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Fantasy Mission Force (1984)

AKA

Dragon Attack
Mini Special Force
Mai Nei Dak Gung Dui

Cast:

Jackie Chan is Sammy the con man, wrestler, Kung Fu expert
Brigitte Lin is Lily
Jimmy Wang Yu is Captain Don Wen
Yueh Sun is Old Sun, thief
Tao Da Way is Billy, conman
Fang Jung is General
Shiu Bu Lia is Stone
Gou Ling Feng is Grease Lightning, escape artist
Adam Cheng is Amazon Leader (as Adam Cheng Siu-Chow)
Ling Chang is Emily, Sammy's manager

What the VHS box says:

In the Japanese theatre of war, during World War II, Jackie Chan joins a crack commando unit organized to retake a fortunestolen by the enemy during a bloody raid. The group is led by the mysterious "Devil Sergeant," who ruthlessly leads the men through increasingly vicious battles as they near their objective. But Jackie soon finds himself caught in a deadly doublecross,and faces a battle unrivaled in screen violence. With the lives of hundreds of resistance fighters at stake, Jackie's forces haveno choice - they must prevail.

What the DVD box says:

It's World War II, and Jackie Chan joins a crack commando unit organized to retake a fortune stolen by the enemy during a bloody raid. The commando group is lead by the mysterious "Devil Sergeant" who ruthlessly leads his men through increasingly vicious battles as they near their objective

But, Jackie soon finds himself caught in a deadly doublecross, and faces a battle unrivaled in screen violence. With the lives of hundreds of resistance fighters at stake, Jackie's forces have no choice - THEY MUST PREVAIL !!

Plot:

An army truck pulls up for supplies that are loaded into it. 4 generals are present more on them in a minute. The base is attacked. The generals are arguing about the Japanese forces in Canada. Note: before this movie is over Japanese in Canada will be the most logical thing in this movie. These generals are arguing where the Japanese are. The Japanese storm the base capturing the French, American, English, and African generals. The Japanese officer is surprised to have captured such an important group of officers.

Name Nationality
General Le Chreck French
General Robin Forrester England
General Sucarro Africa
Major General Abraham Lincoln !!! American

A group of officers are planning to rescue the generals. But, who should lead the commando group?

Name Reason why rejected
Agent 007 On mission in South Africa
Bald "Karl Malden" Detective (from Aces Go Places series) Defected to the Enemy
Snake King (Snake Plissken Escape From New York) Dead for 3 years
Rocky (Rocky "Italian Stallion" Balboa) Not suitable to lead a military mission
Captain Black Fox (from Golden Queen Commando) Retired

Captain Don Wen driving his jeep one handed, machine gunning the enemy with the other. He is brought to the briefing. The planning officers think he’s not qualified until they learn he captured the men sent to bring him to the briefing. The captured generals are in Luxemburg and are to be taken to Tokyo City in 4 days. Weren’t they captured in Canada? Captain Don Wen will form a commando group to rescue the generals. He will be disavowed if caught. Shades of Mission Impossible.

Happy waiters, a bum looking guy is singing a musical number. This is Old Sun. No retrogressive namification will be used in this review Old Sun is throwing money around and singing like a madman. Everyone in the restaurant is in time, too. Old Sun sees a guy with a gun belt, who draws on him. Bubba, refugee from a 70s Blaxsploitation movie, sells his gun to Old Sun, who promptly robs the place.

In the forest, Old Sun is eating when an arrow is shot at him. It has a wanted poster on it. He surrenders by shooting a soldier in the head which turns out to a dummy’s head on a stick. Captain Don Wen appears getting the drop on Old Sun. He has a job for him.

In a strip mine, gruel is being served. Benny is tripped, spilling his gruel. And gruel spilling is fighting offense among prisoners. Tripper gets a pick-axe. Benny somehow gets a gun; both of them fall off a low cliff. Benny shoots his leg irons apart and escapes. The guards chase him to know avail. Later that night, Benny stumbles across a table with at least a 3 course meal on it. Captain Don Wen captures him. Benny is better known as Grease Lightning, escape artist. He’ll be pardoned if he does Wen’s job. Old Sun is there, too.

Michael Buffer wannabe is announcing a wrestling match: Killer from Tokyo versus the Chinatown Strongman from New York. Chinatown Strongman is Jackie Chan. Big band is playing. Whatever Killer gets Jackie (Not going to call him Sammy) wants: chair, cigarette, cigar, etc…


Mind if Bogart some?

Match starts. Komedic wrestling. Then the actual Killer shows up. Jackie has been wrestling an imposter. Jackie wants to leave, his manager, Emily, convinces him to wrestle Killer then win the money. Killer is too tough for Jackie who bites him in the stomach. Jackie is in big trouble. Manager wants Jackie to win the prize money. He bashes a giant gong against Killer’s head and eventually wins.

