Most people will never give a break to any former Playboy Playmate trying to make it into the movie business, but IMO Kathy Shower does a pretty good job in this film. She's no Dona Speir (whom I consider a perfectly credible action actress), but she doesn't embarrass herself either. She has presence, she has attitude and she has self-assurance, and remember: sometimes how you sell what you can do is more important than what you can actually do. If it seems like I'm focusing too much on Kathy, it's because the rest of "Commando Squad" is an utterly routine actioner, with Brian Thomson as the token male lead and William Smith, Sid Haig and Ross Hagen as the trio of slimy villains. But considering the low (as usual) budget that Fred Olen Ray had to work with, the results are at least passable. (**)
Add a Review
-
mikecanmaybee4 March 2021Director Fred Olin Ray started out with a winner which moved along momentously for the first half of the film with Sid Haig (Iggy), underling to William Smith (Morgan Denny), being his creepy scene stealing self. Smith's early scenes were terrific as the evil turncoat Denny but he bogged down noticeably in the second half of the Film when I guess he realized it wasn't going well. Ross Hagen (Cowboy) another of Denny's thugs was a pain in the back constantly yelling let's go and come on come on to the rest of Denny's soldiers. Finally, Brian Thompson (L.A. Det. Clint Jensen) who was captured by Iggy while trying to break up a drug ring in Mexico spend most of the movie being tortured or escaping and being recaptured while his performance was OK at best. Playboy Bunny Kathy Shower (L.A. Detective Cat Withers) who was dispatched to Mexico by the great Robert Quarry ( Head L.A. Det. Milo) to rescue Jensen is under the circumstances quite good. Now the unfortunate circumstances, for reasons only Director Ray would know, have Shower beautiful blond hair covered with a black wig that looked like a reject from a Joan Jett video. To add injury to insult she might as well have worn a lab jacket through the whole picture as Ray didn't apparently see the need to accentuate her lovely Playboy Bunny body, or show it unclothed for that matter, come on Fred. The other terrible decision by Ray was to cast his then wife Dawn Wildsmith as hot tempered bar maid (Consuela). Dawn, to say the least never underacts a scene, is however a couple of shades lighter then Elke Sommer which just didn't work as Consuela. A big shout out to Mel Welles for a excellent performance as the bumbling just want to get the heck out of here (Quintano). There are two versions of the film out there one is over 1hr 40min with the BETTER one checking in at 1hr 29 min. With all that said the film is definitely worth a watch with a fine first half and the last 15 minutes of bang bang and explosions.
-
I thought that this movie seemed kind of cool when I first heard about it, but when I watched it, I was pretty disappointed.
I thought that Brian Thompson was going to go out there and do some good ol' fashioned ass-kicking, while hauling this chick alongside him. But instead he was just a prisoner getting tortured during the most of the movie, and even had to be saved by that little chick!(Kathy Shower)
I thought their "fake love-scene" was funny, and explosions are always funny, but this reminded me a bit too much of a long TV-episode of "the A-Team" or something like that.. lots of explosions, shooting, jumping around and making (un-funny) jokes... in fact, I would rather watch an episode of the A-team than watching this movie once more....
I think that Brian Thompson was much better in "Three Amigos!" and "Terminator", even though he didn't get as much playtime in those films. And Kathy Shower looks better on a poster than in an action-movie.
If you watch this movie and think it was robbed at Oscar-time, then you should probably get your head checked or something....
It would sweep all the awards at the raspberry awards, I think.
But the Crappo-Squad still was an okay "one-time-watching" experience, so just go see it anyways... but no more than two times... your brain could take serious damage of watching movies this bad! Well, now I'm exaggerating a bit perhaps...it would've been very good, if it had been a TV-series. But not as a full-length movie.
I would give it 4/10, and *½/**** -
fmarkland326 September 2006Brian Thompson (Wonder why he always plays support in Van Damme movies, here is why) stars as commando who is kidnapped by a bunch of Latin drug-lords who are no match for him or his girlfriend (The hopeless Kathy Shower) and her team of DEA agents. This was made to capitalize on Andy Sidaris' type of movies that for some reason have proved to be popular among genre fans. (It must be the playmates and their boobs) The movie is very badly made with scenes that make little sense and the action sequences are done very poorly. I never was a fan of the action flicks from Andy Sidaris since the truth of the matter is that I can always rent a porno, still even fans of the bimbo action movie are better off with Andy Sidaris' pictures then wasting their time here.
