUBLE IMPACT, a film which managed to be fully entertaining despite being as cheesy as hell. MEN OF WAR is a similar combination of the absurd and the effective, although not as good as the earlier movie. This one sees Dolph Lundgren basically filling the same boots as Schwarzenegger in COMMANDO: he's an ass-kicking soldier, tooled up to the teeth, battling enemies in the jungle. Except none of this really takes place until the last half hour, and before then we have an hour of plot set-up and environmental/ecological nonsense in the script. It's pretty much devoid of any good or memorable moments, just some outlandish acting from a cast that includes Trevor Goddard, reaching a new low with his 'Cockney' accent.
The extended finale of this film, however, doesn't disappoint. It's violent, gory and mean-spirited, as the majority of the cast are mown down and die creative deaths. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the good old fist fight between the chief hero and the chief villain. The plot twist of having former allies become deadly enemies was also novel and well-handled, I thought, allowing the bad guys to be more fleshed out than you usually find in these type of films. Still, it's not great because the acting is so bad – from wooden Lundgren to wrestler Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, as well as old-timer Kevin Tighe and henchman Don Harvey. Charlotte Lewis (DIAL: HELP) is just here purely for her nude scenes, and displays no acting ability whatsoever. If you're in the mood for an OTT action flick with a high level of violence and don't mind goofiness throughout, then you'll probably have a ball with this one.
The extended finale of this film, however, doesn't disappoint. It's violent, gory and mean-spirited, as the majority of the cast are mown down and die creative deaths. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the good old fist fight between the chief hero and the chief villain. The plot twist of having former allies become deadly enemies was also novel and well-handled, I thought, allowing the bad guys to be more fleshed out than you usually find in these type of films. Still, it's not great because the acting is so bad – from wooden Lundgren to wrestler Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, as well as old-timer Kevin Tighe and henchman Don Harvey. Charlotte Lewis (DIAL: HELP) is just here purely for her nude scenes, and displays no acting ability whatsoever. If you're in the mood for an OTT action flick with a high level of violence and don't mind goofiness throughout, then you'll probably have a ball with this one.