In Africa, an evil terrorist named Musseem Tabrak (Ryan) seems to be gaining political influence in his region. In order to further his nefarious ends, he kidnaps the wife and son of one of his rivals. That's when the ambassador, Harry Applegate (Gordon), calls in the only solution to this geopolitical problem: Monroe Bieler (Ginty). Bieler is a warrior who was imprisoned by Tabrak for twelve years and is burning with the desire for revenge. Applegate teams him up with a guy from the U.S. consulate named Chuck Hawley (Brophy), but things really start to heat up when Bieler re-connects with old warhorse Dutch Busselmeyer (Cam). Along with love interest/reluctant compatriot Sam (Tweed), the four unlikely heroes proceed to shoot, blast, and blow up the minions of Tabrak - but who is the true mastermind? Will Applegate wrap himself in the flag...and will Monroe Bieler live to machine-gun-shoot another day? Fan favorite Robert Ginty saves the day in CODE NAME VENGEANCE, an entertaining shoot-em-up/blow-em-up that you pretty much have to love. It's a non-AIP outing from director David Winters, which may explain why the movie looks more professional than usual. His production company this time around was The Killmasters Company, and when you see that that is the first credit on the screen, you know you're in for a good time. As we've noted before, there are many types of dumb. Thankfully, Code Name Vengeance is the fun kind of dumb. Lots of very stupid things happen, but you can't help but smile. The movie has that 80's charm mixed with the type of charm that comes from clunky editing and ridiculously-staged action scenes. The viewer can get by on this combination of dumbness and charm any day of the week. It is also satisfying to see black-robed terrorists getting killed by the good guys. There are many instances where all this comes together. For example, in one scene, there are some terrorists in an abandoned warehouse. Ginty somehow hooks a bunch of grenades onto a very, very slow-moving forklift and sends it towards them. The baddies see this coming and have ample time to run away. Instead, they just sit there for a long time, yelling. Then they blow up. Thank goodness. When we first see Ginty, he's embroiled in a prison-yard fight and he looks a lot like Chuck Norris. Then we see Gordon as Applegate and he looks a lot like John Saxon. We went on Cam watch and he eventually shows up 43 minutes in. He adds a lot of energy and even gets into the shooting action with the younger cast members. He would shortly re-team with James Ryan in another South Africa-shot David Winters movie, Rage To Kill (1988). All the other characters, but especially Hawley, say Bieler's name many, many times. Almost every sentence they say ends with the word "Bieler". "I don't think so, Bieler", "Not a good idea, Bieler", etc. It's not even that cool of a name. By contrast, James Ryan's name in Rage To Kill was Blaine Striker. Now that's a name worth repeating. Bieler is dangerously close to Bieber. Obviously they must have known that in 1988 and should have acted accordingly. The music, by Steve McClintock along with Mark Mancina and Tim James, is terrific and McClintock contributes yet another excellent song, "Is It Really Love?" This just goes to further prove that McClintock was one of the most underrated musical talents of the 80's. All the ingredients are here: the Winters direction, the McClintock music, the conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, the terrorists getting blown up, the silliness, the combination of Cam Mitchell, Shannon Tweed, and Robert Ginty, and it was the 80's. Consequently, it's easy to love Code Name Vengeance. We say give it a watch.

This South-African, but set in Qatar action film really delivers on the gunfights and explosions right from the get go, when a prince and his mum are kidnapped by rebels during the King's speech. After a three minute massacre with over thirty on screen kills, Codename: Vengeance gets underway.The royal family have been kidnapped by Tabrak, a rebel leader with a past dealing with the CIA. It's up to Beeler (Ginty), who has been languishing in jail for twelve years, to get the kid and his mum back. This won't be easy, though, as the CIA have assigned him a dodgy partner, and he can trust no one (except Cameron Mitchell, who turns up as a grizzled, crazed buddy ready to plug anyone he can't trust (and ends up being right)).Badly shot, badly edited and badly directed, Codename: Vengeance is simply captivating in its energy. By the half hour mark, you've seen a massacre, prison fights, prison brutality, a head sent to the king in a jar, a prison escape, a rebels v army battle, an invasion of an arms dump and a sex scene. What more can you ask for? Whenever the plot lags, the director (David Winters) throws in a random scene of violence, where Tabrak attacks the army or Ginty attacks the rebels. The finale is pretty good as we get to see who double-crossed McGinty.There are mistakes abound in this film, but I'm willing to let it go because I was rooting for the flick the moment everyone started shooting at each other in such a confined space at the beginning. I recommend this one, but please note: I do not have a brain.

