Friday, November 14, 2014

Shorts: Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

It is stupid. Story makes no sense. Acting is bad. But it is one of the best 80's action movies. If you wonder, where all the Chuck Norris jokes come from, you should check this movie. It has explosions, car chase and Chuck Norris shooting two machine guns same time. What more could you want? Consistency? Things to make sense? You won't get that.

Movie tells about Soviet guerrilla invasion to USA. It isn't told it was Soviet invasion, leaders' names imply that. Chuck Norris is Matt Hunter, former agent, who just want to leave spying world behind. He can't because his nemesis Mikhail Rostov is leading guerrilla invasion. Rostov attacks Hunter's home before the guerrilla invasion. Hunter's friend dies in attack and Hunter wants revenge. Nobody but Hunter can stop the invasion.

I could nitpick for ages how inconsistent the story is. But that is not the point. This doesn't try to be realistic or make sense. This is series of scenes giving audience what they want to see. Movie doesn't spend too much time showing aftermath of violence. If it shows explosion, it shows the explosion and then cuts the next scene before debris hit the ground. It feels like genius cutting. When Matt Hunter drives the street, where everyone hates him and his car, we see how lonely he is, trying to save people who hate him. He just don't care, if they hate him. Does that hating make sense? No, but it tells us something and shows how lonely Matt Hunter is and how little he cares.

Invasion U.S.A. is prime example of 80's action movies. Cool one-liners, lone hero and bad guys are evil. Another guerrilla leader Nikko seem to have second thought of what they are doing, but Rostov is one dimensional and evil for both of them.

No comments:

Post a Comment