Leofwine_draca Here's yet another jungle adventure yarn from Antonio Margheriti, following on from his previous Warbeck quartet. While this movie lacks Warbeck, it makes up for his absence by having a great exploitation cast to die for. I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed adventure yarn which may be cheesy, far-fetched and predictable, but is nonetheless violent, and showcases some top actors going through their motions as they struggle for survival in the jungle. Probably the main disappointment is the music, which, as the credits proudly proclaim, is produced on Yamaha keyboards! The film begins with a shoot-em-up in the dark scene. I don't know what relevance it bears to the rest of the film, but it starts the move in an action-packed way so I'll let it pass. We are initially introduced to the characters at a bigwig meeting presided over by the immortal Ernest Borgnine. Why immortal? Well, he always seems to keep on making films and never letting his age worry him! Borgnine here is the team leader, so his job is to fret behind a desk for the film's course. Sadly he doesn't engage in any of the action in the movie.Pretty soon, Margheriti's obsession with miniature effects comes into play during a car chase, in which cars fly up the walls of a tunnel. Hilariously these are matchbox models by the look of it, and are easily spotted due to the lack of people in the supposed vehicles! Pointless stuff, but it's fun anyway. Shortly afterwards, our hero Wesley (Lewis Collins) assembles his team and ventures into the jungle at night. The first action scene is an attack on a village, and contains a hilarious moment where a soldier jumps through the roof of a thatched hut and gets a huge spike through his arm! Surely the door would have been a better bet.The film gets better as it goes on, and the next action sequence is to steal a helicopter and is very well done. It isn't anything you won't have seen before, but there's lots of bloody death and incessant shots of guards tumbling out of guard towers. Oh yeah, and around a dozen bad guys get knives thrown into their chests for variety. The film climaxes at around the halfway mark with a successful attack on the enemy base which culminates in our heroes' helicopter being destroyed - big surprise.They then have to make their way on foot to another enemy base and destroy that as well. Along the way they stop briefly at a jungle church (!) run by none other than Margheriti's old friend Luciano Pigozzi as the priest. Pigozzi is just one of the familiar faces to reappear from Margheriti's previous movies. The native guy from TIGER JOE is also here. Keep your eyes peeled and you'll see the witch doctor from HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA as a prisoner in one brief shot. This goes to show that, like with Hammer Studios, Margheriti tended to employ the same actors again and again in his films.Well, the enemy shows up and Pigozzi gets attacked in the film's most horrific scene, enlivened by the quality acting. This is probaby one of Pigozzi's finest moments. Our heroes continue, their numble dwindling all the while, stopping briefly to blow up a (miniature) train and unsuccessfully negotiate a minefield. The excellent finale sees an all-out assault on the enemy base, and a surprise traitor attacking.Lewis Collins is rather bland as the film's hero, but not a total loss. He tries to be David Warbeck for a lot of the time but doesn't have the same laidback charm. Spaghetti western icon Lee Van Cleef pops up in one of his last appearances as an ex-con helicopter pilot and delivers a solid performance as usual. Borgnine's role is limited but he's there for name value alone. Former giallo star Mimsy Farmer is also around as an opium addict-turned-gunfighting hero. Finally, we have Klaus Kinski doing his patented psycho shtick, at one point drilling a corpse with his machine gun and going berserk! Good stuff, and a fine action/war film which is easy on the brain but looks good and has lots of shooting and explosions for those who like them. Personally, I found this to be a superior action flick and I recommend it to all.

Chase_Witherspoon Antonio Margheriti (that's the linguine Anthony Dawson) directs this in-name only second sequel to "The Wild Geese", with ex-Professionals' Lewis Collins as the indomitable Commander Robin Wesley (a very masculine sounding name befitting the tough guy profile), and his band of rag-tag mercenaries as they venture into the jungles of Borneo or thereabouts for a supposedly benign mission to bust an opium operation. But the evil, double crossing Charleton (crazy-eyed Kinski) is playing both sides, and the group find themselves taking refuge in a mission with language assistance from expatriate American (Farmer) as they search for an escape route.Glorious colour tones, stylish costumes and jazzy synthesisers give this jungle war opus the Armani makeover that was en vogue at the time. Collins' suave sophistication and stiff upper lip as he delivers painfully awkward dialogue is so artificial, it's cringe worthy. Ernest Borgnine looks sedated in his brief cameo, while Kinski, conversely, is so over the top, he's hilarious. Only Van Cleef offers some restraint, but he's a passenger. The set designers, special effects crew and pyrotechnic personnel showed flair with their multitude of explosions, and the bodies blown apart in gory detail give it that Euro-trash touch you've come to expect.But while the action sequences are fluent and well constructed, and the general gist of the film is easy to follow, there's still an awful lot of stilted dialogue and overly intense acting. Perhaps as a box set with its younger siblings, this could be a cool if somewhat hokey trilogy. Nice try, but in spite of Collins' penchant for smoking stogies, no cigar.

