Code Name: Wild Geese (1986)

A lot of the plot from the original Wild Geese movie is brought into Cod Name: Wild Geese. Like the original crew that Richard Burton put together they are betrayed by those they are working for. Like that film accounts are settled in a way Don Corleone would have approved.British action star Lewis Collins puts together the team this time and among others the indispensable Lee Van Cleef is one of them. He's indispensible because he's piloting the helicopter taking the team in. Their mission is to destroy a plant processing opium and Ernest Borgnine of the Drug Enforcement Agency is there, most unofficially. The plant they are destroying is in the heart of Southeast Asia ruled by a Fu Manchu type military dictator without Fu's style. A bit of the Bridge On The River Kwai is thrown in as an opium train is destroyed also.Lots of action, but also lots of silliness. A priest who runs a mission hospital helps some of the wounded Geese and gets crucified literally for his help. That was really laying it on a bit thick.Action fans should like it, but the film hasn't the flair of the original.

The plot - A group of highly trained mercenaries are hired to destroy an opium manufacturing plant somewhere in Burma. That's it! Oh well, sometimes simple is best I guess.Whilst far from Antonio Margheriti's best work this film nonetheless provides some cracking entertainment, not least of all due to the great assembled cast here. The Professionals Lewis Collins plays the groups leader and is backed up ably by the likes of genre stalwarts Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Luciano Pigozzi and that great mainstay of madness himself, Klaus Kinski!Plenty of gunfire and big explosions abound along with some of Margheriti's usual cool miniature model work, most notably in a great car chase scene towards the beginning of the movie.Fellow fans of Godfrey Ho ninja movies will delight to see an uncredited Bruce Baron in the cast here to as a laid back member of the group with a predilection for alcohol(!)For Margheriti fans and also those who like a bit of the old mercenary shenanigans you could do a lot worse than to check this one out.

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.

Code Name Wild Geese is one of those many movies that bases the plot around mercenary action in a jungle; actually, to be fair, given that every cheapo movie seems to have done that in the past few years, at least this was one of the first. (Is ANYONE really interested in mercenary-in-a-jungle movies?) Most of the action is perfunctory, predictable stuff. Lee Van Cleefe is wasted (as usual) in this; Lewis Collins does his hard man routine. This movie wouldn't really be worth commenting on except for the chase scene. It's absolutely hillarious! Collins' character revs his car up in a tunnel when he realizes he's blocked in, and drives sideways, YES SIDEWAYS, along the wall of the tunnel! How does he do this? Well, aside from the fact that this is physically impossible, of course he doesn't... we're treated to a exquisitely appalling display of movie miniatures, intercut with grim expressions on Collin's face. It's priceless and worth the cost of a rental alone.