THE COLOMBIAN CONNECTION (aka THE HARD WAY) (1987)
Written & Directed by: Michelle Massimo Tarantini (as Michael Lemick)
Starring: Miles O’Keeffe & Henry Silva
Is this the greatest action movie ever made? Quite possibly. Well, not really. In fact, not at all. But it is awesome. 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 actioner. 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 (i.e. cannon fodder) 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.
Seriously there must be about thirty lines of dialogue in the whole movie, most of them said in the first half hour and most of them said by Silva. He gets the immortal line “I love killing people, it gives me such satisfaction.” Yep, that dude is that evil. This movie is First Blood on steroids and there really is no let up between the action. That might sound like an exaggeration but there really isn’t. The only time the flick pauses is for Bull to spit out a one liner, Silva to say something evil and for a dude to get eaten by piranhas. What a dude gets eaten by piranhas? Oh yes, in amongst all the shooting and chaos a dude is chomped down on by carnivorous fish. Awesome. A female protagonist is introduced but all she does is pick up a shotgun and start blowing the hell out of people as well.
The Colombian Connection (or The Hard Way as the copy I watched was called) is an action overload of fun. For an Italian cheapie the action is pretty impressive and explosive with lots of firepower, explosions and military hardware tearing up the jungle. They even manage to blow up several helicopters, one of which is brought down by using a tripwire. A very obvious model helicopter then explodes which is equal parts awesome and hilarious. Just one big 80 minute chase, Colombian Connection is relentless in its goal to just showcase action scene after action scene, and on those lowly terms it succeeds. Get on Ebay, hit the car boots sales and trawl the charity stores for a copy of this Italian action trash classic. Oh yeah, and Silva’s death scene has to be one of the best in an action film ever.
The trailer is all kinds of awesome as well. Check it out.
http://www.videodetective.com/movies/THE_COLOMBIAN_CONNECTION/trailer/P00067375.htm
0 comments:
Post a Comment