The Firing Line

DVD cover art, no movie poster. sorry.

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., the same 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 groaner 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.

Captured rebels.

Nice iPod, oh it's a torture method, sorry guys.

Rebel Hero Squad. 

Explosions everywhere!

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). Stupid, brainless and inept beyond belief. Don't waste your time.

80's hairdo.

The only nude sight we get of Tweed in the whole film. 

Lame sex scene.

You won't find this on the film.

It was also a major disappointment to have Shannon Tweed in one of the main roles not doing her thing, you know getting naked and having sex, in fact these are the very few sexy scenes we see her performing. Picture number 3 is from a Playboy videotape, telling you what you’re not going to find on this lame movie. Overall the film is not even worth the plastic it was used to make the DVD discs and the paper used for printing the movie cover which by the way it's kind of wrong because the helicopter on the cover never shows up in the movie as well as the picture of Tweed depicting nudity to some extent.

I guess these guys took the word exploitation way too serious and that's why we get false expectations not only on Tweed's acting but on the whole film.

My recommendation? not even a die hard Shannon Tweed fan would stand it! so skip it and never buy a copy of it! I came across this piece of crap because it came on a DVD pack, not because I was looking for it, and now that I've watched I do know I wouldn't recommend it to anyone on the whole planet.

Anyways, they had this trailer which followed the exploitation standards to keep interested, but the best part of the whole film is precisely the promo trailer.

See you some time soon with more reviews. I'll be posting some more Roger Corman classics and be ready, cause soon I will be also reviewing 12 films made by Mr. Andy Sidaris, a 90's exploitation conspirator.