Invasion USA

INVASION USA (1985)

Directed by: Joseph Zito
Screenplay: James Bruner & Chuck Norris
Starring: Chuck Norris, Richard Lynch, Melissa Prophet, Billy Drago

Invasion USA is insane!!!

It’s absolutely bonkers! Even by Chuck Norris standards.

And, of course, it’s absolutely awesome.

Made at the height of Chuck Norris’ fame and during Cannon pictures heyday, Invasion USA sees the round housing one (complete with trademark beard, all denim outfit, leather gloves and twin Uzi’s) battling evil Russian terrorists hell-bent on blowing up the good ole USA. And that’s, well, pretty much it. Norris, playing the awesome action movie named Matt Hunter, goes after the bat-shit crazy Richard Lynch (the two have some kind of personal history, which Lynch experiences in some hilarious flashbacks), who decides to unleash hell on America by blowing everything up with rocket launchers that never need reloading! Seriously, bazookas that never need reloading: only in a Chuck Norris movie. Made during the Reagan reign, Invasion USA is basically Red Dawn on steroids with Chuck literally bleeding red, white and blue while Lynch and his evil Russian cohorts are nothing but cannon fodder. Subtle this ain’t. It’s also insanely violent with a body count to rival Commando, Total Recall and all 4 Rambo’s put together.



Despite the insane concept, the fact Norris utters all of five lines in the whole film (“If you come back in here, I am gonna hit you with so many rights you are going to beg for a left”), the additional fact that he somehow always happens to be in the same place the terrorists are attacking without any explanation so he can thwart them and that the flick is pretty devoid of all morals: Invasion USA rocks as an action film. This was the 80s when everything was big and loud and absolutely everything had to be blown up: and everything is absolutely blown up (though only after it has been constantly riddled with bullets) in Invasion USA. Director Joseph Zito (Missing in Action, Red Scorpion) aims high and pretty much achieves the bad buys objective by blowing up America. The action is fiercely staged and stunt heavy with an incredible finale which sees a horde of armoured vehicles and a hundreds of extras descending on a city centre to cause mayhem, expend thousands of rounds of ammo and, once again, blow everything up. In amongst all the craziness and mass destruction, Zito does manage one eerie scene where the camera pans around a peaceful American neighbourhood (showing how quaintly Americana it is) only for Lynch to roll in blow it all with bazookas, roll out and then the camera pans back around to show all the devastation.

This flick is all kinds of cheesy, wrong and insanely violent but as an action movie, it rocks. Norris may not say much or do much round housing but he does shoot a lot of people, wrestle alligators (!!) and cause a lot of stunt filled destruction. 80s cheese at its most ridiculous but stuffed to the gills with impressive stunt heavy action scenes that make it a 90 minute hoot.