actionmoviefanatix
No Dead Heroes is another movie I HAD to check out after the favorable review by our buddies over at Comeuppance Reviews. No Dead Heroes isn't available on DVD so the only option to see it is tracking down an old VHS
which I did.Lt. Richard Sanders has no choice but to accept one final mission. Capt. Harry Cotter, Sanders' former colleague prior to being taken captive in Vietnam, has become a victim of KGB experiments. He has had a micro-chip implanted in his brain which controls his mind and has turned him into an unstoppable killing machine. Now, 10 years later, Sanders is sent back in to bring Cotter back alive.Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back
Welcome back Mr. Cottayyyyr! You're a top secret KGB killing machine now
welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Oh, man!!! No Dead Heroes is off its own rocker. This movie is crazy! And, holy crap, do suckas get mowed down here or what. The scenes of action have little to no dialogue, just Russians, Vietnamese and/or Cubans getting shot to hell over and over. There's explosions everywhere. Machineguns everywhere. There must have been hundreds of commies killed throughout this movie.I'm not sure if pistol grip pump shotguns or crossbows were standard issue in Vietnam but they certainly don't seem like they would be the best choices. Regardless of what my logic tells me they were the weapons of choice for the soldiers invading the Viet-Cong camp at the beginning of the movie.All the stabbings and arrow sticks have the exact same "tick" sound effect. All you hear as the U.S. soldiers sneak through a Viet Cong camp is tick, tick, tick as they kill their enemies trying to free the trapped American soldiers.The acting and dialogue are atrocious. Truly some of the worst I have ever seen. But, then again, I wasn't expecting much.The music is comically bad. Inappropriate for almost every scene.I'm not sure if No Dead Heroes qualifies as so bad it's good material. By most logical standards it is not at all a good movie but it is most certainly the type of movie that could be quite entertaining given the right circumstances (a few cold ones and a few friends). It's crazy stupid fun but it's unfortunately not overly memorable.For more action movie news and reviews visit Action Movie Fanatix online.
bad_habitt
I purchased a copy of this on eBay for $24 as I learned Max Thayer starred in this gem. After seeing him in No retreat No surrender 2, I knew I had to own this film.After 3 months of waiting for my copy, it finally arrived this morning. I of course took the day off work, lit up a jay and popped it in my VCR.From the opening credits I knew It was watching something special. Straight from 1987 and everything that came along with it. Max's acting in this doesn't rise to the sophistication and sharpness of that in NRNS2 however. You get the idea that maybe he enjoyed himself a lot more in that film than this one. Although he is still great in it and passes off some very surreal acting.The villain Nick Nicholson has to be seen to be believed. There are no words in the English language to describe his performance. His character transfers from a sadistic general, then forward 10 years (that's right, this film has a time warp), to where he's a maniac communist trying to implement justice into the world by assassinating the pope and US president. Simply brilliant.Kudos to J.C Miller for having the balls to write the screenplay for this and eventually direct it. I'd love to see a DVD release of this with his commentary. I imagine it would be very manic and one of the best commentaries ever. Simply because anyone who'd write a film like this, is a unique artist - worthy of cinema acclaim.10\10 - A must see.
lefrelonvert
Totally brain-dead actioner made in the Philippines. This belongs to the mode of Filipino movies which tried to pass themselves as American films on the international market. After a rather dull beginning, the movie takes off and never disappoints again. It is actually a rip-off of the worst movies Chuck Norris ever made : an American prisoner in Vietnam is brainwashed by the soviets who implant a microchip in his brain so he is programmed to kill the Pope, then the President of the USA. One of his old buddies (played by B-movie stalwart Max Thayer) is sent to stop him. Utterly ridiculous action scenes, putrid acting (Nick Nicholson's performance as the evil soviet commander is a must-see!)and implausible plot make up for one of the cheesiest action pictures ever bestowed in the general public.
Kazoo-2
Addle-brained stupidity that the cartoon "Bullwinkle" made fun of a quarter-century beforehand, NO DEAD HEROES proves that you can rip off a good movie (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE) without copying a single sliver of quality from the object of your plunder. The acting barely registers on the cable-access TV scale, the plot is less nuanced than an old "Sgt. Rock" comic, and only Boris J. Badanov-style "bad guy" mustaches are missing from the Commies. This movie achieves the unusual feat of being too bad, too stupid to be enjoyed by anyone with opposable thumbs.