Army rushes in, arresting everyone. Jackie and Emily bribe their way out and leave.

In a bar, a one eyed guy and tough chick named Lily are having a drinking contest. Each finishes off a glass of beer and shoots an article of clothing off the woman tied to the wall. Sort of like the Devo video for Whip It except a bullwhip is doing the clothes removing in it. Lily uses a knife once. One eyed guy passes out. Lily wins when a spectator realizes he’s seen the same performance a few months before. It’s a scam.

The one eyed guy who isn’t one eyed knocks the spectator out. Bar fight. Big brawl. At a cabin, Lily waits. A guy grabs her has a shotgun to her head. It’s Billy, the sleazy white suit guy, begging to be taken back. Oh, it’s crazy conman ex-boyfriend. That explains everything. He wants one more chance, and forgets her name. Well, he must do something right to wake up in her bed the next morning. But, Lily is gone.

Lily is tied up outside the house. Someone is shooting at Billy. Captain Don Wen captures Billy, needs him for the mission. Billy agrees to go on the mission and leaves. Well, Lily prepares for battle, uses a bazooka to blow up her house and follows Billy.

Oriental kilt wearers are playing bagpipes: a fast speed formation drill. A jeep pulls up carrying Wen and Billy. Lily is stalking them. An alarm sounds. Lily somehow gets Billy. Military officers call for Lily’s surrender. She grabs Billy into a jeep forces a couple of kilt wearing soldiers to drive the jeep. One jeep crash later.

Officers are deciding what to do with Lily. When, Billy mentions the pay, Lily joins the commando group.

The commando group is traveling off to find the generals. We have music montage scene around a campfire. Lily is mad at Billy again. Everyone discusses how they’ll spend their pay.

Jackie and Emily attack them. They rob the commandos; remember that Billy ripped them off earlier. Distracted, when Don Wen strikes, shooting the guns out of their hands. Wen sends them off. Billy wants them dead; they’ll be after him for stealing from them.

Skinny goofy soldier has an eye for Lily. Fat goofy soldier has an eye for her, too. Old Sun is at the river. Bodies pop up from the river and out of the bushes: ambush. Commandos drive away, chased by horse riding gunmen. Wen falls from the jeep and is killed.

Miles away, the jeep stops. Skinny goofy soldier, fat goofy soldier, Lily, Billy, Old Sun, and Grease Lightning get out. Komedy, several pointy objects in several butts later. They all apologize. They find an abandoned village.

Scarf-wielding gymnastic flaying Amazons capture them. Leader chick jumps across the river to meet the captives. They haven’t seen any men in a long time. An honor guard precedes the leader of the Amazons: a tuxedo clad man.


Hi, I'm the Tuxedoed man that rules these Amazons...

He has some spiel about destroying imperfection and is an artist. Chicks dig angsty guys. Lily is freed and given a gun to kill Billy. She turns the gun on tuxedo man, who anticipated that fact. It was an empty gun. Lily is taken to a cell.

The Commandos’s heads are stuck through holes in pieces of plywood with women’s bodies painted on them. They plead for their lives. Amazons mock them. Lily is in a cage. Leader Chick gives her the key.

Lily escapes and is pursued by Amazons on horse back. Leader chick caught Lily. Her plan was to let Lily escape and kill her so she won’t be a threat and steal tuxedo man from her. Leader chick has her knife ready when Jackie stumbles by them. He’s chasing a chicken. Seeing the Amazons, he tries to leave. They fight and Jackie wins. He ties up Leader chick. Lily thanks him. Emily wanted Jackie to follow the Commandos.

Lily goes back to the village to rescue the men that night. Lily comes back in packing a gun which can kill scores with one blast. Some of the men are dressed as Amazons. The goofy soldiers are in a cage which Lily frees them from. Gunfight ensues.

Old Sun and Billy are planting explosives throughout the village and head for the jeep.

The goofy soldiers and Lily are pinned down, but , the goofy soldiers manage to escape before the buildings are detonated. We get a lot of explosions. The commandos are fine and drive away. Lily is presumed dead.

Hear wolves howling, the commandos find a run down mansion to stay the night. Old Sun checks to make sure it’s deserted. Later, that night, they are all asleep. Skinny goofy soldier spots a hopping vampire. Just like the ones in Robo Vampire . He acts asleep until it leaves. Hopping vampire hops away. Skinny goofy soldier wakes up the fat goofy one.

Fat goofy soldier is so mad he storms downstairs to find some peace and quiet. He sees some guys playing mah jong, or something like it. When the Halloween theme starts playing, yes, John Carpenter’s Halloween theme.

Skinny goofy in turn wakes up another commando who storms out. Billy heads for another room, finding a hot female.

