classicsoncall You know, I'd like to see some film maker tackle this story today because it might really turn out to be pretty good. There were some really cool elements here that resulted in a neat twist ending that I saw coming in only the last five minutes, but even then, I didn't think the Lieutenant would turn out to be the black guy.But oh man, is this totally mired in the Seventies with the cars, clothes and hair styles. I have to admit, I'm guilty of wearing some of those dated fashions back in the day and can see how ridiculous I must have looked back then. But only from today's perspective seeing how everyone else dressed the same way.Well this flick had an interesting premise, as a group of ex-Viet Nam vets battles the local drug kingpins by posing as black gang bangers and ripping them off, thereby creating animosity with a rival black gang. Making things more interesting is a police detective with connections to the Mafia who's forced to broker a drug deal with the boys in the hood. Thinking he's pulled one off for the police force, Sergeant Stangman (Stafford Morgan) is taken out by a Mafia sniper, at which point all hell breaks loose.It's all pretty typical Seventies TV movie hokum, with the cheesiness in just the right amounts. You've got your car chases and shoot 'em ups, and the obligatory guy who gets shot and falls through an upper story window into a swimming pool. Still, there's the germ of a good idea here, and done right, I think it could be made to look original even today.

winner55 The '84 release date is unbelievable - possibly a re-release or, more likely, the release of a film that sat in a can for ten years. But all the attitudes and clothing say "mid-'70s".Anyway, this is basically a whitesploitation film trying to imitate blacksploitation films. And it would be kind of fun as a bad movie with cheesy action scenes, except that it is so bloody racist.I think there are about four black actors in the whole film, and how they got talked into doing this shite is beyond me.At any rate, racism spoils most any movie, but especially low-budget action flicks, since there's no one to root for, and the whole experience leaves a sour taste.

shark-43 This film was a nice surprise - we were gathering DVDs for our usual bad cinema night and I rented a DVD that had Frank Sinatra, Jr. and one of Robert Mitchum's offspring in it as commandos or whatnot but even though the disc read CODE NAME: ZEBRA and had the same director - the movie ZEBRA FORCE came on - obviously NOT filmed in 1984 like CODE NAME but looking so 70's and grainy and waaaay low budget but get this - the plot actually has clever things in it and a nice twist at the end. The acting goes from hilariously bad (we called two actors Gestures & Point cuz that is what these two hacks did with every line reading - one would gesture and the other would point) to a couple of good performances. The violence and action was either staged horribly or shockingly good. In fact there is one stunt where a guy goes out a high window and he falls, lands on his back in a swimming pool - impressive and dangerous. Lots of great 70's "jive" dialogue and mobsters v.s. black activists v.s. viet nam vets (and yes, one of the crazed vet leaders is horribly scarred and crazy). We enjoyed mocking the film's faults and enjoying many of it's merits. ZEBRA ROCKS!!!

emm Even though this late-night action flick has aged, it still has what many of today's multi-budget movies are lacking in: ORIGINALITY! Don't expect good guy heroes in "The Zebra Force" because this definitely is not your typical action film. Instead, this is a first-person anti-hero show that knows no limits. Watching the soldiers in black masks terrorize the innocent is rather deteriorating, but that's part of the fun. Overall, the real show stealers are the gang's leader with a deformed face who communicates via mini walkie-talkies, plus an unexpected finale. If you can live with obscure '70s trashies like this one, then I can't blame you for that!