AdultAudienceMember This is a cheesy as it get. Horrible acting. Bored extras. Low speed auto chases. Gunfights with hand grenades in a small apartment that doesn't damage the dry wall....that or the walls heal themselves.Set in Russia but filmed in Bulgaria or one of those other countries, Armstrong is a retired SEAL. Somehow he gets involved with unrepentant Commies who want to steal a nuke....or maybe not. It's hard to say. It is so bad you'll laugh so hard you'll forget the plot.Maybe because either the plot is so forgettable or it doesn't really have one. Please do yourself a favor, watch it.It isn't quite at good as the great Sam Elliott movie Frogs, but it is still breathtakingly horrible.

Scarecrow-88 American soldiers Frank Zagarino and Charles Napier plan to thwart the mission of corrupt Russian Colonel and devious American Mafia leader to sell missiles to countries in demand, including a plot to bomb the Kremlin. Joe Lara is the sadistic Mafia thug who needs Napier's wife, Kimberley Kates, in order to find out what he was in Moscow for(..Napier is killed during a shootout as he and Zagarino find themselves in a battle with Lara and his men). Richard Lynch is the Russian Colonel who Zagarino was employed under before Napier gave him the goods on his involvement with the American Mafia, and the secret plans regarding the missiles.I must say that despite everything going against it(..the rather uninspired acting from a cast who seem to be going through the motions, the rather garbage plot, cheap sets(particularly Camp 14 where the crooked operations regarding the missiles take place), and rather sappy dialogue)that I found the action sequences rather thrilling. There's a really nifty chase where Lara and his goons pursue Kates(..who is wearing no bra or panties due to being interrupted by the Mafia shortly after a shower in her motel room)throughout the city of Bulgaria(..substituting Moscow)where she constantly eludes them, allowed to remain alive when often cornered due to the information that might benefit them regarding what she knows about her husband's business in Moscow. You can actually see how exhausted Kates is as she dodges gun fire, cars, and people while attempting to find some sort of escape route or hiding place. Lynch isn't menacing as much as he's nervous, bafoonish, sweaty, and drunk, while Lara goes so over-the-top in his portrayal as the Mafia scumbag that he's unintentionally hilarious. It seems Lara, however, revels in this role because of how despicable his character is..the idea that he is not only threatening the national security of his own country(..because frankly he could care less)but more than willing to watch innocent people perish all over the world due to terrorism from missiles he plans to sell. Napier again stars in a role that lasts only a short bit of screen time before he's off to collect a check. Kates is particularly yummy, in not a very noteworthy performance(..her physical work during the lengthly chase is to commended, though), and she has a full frontal nude scene that remains perhaps the film's most memorable highlight. Zagarino(..of the Project Shadowchaser films)is a low-rent, grade-Z, charisma-less hero phoning it in big time. Justin Carroll is Zagarino's Russian ally, the two joining forces to stop Lynch and Lara's scheming. Kates is often getting smacked around by Lara who needs information and doesn't appreciate it when she's not cooperative. I think director Menahem Golan effectively keeps the pace lively and stages some enthusiastic action sequences, but the plot, characters, and performances are lacking in quality.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** The Russian and US Mafia's get together in the movie "Armstrong" in an alliance to take over the new Russian Nuclear Agency. The two gangster organizations plan to sell the dangerous and deadly nuclear weapons to the highest bidders who for the most part are terrorist-type groups in the Middle-East and Africa who have the millions to buy them. Bob Zorkin, Charles Naper, a former Navy Seal instructor is sent by the US government on a secret mission to Russia using the cover as an American tourist. Zorkin's job is to find out and report back to his bosses in the US Pentagon and State Department who's involved in the Russian government and military in dealing with both the Russian & US Mafia. Told that if the Russian government can't stop the gangsters, American & Russians, from selling the nuclear material It's his job to use his skills as a Navy Seal to take them out. Zorkin and his wife Susan, Kimberley Kates, are followed to Moscow by two mobsters from the US Ponytail & his bumbling assistant Eric, Joe Lara & Igor Porshev. Bob then goes to the hotel room where Rod Armstrong, Frank Zagarino, a former student and good friend of Zorkin is staying at. Armstrong is training the Russian secret service in the art of modern combat methods that he learned from Zorkin with the Navy Seals. Before you know it Zorkin is killed and later his wife Susan is kidnapped by the US/Russian Mob. The murder and kidnapping of Bob and Susan gives Armstrong the opportunity to show his stuff in taking on the two mob organizations and at the same time saving the world, or the city of Moscow, from nuclear annihilation. The two mob organizations , US Mafia & Russian, are trying to find out from Susan why her husband was in Moscow, as if they couldn't figure it out all by themselves. But the mobs main reason is to get Armstrong out of the way before he stops them from getting their hands on the nuclear weapons and also find what was on a tape that her husband Bob gave him. "Armstrong" really makes no sense at all with the US mobsters, for reasons known only to themselves, trying to trick the obviously drunk and naive Russians to get them to blow themselves up with the nuclear weapons that they were going to sell them? The movie never takes the time to explain why?Armstrong takes care of the both US & Russian mobs and the corrupt Russian military men single-handedly wearing a tuxedo that he had on when he attended the Russian Opera. Armstrong also saved the Russian president from being assassinated by Ponytail with his tuxedo not having as much as a tear or even a as much as a smudge of dirt on it after he took care of business. Armstrong's fight with Ponytail is also ridicules when after it looked like Armstrong killed him, by sticking a knife in his chest, Ponytail pulls it out and is even stronger and almost beats Armstrong with half of his blood supply drained out of his body.The reason for Ponytail & Co. being so eager to find the tape that Bob Zorkin gave Armstrong was also nutty when you finally saw the tape it. The tape showed what you and Ponytail and his mob cohorts should have already known. The secret tape showed that the US government was investigating the Russian/US mobs who it suspected of working with corrupt elements in the Russian Army to get their hands on Russia's nuclear weapons. Shouldn't they have know that just by Zorkin being sent to Moscow by the US State Department? The action scenes in the movie were about the only thing worth watching, there was also a very explicit nude scene of Kimberly Kates going out of the shower, but for a plot and story that makes any sense at all, forget it.

Dave Banks This film is a simple little B type action flick that moves quickly and contains a lot of action. The plot has been done many times before and the characterizations are sort of cliches.Having said all that, I found Armstrong to be a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours at home on a Saturday evening, courtesy of my TIVO unit. I wasn't expecting any complicated, clever plot development nor did I expect any award winning performances. Frankly, I didn't want either to happen. My wife and I liked the fact that the film moves at a very brisk pace with no long, boring, character development scenes.If you consider yourself to be somewhat "above" watching this type of film, do yourself a favor and stay away. The rest of us simple minded folk will continue to enjoy this type of movie and not take the film, or ourselves, too seriously.