The fat goofy soldier is playing the game. He starts praying to win; each prayer hurts the hopping vampires around the table. One of the vampire’s head’s flies off his shoulders to peak at fat goofy’s tiles.

Hey, keep that head and shoulders closer than that.
Hey, keep that head and shoulders closer than that."
That fact doesn’t bother fat goofy. Another vampire extends his arm to reach under the table a good 6 or 7 feet like an undead Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards. Fat goofy catches him, too. Takes a couple more minutes before fat goofy realizes something is very wrong with that. Last vampire rotates his head 360°. Fat goofy soldier tries to escape the room but is caught.

Old Sun heads for the can. Skinny goofy soldier is scared. In the can, Old Sun sees a man moving in the mirror. Various arms shoot from the walls offering him toilet paper.

Grease Lightning finds the dining room. Billy is getting closer to getting him a little somethin’ something’. But, the woman turns into an old crone and then a skeleton. Talk about a mood killer. Back in the dining room, Grease sees legs under the table pounding their feet, etc…

The commandos have all been caught. Hopping vampires and the dark leader are going to kill them, when the bazooka toting Lily arrives to save the night. A few exploded hopping vampires later and after Kung fuing the dark leader by decapitating the main bad guy. They escape as some pyrokinetics occur. Being generous calling them pyrokinetics, they look more like a line of sparklers. Lily nonchalantly reveals the evil ones were wizards controlling ghosts.

They have found the enemy base, and rush to it opening fire. When they check the base out, most of the Japanese Nazis were dead before they got there. Someone killed the Japanese Nazis and took the hostages. Emily and Jackie arrive. Commandos think Jackie has the money.

A lot of 60s and 70s cars pull up with guys standing atop them waving flashlights.


Barbarians riding on the top of Japanese Nazis cars...

The commandos are pretty puzzled by this, and who wouldn’t be? Most of these guys are wearing loincloths and look like rejects from a post-apocalyptic gang. Each car has multiple swastikas painted on them and a few even have the Star of David? Leaders of the Japanese Nazis with bad German dubbing demand the money from the commandos. Skinny goofy soldier finds the money the Japanese are demanding.

Ve have vays of making you talk...

Commandos are given until dawn to hand over the money. They will fight, survivors get the money. The Japanese will kill them even if they turn the money over.

Emily and Jackie decide to retire after this last scheme.

At sunup, the Japanese Nazis charge the base to the peppy happy song Old Sun sang when he was introduced. It’s a crappy demolition derby. Firefight ensues. Jackie has a special gun, a ten barrel shotgun.

Japanese Nazis have gotten into the base. Lily sees Billy get wounded, shot.

Jackie and Emily are fighting a skull-mask-wearing-barbarian-Japanese-Nazi. Emily is fighting a guy dressed like a samurai.

Fat and skinny goofy soldiers are still fighting the enemy. Skinny is killed and, fat gets the killer. Vowing vengeance, fat goofy soldier rushes a horde of Japanese Nazis. Shot down in blaze of glory to impress Bon Jovi.

Old Sun and Grease Lighting are still fighting. Grease is killed; Old Sun hoses down the enemy.

Lily has the wounded Billy cover her. He finally admits he wants to marry her, very bad timing in the middle of a gunfight. They both are gunned down.

Jackie gets a hold of another machine gun, less Japanese Nazis.

Jackie, Emily and Old Sun are all that are left. Don Wen pulls up with the generals in the back. Old Sun runs to greet Wen who returns the greeting with a hot lead injection. Wen’s plan was to use the commandos as cannon fodder, so he alone gets the money.

Jackie is willing to leave without any of the money. Wen wants them both dead, shoots Emily wounding her. He loses sight of Jackie, now a game of cat and mouse ensues. Jackie is hiding in one of the numerous Japanese Nazi cars. Wen starts crushing them with a bulldozer.

Jackie versus Don Wen, who pulls off his belt which becomes a flexible sword, making a “whoosh” sound with every thrust. Jackie gets a sword. A kung fu sword fight ensues. Jackie climbs a flagpole that is cut down. Wen nicks Jackie. He’s tossing Jackie around like a rag doll And unlike Daddy’s little cutie you never see ‘em leaving by the back door . Jackie finds the detonator that Old Sun had wired earlier to blow the base. As Jackie jumps out of the building, triggers the detonator.

Jackie and Emily get in the jeep loaded with the bodies of the dead commandos. The generals order Jackie to take them to headquarters. Jackie is angry over the deaths of the commandos and drives away with the generals running behind them. The end.


