Comeuppance Reviews
When a bunch of white guys in suits in a U.S. government office (including a man - according to what we heard - named Senator Towel...Senator TOWEL. Gotta love stuff that's lost in translation) decide that a Bolivian drug lord named Pinero (Wagner) must be eliminated, they send in the best: A three-man commando squad consisting of Karl (Rodriguez), who looks like a young and vigorous Don Rickles, Ibanez (Chuck Bishop in his only role to date), and, of course, the leader, True American Hero Bull (O'Keeffe). The suits even pass out headshots so their fellow pencil-pushers can see what the guys look like. The problem is, a sadistic and ruthless overlord named Wesson (Silva) is willing to protect the drug empire with all the resources at his disposal, and there are plenty. Countless goons that are armed to the teeth are willing to sacrifice everything to keep Pinero alive. Three of America's finest versus unending waves of bad guys? Seems like the odds are in OUR favor. But will our heroes penetrate the enemy stronghold? Find out today! Not to be confused with the 1991 James Woods/Michael J. Fox outing, this, the original The Hard Way, is essentially a 90-minute chase through the jungle - but it manages to rise above its lowly station. In fact, we won't even dub this a "jungle slog" like we normally might, because there's nothing really sloggy about it. Without doubt, the movie is lacking in the originality department; baddies shoot and chase, good guys shoot and chase, etc., for essentially the entirety of the running time, but it's all so wonderfully excessive, you just have to love this particular romp. As we always say, the Italian jungle epics are the best, and journeyman director Michele Massimo Tarantini turns in an against-all-odds winner this time around.There's a lot to love about The Hard Way: it's uncompromising yet fun, there's no annoying reporter character or irritating child character, it delivers mindless shooting and explosions with style and aplomb, it came out in the golden year of 1989, it has an awesome score by Luigi Ceccarelli, there are cool helicopter shots (and a few of them explode - seemingly a well-placed rope is all it takes to set them ablaze), dudes scream while they fire off an endless supply of rounds on their machine guns, and Henry Silva has an evil ascot. He also gives commands on the world's biggest walkie talkie. Bull - not to be confused with the wacky bailiff on Night Court - lets his grenades do the talking, though when Miles O'Keeffe does speak in this movie it sounds like he's doing a rather lame Humphrey Bogart impression. At any moment you think he's going to end a sentence with "...shweeethaaart". There are even BAZOOKAS! And they get put to good use, too. Trust us.Listen, if you want something intellectual, watch Mindwalk (1990). If you want to watch cannon fodder be mowed down by machine gun fire and watch crap get blown up, The Hard Way is the movie for you. It's G.I. Joe and the A-Team writ large....sure, there are lots like this, but this one is done well. It should have been on the Mercs box set. They didn't waste time with simply exploding huts, they blew up brick homes! The bullet budget must have been enormous, as the kill count rivals anything we've seen, and we've seen 'em all, just about. Lest we forget the Prerequisite Torture (this time of Rickles) (as we called him), and it's all in a scenario where the baddies can't hit our heroes, but our heroes have no trouble hitting the baddies. It's all very NES-esque. From the music, to the setting, to the shooting , to the 1989 timeframe - it could have been a Nintendo game.Shot in Brazil and released in Germany and Japan on VHS (and later on DVD in the U.K., we believe), The Hard Way will, to paraphrase the great Henry Silva, 'bring you great satisfaction', should you get a chance to see it. And we recommend that you do.
BA_Harrison
Directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini (Massacre in Dinosaur Valley), La Via Dura AKA The Hard Way The Only Way is fairly typical of the Italian straight-to-video jungle warfare genre that clogged up the action section of most video rental stores in the 80s: starring a hunky lead whose name you may recognise if you're a fan of low-budget trash (in this case, Ator the Fighting Eagle star Miles O'Keefe), a cult actor in the role of baddie (Henry Silva here playing Capt. Wesson, ruthless leader of a private army), and numerous Italian extras as machine-gun fodder, it consists of endless unimaginative battle scenes in which lots of stuff gets blown up and loads of people get killed.Channeling Clint Eastwood for his role (ie., talking out of the corner of his mouth between clenched teeth in a raspy voice), star O'Keefe plays Bull, leader of a three-man squad who find themselves fighting for their lives when their mission to assassinate a Bolivian drug lord goes disastrously wrong. Essentially one long chase through the jungle culminating in a showdown between Bull and Wesson at the enemy camp, the film delivers loads of repetitive fire-fights against Silva's henchmen, the obligatory scenes featuring quick sand, piranha, and jungle booby traps, a couple of unconvincing model helicopter crashes, and O'Keefe effortlessly demonstrating how a really wide-legged stance while firing a gun can make you impossible to kill.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.
fedenuss
B-move stalwart Miles O'Keeffe (Phantom Raiders) and slimy bad guy Henry Silva (Above the Law) ham up the screen is this brilliant but little seen Italian action. Silva co-runs some kind of cocaine Drug Empire in the middle of some jungle and kills the hell out of anyone who tries to come in and stop him. O'Keeffe is Bull, some top commando type dude who along with a couple other commando type dudes go into the jungle to bust Silva's operation. Big mistake and it all goes tits up with Silva and his never ending army of goons (where the hell do they keep coming from?) chasing Bull and his dudes through the jungle. And that's it, as what follows is non-stop shooting, jungle traps, explosions, blown up helicopters and loads more shooting. Miles O'Keeffe once again gives image to an ultimately relentless and stone-cold hit man. His character owns a personal zoo (and uses cheetahs and hawks as murder weapons!) and he literally blows Henry Silva to pieces with a bazooka!
HaemovoreRex
......So boasts a typecast Henry Silva in this very noisy, fun action outing.B-movie god Miles O'Keeffe headlines here as Bull, leader of a three man squad whose mission it is to assassinate a major Bolvian drug lord.Dropped in by parachute our intrepid hero's immediately come under fire from guerrillas thus setting the pattern for the rest of the film as our boys are constantly pursued through the jungle. If you like the sound of gun fire and explosions then this film will no doubt be music to your ears for the shooting never seems to let up in fact!Not only are our hero's on the defencive against an incessant ground assault, but attacks are also launched against them from the air in helicopters whilst the terrain itself and various natural hazards (including a piranha attack!) also pose a major threat.Matters eventually come to a climax in a village where the gun fire continues unabated and the noise is further added to by bazookas and tank shells! My advice is to have some ear plugs on standby!Plot wise, this isn't exactly pushing the envelope admittedly but if it's raw action you're after, The Hard Way should provide you with a decent fix!
