Invasion U.S.A.

release year: 1985
genre: action
viewing setting: home DVD, 9/28/04

synopsis: An army of mercenaries invades the United States, and only one man can stop them.

impressions: This is one of two silly but action-packed "invade our country" movies from the mid-1980s. The other is Red Dawn which I'll try to watch and review next. Hmm, actually, there is a third, which didn't play the invasion angle much: Wanted: Dead or Alive, which I've already reviewed. Anyway, this movie is about a big-time terrorist and his recruiting of various mercenaries to do evil. It's silly because at one point it's mentioned that this is happening at all of the country's borders...yet later, all of the bad guys are brought back together and put in one place. It's action-packed because of a number of shootings, bombings, bazooka attacks, and so on. If you can get past the premise, it's fairly fun to watch - and Chuck Norris kicks a lot of enemy butt. Any way you look at it, this movie was a whole lot sillier before 9/11/2001. More than fifteen years beforehand, we had this movie to offer a worst-case scenario about bad guys exploiting the inherent weaknesses of the U.S. society.

things to watch for: The big battle at the end, with the entire mercenary/terrorist force.

something this movie has that no other movie has: Bad guys using shoulder-fired rockets to destroy suburban houses at Christmastime.

acting: Chuck Norris is a one-man anti-terrorist extermination machine. Nothing hurts him, nothing slows him down, and nothing stops him. With his twin Uzis and a bit of karate and knife-play, he singlehandedly eliminates the bad guys wherever he finds them. Richard Lynch is freaky-looking as the obsessed Russian in charge of all evil in this movie.

final word: Decent invasion movie with lots of violent action; worth seeing once.

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