Wow, someone has clearly taken his desire to come up with the ultimate "Rambo" rip-off to the extreme! Ferdinando Baldi has always been one of Italy's most capricious exploitation directors. In the late 60s and early 70s, he made a couple of very good and original spaghetti westerns, like "Texas Addio" and "Blindman", but he ended his career in the 80s with poorly financed and righteously forgotten imitations of Hollywood blockbusters like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and most notably "Rambo II & III". The best thing about "Just a Damned Soldier" is the title, because furthermore there isn't a plot, character development, suspense or (intentional) humor. The film is nothing but a series of random shootouts and explosions. The shootouts are hilarious because the four American mercenary heroes never get hit whereas the literally hundreds of Filipino extras theatrically drop dead in small groups. These poor suckers run straight and unprotected towards the bullet rains and don't even attempt to fire back! The explosions are hilarious as well, since the aimlessly thrown grenades spectacularly pulverize entire military targets and obviously cause more damage than they are supposed to. But arguably the most ridicule scene is when someone, a good guy actually, gets executed by using him as a living darts board! If you're into cheap action guff, give this obscure jungle joke a look and then forget about it forever. PS: the other reviewer is right! Lead actor Peter Hooten does look like Steve Guttenberg! It's difficult to take someone seriously as a lethal mercenary when he has the face of Mahoney in "Police Academy".

JUST A DAMNED SOLDIER is one of those RAMBO rip-offs that propped up Italian cinema in the mid 1980s. It was lensed in the Philippines and features a supporting role for Romano Kristoff, the actor who appeared in just about ever jungle war movie made in that country in the 1980s. The director was none other than the acclaimed Fernando Baldi, working at the very end of his career. The story has the underachieving Peter Hooten leading a strike force against enemies in Cambodia, only to fall foul of a warlord who comes gunning for him. Mark Gregory co-stars. The plot is predictable and simplistic, but the amount of shoot-outs and huts that explode is quite incredible, and there's definitely a COMMANDO vibe going on that makes this quite a bit of fun at times.

In Cambodia, a four-man strike force led by Bolan (Hooten), stages a raid on an industrial complex. After shooting a lot of people and blowing a lot of stuff up (a trend that will continue throughout the proceedings), the men - which also includes Mark Gregory of the Thunder and Bronx series - steal a large cache of gold. The man whose compound was raided, top dog arch-baddie Mr. Titelman, wants revenge on the strike force. Based on who is sending and receiving the gold, Titelman states he doesn't "want to see the tense political situation in this country explode". Truly that's not the only thing that's going to explode. Titelman is tied in with the Cambodian authorities and will be in deep trouble if he doesn't find his men. Thankfully, he has loads of cannon fodder to disperse throughout the jungles of Cambodia (i.e, the Philippines. Let's not forget Mike Monty is involved as a suit named Schaffler). Who will survive...and who will get the gold? Oh, Hooten, we hardly knew ye. Truly Peter Hooten could have been the next Steve Guttenberg. At least they have a similar look about them. Hooten and the aforementioned Gregory lead us through yet another Italian-produced jungle romp, where the machine guns fire with abandon, and huts were made to be blown up. If you like that sort of thing - and we're supposing you do - Just a Damned Soldier (great title - even better than Titelman) will win you over. It's a quality example of this sort of movie, and there were plenty of them in the late 80's. It's no Commander, but what could be? JADS does what it does quite well, and praise goes to writer/director Ferdinando Baldi, using his normal anglicized name of Ted Kaplan.Baldi ended his lengthy career, which dates back to the 1950's, by making some jungle-set blow-em-ups, and what better way to cap off a life in cinema? His final three movies are Warbus (1986), Ten Zan - Ultimate Mission (1988), where he infamously sent Frank Zagarino to North Korea - and the movie we're currently discussing. Baldi re-teamed with his Ten Zan composer, Elio Polizzi, whose great music goes a long way in helping things stay afloat. The music also helps to give the whole movie a "Contra" vibe - soldiers in the greenery, shooting, 1988.Because plot is minimal (not a complaint; they had to make time for more exploding huts), things do slow down at times, but JADS is still solid and has a lot going for it. They sure don't skimp on the blow-ups and shooting. Also Titelman is a Taekwondo arms dealer. Featuring the songs "The Shadow of Your Eyes" by Gatsby and the truly memorable "I Just Have Had Enough" by Paula, Just a Damned Soldier is a Damned good time.

This is not the funniest war movie ever made, don't believe that for a second. I found this an enjoyable way to waste 90 minutes. The acting is bad? I didn't think so. You want bad acting, watch Troll 2. Bad special effects? Wrong again. Actual things actually blow up real good. I liked the characters as well. No, it isn't realistic. You want realism, go watch Band of Brothers. This film is just fun, that's it. The dialogue isn't laugh-inducing, either. Do yourself a favor and skip the sequel, though. Even the brilliant Mark Gregory can't save that one.