* out of 4-(Bad) -
tarbosh220007 December 2023Kat Withers (Shower) is an L. A. narcotics agent who cleans up the trash on the streets and asks questions later. Her boss, Milo (Quarry) informs her that a "renegade federal agent" named Morgan Denny (Smith) and his sidekicks Iggy (Haig) and Cowboy (Hagen) have not only moved their drug operation south of the border to Mexico, but that they've also kidnapped Withers's boyfriend Clint Jensen (Thompson). Never fearing a fight, Withers goes in search of her beloved Clint. Along the way, she faces many obstacles and challenges - but will Kat and Clint stop the baddies and their drug running? Is Kat Withers a one-woman COMMANDO SQUAD?
Fred Olen Ray is certainly no stranger to the action genre, having directed Armed Response (1986) and Operation Cobra (1997), among others. While Commando Squad boasts a strong first half, Ray seems to have lost interest around the halfway mark. Still, 'Squad has plenty to offer the 80's action film fan. For one thing, the cast of B-Movie favorites is incredibly strong. It's almost literally an all-star cast as Shower, Quarry, Smith, Hagen, Haig and Thompson are backed with Mel Welles, Russ Tamblyn, Ray regular Dawn Wildsmith, and Tane McClure and Michelle Bauer in small roles.
Perhaps the most inspired casting choice was Golden Age actress Marie Windsor as the Machine Gun Joe character, Casey. Not only that, she uses her employment at Hollywood Book & Poster as her cover! A poster for the John Savage film Soldier's Revenge (1986) is clearly seen in this scene, as are other notable background posters. Also, instead of a sign that says either Open or Closed, theirs says We Be Here or We Be Gone. Maybe locals to the area can tell us if that's their real sign.
Despite the slowdown of the second half, this is still a great role for Kathy Shower. Finally, we get to see her shooting many people and really getting in on the action. To show that she's undercover and serious, she wears a black-haired wig that gets her resembling Pat Benatar more than you might think. Interestingly, on the American VHS box cover we see Shower's blonde hair. On foreign issues, she had the short black hair. It must be a cultural thing.
From the outset, we're taken in by the sleazy backdrop, the sax and wailing guitar on the soundtrack, Shower's attitude and her shooting of baddies, and of course the fact that this is "One Last Job" for her, a cliche we always love. There's also a coke deal gone wrong, naturally enough. After they're ensconced in Mexico, we do get some action and blow-ups, including an exploding helicopter. We also get some classic Prerequisite Torture of the hero, in this case Brian Thompson. We're happy he was playing a good guy, similar to his role in Hired to Kill (1990). Sid Haig wears a Miami Vice-style white suit (remember this was 1987), and William Smith's voice is its normal, gravelly self.
A movie highlight occurs when we see that Kat Withers has what they call a Vengeance Knife. Apparently, this is a knife with an acid-filled blade. That could be the title for a film on its own.
While, overall, the whole of Commando Squad should have taken place on the streets, as it did in the first half, and things become a bit soft after that, there still is plenty of 80's charm and other noteworthy aspects that make it worth checking out. -
lor_21 April 2023My review was written in June 1987 after a screening at Cine 42 theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.
Prolific action director Fred Olen Ray operates on automatic pilot with "Commando Squad", a deadly dull picture that tries to be a destitute man's "Extreme Prejudice". Outlook not so good, quoth the Magic Eight Ball.
In her film starring debut, former Playboy magazine Playmate of the year Kathy Shower keeps her apparel firmly on he bod at all times, essaying the role of a government drug enforcement agent sent to Mexico by her boss Robert Quarry (the screen's "Count Yorga" with many pounds added) to wipe out a cocaine factory operated by an agent turned bad, William Smith. She teams up south of the border with fellow agent Brian Thompson and they withstand torture at the hands of B-movie vet Sid Haig in a boring series of encounters with the baddies en route to a fiery conclusion.
Pic starts out promisingly with a nicely staged and arrestingly lit (in various pastel tones) shootout in a power staton, but falls apart in the second reel, never to recover its momentum. Donned almost throughout the film in an unbecoming black wig, Shower is unimpressive, her beauty hidden and characterization embarrassingly relegate to non-stop voice-over narration. Co-star Brian Thompson is an unappealing leading man, delivering lines in bored fashion and looking more like Klaus Kinski than a heatthrob.
Of the typically Olen Ray-round-up of vet actors (he's replaced A. C. Lyles in this regar), William Smith and Ross Haen are forceful, Mel Welles has a funny turn and Marie Windsor is hilarious operating the Hollywood Book & Poster store as a front for gunrunning. Russ Tamblyn pops up uncredited, just as he was in Ray's concurrent release "Cyclone".
Most of the listless action takes place where many old Hollywood Westerns and serials were shot, not convincingly doubling for Mexico. Best tech credits are explosions.