zardoz-13 "Horror Castle" director Antonio Margheriti's "Code Name: Wild Geese" with Lewis Collins and Lee Van Cleef qualifies as an explosive, action-packed, but formulaic military actioneer about hard-nosed mercenaries dispatched with the blessings of the DEA to destroy an evil Asian general's opium factory in the Golden Triangle. Predictably, complications arise, and everybody finds themselves in for a considerably more difficult mission than they were prepared for from the outset. Although it is not related to the 1978 Richard Burton epic "The Wild Geese" or its tardy sequel "Wild Geese II," the Tito ("Tentacles") Capri, Gianfranco ("The Last Hunter") Couyoumdjian, and Michael Lester screenplay clearly borrows elements from the two earlier films, but rearranges them so there are enough differences. The rugged cast includes Ernst Borgnine, Klaus Kinski, Mimsy Farmer, Manfred Lehmann, and Frank Glaubrecht. Margheriti and cinematographer Peter Baumgartner lensed this actioneer on location in Hong Kong and lush jungles of the Philippines. Some of the action scenes, such as a fast-paced car chase through a tunnel under construction and most of the explosions that occur in long shot are done with cost-saving miniatures, as Margheriti did with his Karen Black & Lee Major's thriller "Killer Fish." "Code Name: Wild Geese" is nothing memorable, but it is done with a lot of savvy and Kinski's fake elite British accent make it worthwhile, especially if you're in the mood for a shoot'em up with no shortage of explosions and a high body count. One of the last scene when our hero attaches a flamethrower to a helicopter skid and burns up everything and everybody at an opium plant gives it an edge.Captain Robin Wesley (Lewis Collins of "The Final Option") is a top-notch mercenary who trains his men under conditions as close to actual combat as he can. Obviously, Margheriti and his scenarists pilfered the first scene from the Andrew V. McLaglen thriller "ffolks" with Roger Moore whose title character keeps his mercenaries on their toes with similar exercises. Wesley is called in by his employer, Baldwin (Wolfgang Pampel) to blow the smithereens out of a opium factory run by a ruthless, bald-headed warlord. Fletcher (Ernst Borgnine of "Marty") represents the DEA, and Charlton (Klaus Kinski of "Nosferatu") hangs around as back-up in case Wesley and his men run into trouble. Before the mission begins, Wesley loses his helicopter pilot so he strikes a bargain with the authorities to release Travis (Lee Van Cleef of "For a Few Dollars More") to fly for him. Travis is an expert chopper pilot who has flown in five wars but wound up in prison for smuggling.Initially, everything goes according to plans and our heroes wipe out the opium factory. During the heated combat, Travis leaves his post in the helicopter to help the mercenaries and an adversary smashes the fuel tank, sets the chopper afire, and it blows up. Wesley and company take some casualties, but now they have to march out. The warlord learns about this debacle and sends an army out to make an example of our death-defying heroes. The local guerrillas liberate a bamboo prison nearby and rescue Katy Robson (Mimsy Farmer) who has been held hostage and shot up repeatedly with heroin. They take her with them. Wesley and his men tromp through the jungle and find a priest (Peter Lorre look-alike Luciano Pigozzi of "Baron Blood") running a mission. At this point, our heroes learn that there is a second opium factory and a train that delivers the narcotics. While they are away blowing up the train when it crosses a bridge, the warlord's army storms the mission, kills everyone, and crucifies the priest. Eventually, back at mission headquarters, Fletcher and Charlton figure that no news is good news and decide that our heroes must have lost their helicopter. Charlton arranges for back-up and leads it into the jungle on a motorized riverboat with a squad of well-armed thugs. Everything changes radically when Charlton hurls himself into the fray.The leads don't have much of a chance to act because the explosions and the thrill-a-minute heroics keep them dodging bullets and shrapnel. "Code Name: Wild Geese" is the conclusion to a successful trilogy that Margheriti started with Lewis Collins and continued with "Commando Leopard" with Klaus Kinski and "The Commander" with Lee Van Cleef and Donald Pleasence.

edcharlesadams This terrible film is indicative of the type of cheapo gung-ho style jungle rubbish all too common in the mid- to late-seventies. I was surprised to learn that the film only dates from 1984, when from the quality of film they used it appears to be at least ten years older. The plot is virtually non-existent, the action is risible and the soundtrack is perhaps the poorest quality I've ever heard, with music seemingly provided by one man and his synthesizer. Plus some truly awful dubbing. My friend got this film for £5 from the bargain bin at his village shop. He was ripped off.