What I say:

This is a hard movie to talk about for one reason, it is so off-the-wall. I feel at a lost trying to logically write about it. I was interested in watching this movie after hearing about it off Teleport City. This movie made absolutely no sense. I was drawn to the fact of Jackie Chan wandering in and out of the plot. So, it was totally incoherent and completely illogical. If you know Jackie Chan is in it, you should know vaguely what to expect kung fu, etc... No one would confuse this with an art film. I'd think this is the type of movie to turn your brain off to enjoy. But, the brain needs to be on to just scratch your head at the thought of Japanese Nazis in Canada.

I'm not sure if I ever have mentioned the What the Hell factor. It is basically whenever something really strange happens in a movie. General Abraham Lincoln, hopping vampires, flying Amazons, post-apocalyptic Japanese Nazis, a haunted mansion sequences. How could Cat Man in Lethal Track compare with only a pyrokinetic Devil worshipper trying to rule Southeast Asia with the help of the KGB. I thought the CatMan and Robo Vamp had high What the Hell factors. But, they were different movies spliced together. This was a movie that someone thought was a good idea and put all the various aspects into one film. This wasn't the result of taking different movies and putting them together. The director put all of this in himself. In the end, splicing various movies together like Robo Vampire is nothing compared to Fantasy Mission Force.

The biggest problem I had with it was the comedy for the most part wasn't that funny. There's a scene where most of the commandos are poked in the butt with something sharp and are going to fight because of it. The lame toliet humor, too. But, then they'd do something so strange.Lily was hunting Billy down, I was having flashbacks to Blues Brothers when Carrie Fisher was trying to kill Jake and Elwood.

The scene showing Agent 007, Bald Detective, Snake King, and Rocky it shows pictures of theatrical promotional artwork. Is there any point to it? I couldn’t see one. It had to be to show that Don Wen was a tough man. I still don't know why they went with who they picked. Was Escape From New York that big in Hong Kong? The same could be said for any of them mentioned except for Captain Black Fox, who is played by Brigitte Lin who played Lily. Oddly enough, Yin-Ping Chu directed that movie, too.

Most of the reviews which numbers in the single digits will mention how the score is stolen from a lot of Spaghetti Westerns and especially those scored by Ennio Morricone I haven’t seen enough of them to know if it’s true or not. This movie would have gotten an additional rad for opening using the lyrics to the Django theme. I did recognize the Halloween theme.

Don't expect the traditional Jackie Chan style in this movie. This movie may play strictly for laughs but it doesn't really have what you'd think of as the traditional Jackie Chan style. His fights are gymnastic and use some props, but not to the level of the bicycle fight from Project A or the typical props used like in Rumble in the Bronx.

Yes, Jackie Chan is plastered over the cheap VHS or DVD copies of this movie. Well, he's plastered over it to make you think he's the star of this movie. But, he'snot. At least, Jackie Chan is in this movie more that in Killer Meteors. The wrestling match, the robbery, the Amazon fight, and big battle at the end. That’s better than the one fight in Killer Meteors. This movie was made after Jackie was starting to be a big name in Hong Kong cinema. Why Jackie would appear in this for even the short amount of time? Various rumors are he owed Jimmy Wang Yu a favor, to even repaying a debt for saving Jackie's life. Whatever the reason, Jackie had to owe Jimmy the equivalent of the Wookie Life Debt. And Jimmy collected on it from this movie to Killer Meteors and beyond.

You don't always want deep philosophical movies. If you're reading this, you should recognize there is no deep meaning in Massacre. Most of the philosophical ranting comes from B-Movie fans who over-analayze these movies. No Amerian director in their right mind would make anything to this insane. I can think of a couple of the Yahoo Serious movies like Young Einstein that could vaguely be considered like that. But, it'd be a stretch.

If ever there was a kitchen sink type of movie, Fantasy Mission Force would be it. It seems to have a little bit of everything in it. Kung Fu, Romance, War, Comedy, Slapstick, Horror, Action-Adventure. An easier question is what isn't in this movie. Giant monsters and aliens are lacking. I'm not sure what else is left. As long as you don't take it seriously, it should be a ok provided you know Jackie Chan will be back in another 10 minutes or so after the flying Amazons ruled by the man wearing the tuxedo. And this movie doesn't make a lick of sense.


2 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"American Major General Abraham Lincoln."
"Wow, wonderful, this is a real war."
"You have dirty language and dirty minds."
"I’m gonna crap."
"Even the ghosts are scared of you."
"When, I’m nervous, I need to pee."
"You’re really pretty when you kill."


Morals of the Story

Good sign, when the credits acknowledge Jacky Chan is the star.
Drunks shooting the clothes off a woman tied to a wall is big business.
Sneaking up and grabbing your ex-girlfriend will win her back.
Amazons wield scarves like the deadly weapons they are.
Tuxedo clad men rule Amazons.
Single gun blast can kill hundred...
Belts can become swords.