dworldeater
Death Before Dishonor is an ultra patriotic and macho 80's action in the same vein as Rambo-First Blood pt.2 and The Delta Force. It is not as good as the films I have just mentioned and is in many ways cliché and little bit on the cheesy side. It is mostly a recruitment poster for the US Marines, but is a good film vehicle for Fred Dryer.(who is best known as Hunter) Death Before Dishonor delivers big on action with some excellent stunts, explosions and shootouts. Fred Dryer may not be the best actor, but he is good with firearms and is athletic and rugged enough to be a good action hero and is convincing as a Marine Corps badass. Director Terry Leonard did a good job as his only gig as director and there is a good support cast with Brian Keith and Paul Winfield. Rockne Tarkington of Black Samson fame did well cast as main baddie Jihad. I remember watching this as a young lad with my father when this originally had its run on cable, while certain elements of the film are dated, it holds up pretty good with most action movies of the same period.
megoobee
Rather than the abomination that was released in 2010, this is what the A-Team movie should have been like. The necessary pieces are all there, desperate situation, chase scenes with vehicles jumping/flipping over or crashing through things, people falling or being flung through the air, thousands of rounds of ammunition expended and last but not least, big explosions.Even with all that going on, this feature is only marginally entertaining. It is ham and cheese at it's best (or worse depending on your viewpoint). The dialog is bad and the plot is so formulaic that you know what will happen well before it happens. The buddy-buddy bonding scene in the beginning is not believable and adds no real value other than to give the audience a quick introduction to the team and their "We are bad ass" attitude/history.There is a fair amount of violence which includes a graphic torture scene. The story, what little of it lacks cohesiveness and as a result jumps around more than a Mexican jumping bean on a pogo stick.For those looking for mindless entertainment with gun play and explosions, they will probably be satisfied. For those wanting a good story to go along with the violence, probably not.
janus-20
Cardinal Richelieu said: "War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men."The scourge who afflicts men in this wheeze is Gunnery Sgt. Burns (Fred Dryer). Burns is a career soldier, battle hardened and grizzled. He has his own interpretation of American foreign military policy, all foreigners are suspect by default and therefore subject to his military policy.Armed only with this simple misunderstanding (and highly powered automatic weaponry), Burns' ire is aroused when his superior and friend, Col. Halloran (Brian Keith) is bushwacked and spirited away by babbling, machine gun toting "types". Burns' initial bafflement with his superiors reluctance to blame and incacerate every non-American in a hundred mile radius soon gives way to righteous indignation. Bullets are soon being chambered, grenades are attached to bandoliers and rocket launchers hefted. Before you can say "United Nations peacekeeping envoy" Gunnery Sgt. Burns is (with the help of a few other people who don't stand on ceremony when there are asses to be kicked) laying siege to the desert fortress of a large man who looks like the product of an unholy union between Chewbacca and Dave Lee Travis (sorry, not funny if your not from the UK). After the smoke clears (and we have learnt that any combatant who has received a knife to the chest still has to be punched in the face really hard and fall from a terrace to ensure neutralisation), everyone who deserved to be (except the writers) is riddled with bullets, blown up and in one case has had a jeep dropped on them.Possibly you may think I don't care much for this film, based on the above, but you'd be wrong. This is a slightly above average actioner, decently edited action scenes and pushes all the politically wrong buttons to get any red blooded blockhead like me baying for blood. Its a shame Fred Dryer couldn't bring the same understated, laconic charm to this effort that he did to seven years of the excellent cop show Hunter, but he does make a pretty good action hero. Not a bad action pot boiler and I didn't even know it was Islamophobic until I looked it up on wiki.
wbhickok
About the kindest think I could possibly say about this movie, is that it is funnier than 'Commando.' Starring Fred 'Where the hell did my career go' Dryer as a Marine who lives by his own rules.(clever huh?) After the killing of all his buddies, and the kidnapping of his gruff but loveable Colonel, Yep... you guessed it, he goes on a one man rescue mission (against orders naturally) to rescue the Colonel, and to kill as many non-english speaking persons as possible. Laughably cliched from start to finish. Whoever wrote this should have their crayons taken away.