Just watched this on TV. It was on at midnight. Should not have been on at all. Stupidest movie I have seen in a long time. The main guy is a dead ringer for Chuck Norris but is nowhere near as cool or tough. Story is retarded, acting is non existent. Music sounds like it's from a 70's porno. This movie wishes it was Missing in Action. I mean these guys are trained soldiers and can't hit a guy 5 meters away. 12 guys with Machine guns and a rocket launcher cannot hit 3 guys in a Land rover. Their hats didn't even fall off when they did Commando rolls. I love bad movies, but this is worse than the worst Dolph Lundgren movie and Steven Seagul movie put together. Crapola.

Since I just saw this on local cable, and that I'm the first to write a comment here, I'd guess that not too many people have seen this spectacular movie!No really! The producers, and the 'star' Ginty, must have decided that things like 'plot', 'characterization', and 'narrative' were all either overrated or outdated concepts holding back true filmmaking with their stodgy and rigid definitions of 'cinema'. There have been other films that have shirked the conventions of the masses in such a fashion, like 'Silent Assassins', 'The Destroyers', and almost anything starring Micheal Dudikoff, that brilliant man.Is it fair to say that Ginty is a poor man's Barry Bostwick? Not to Ginty! He's more like a Barry Bostwick stand-in that you'd find discarded, and a little beat up, in some 10 for a dollar bargain bin in a local arts and crafts store. That's right -- you could probably cobble together your own Ginty with random odds and ends that you have laying in between your couch cushions. You'd need a lot of hair, though, to approximate the whole 'Whoa dude -- are you a shag rug?' reaction that most people have to Ginty when they first see him. Actually, if you did this, the resultant lint-and-ear wax monster might actually have some life, and deliver its lines without Ginty's trademark 'flat delivery'. Which means that anyone else in the world who said lines in a script would interject some of their own personality into them -- except for Ginty. Ginty is the acting equivalent of absolute vacuum, which is to say that the lines come out of his mouth with no urging, and simply exist with no inflection or modification possible. If you've seen him (oh, I don't know, probably not in this, but maybe 'WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD'!!) then I hope you know what I'm talking about. Maybe I've just watched too much Ginty!Oh, the movie? Tremendous. I guarantee that your jaw will be agape as Ginty slips out of his jail cell during . . . some fracass that causes everyone to NOT LOOK AT GINTY!!! And then you'll see lots of grenades and explosions, sometimes where people are, and sometimes killing them or dummies hurled out of train cars. And even though this is Qatar, or 'Katar' as the movie lists it, watch in awe as Ginty immediately comes into possession of a suit and tie, and goes to some strip-club. He briefly watches a honey-roasted aerobics instructor shimmy (sorry, it's not really 'stripping') in terror, and then meets up with Shannon Tweed. Now Ginty is of course irresistable to women (just ask Persis Khambata . . . if you could find her), and so they dance slowly to poor 80's pop before they !get it on! in some room. Gotta wonder how Tweed restrained herself from asking if Ginty was actually some sort of ambulatory shag carpet . . . Oh, and this is within the first fifteen minutes of the movie!!! Awesome! And then there's shooting! And killing! Lots! Some dudes in black get-ups and turbans appear! Ginty ain't gonna have none of that though, and how! You'll be blown away by his nonchalant attitude to death as he shoots in random directions and, every time, manages to shoot a guy off a roof! Amazing! Someone should have told those black-robed guys not to stand on roofs around Ginty!The producers did make some concessions to filmmaking standards though, as there's enough plot for Ginty to be the good guy and be an American to boot, but, it really fades in comparison to the whole 'Black-robed dude turns corner, get shot by Ginty' aspect of the movie. Well, gotta go. Tired of saying Ginty. But remember -- the shag rug you see walking down the street might not be a magical carpet; it just might be the most brilliant actor any human has ever seen - GINTY!!