Thunder Squad (1985) ** (out of 4)A brutal and sadistic dictator kidnaps the son of a South American rebel who is living in Miami. The evil dictator has the son so a group of missionaries led by Antonio Sabato heads into the jungles to try and rescue him.This action picture from director Umberto Lenzi goes under a variety of titles including SQUADRA SELVAGGIA, I CINQUE DEL CONDOR and WILD TEAM but no matter what you call it you'll never mistake it for a good movie. No, this here is one of those films that isn't a bad movie and it's not a good movie and it pretty much stays in the middle of the road in regards to the quality. With that said, the final thirty-minutes are entertaining enough to make the film worth watching.It's clear that Lenzi was shooting this on a shoe-string budget because there's really nothing over-the-top here in regards to the violence or the action. The action scenes are certainly done on a smaller scale and you can tell that editing was the biggest friend to the director who used it to try and make the picture look bigger than it actually was. The violence is certainly PG rated and there's really nothing offensive here so those expecting violence or gore might be disappointed.Sabato makes for an interesting lead but I wouldn't say he was a major find for the role. Ivan Rassimov, Werner Pochath and Julia Kent round out the supporting players and for the most part the four of them are entertaining enough for this type of film. As I said, the final thirty-minutes certainly make up for a rather slow start and once we hit the jungle things certainly pick up and make the film worth watching.

On the island of Manioca, an evil, "El Presidente"-style leader named Gomez has kidnapped the son of the rebel leader, Cordura (Fantasia), who is described as a "symbol of freedom" for the Maniocan people, although they seem pretty free as it is if we're to judge by their carnivale-style antics. A group of men in suits in Miami who work for a mining operation, and are tied up in the whole revolutionary battle financially, decide they could either spend millions of dollars mounting a rescue operation to save the son, or they could do it on a budget by employing The Wild Team! So naturally they hire a man named Martin Cuomo (Sabato) - not to be confused with action powerhouse Mario Cuomo - and his group, consisting of Theo (Pochath), Paco (Borghese), Marius (Rassimov), and female explosives and short-shorts expert Sybil Slater (Kent). The Wild Team, or perhaps the Thunder Squad (they should really make up their minds), go to Manioca and shoot/blow up some people/huts in order to save the boy and win the day. But will they be successful? This is a disappointingly mediocre jungle slog, especially considering the fact that Lenzi directed it and it has some top-name Italian action B-movie stars. It's not a bad movie, but it's just kind of blah. Even at less than 90 minutes, it drags. It's all very by-the-numbers, a typical - even stereotypical - exploding hutter that you'd have to be a die-hard fan of Lenzi or any of the personalities involved in order to really want to see. But at least they're open and honest about what this is: at one point, Cuomo, played by Antonio Sabato Sr., says, in reference to Sybil and her explosive abilities, and we quote, "she's gonna blow up that hut." That might be the first ever on-camera bit of spoken dialogue directly referencing an exploding hut. So the movie may go down in history for that, but there's nothing else standout about the film overall.There's really no character development per se, so you don't truly care about the characters or their mission like you should. The sole reason you might care is because of who the actors are and because fans know them and have seen them before - and that's not good. It's unfair to put all the weight on the personalities of Sabato, Pochath, Rassimov and the rest, simply because we know them and have seen them previously. They should all have been individually built up a bit more. That being said, there is a very silly fight scene where you can't tell if what you're hearing is the sound of punches connecting or someone slappin' some bass on the soundtrack. Truth be told, the best part of the movie is probably the Stelvio Cipriani score, which is really no surprise. And there's something cool involving a bow and arrow. But that's pretty much it.Because it lacks edge, surprises, or anything really impactful, The Wild Team is a miss for Lenzi and the gang. In brief, this team really isn't that wild; it should have been wilder. Like Jack Wild.

Never one to ignore a trend, Italian director Umberto Lenzi has a crack at the jungle warfare/action genre as popularised by US hits like Rambo, Commando and Missing In Action, giving us this cheap and cheesy piece of instantly forgettable nonsense about a team of hard-as-nails mercenaries hired by a mining company to rescue the kidnapped son of a deposed South American president.A mish-mash of ideas borrowed from the aforementioned American movies, Lenzi's film is unremarkable guff from start to finish, a repetitive succession of lame jungle encounters between the fearless soldiers-for-hire and numerous heavily armed goons. Expect the endless 'ratatatat' of machine gun fire, lots of explosions, a dreadful hang-gliding scene (the team's very ordinary equipment supposedly made of special material capable of avoiding detection by radar), random encounters with jungle critters, hilarious dubbing (the son of the president has a particularly irritating voice), much macho posturing from the mercs, and a gratuitous shot of explosives expert Sybil (Julia Kent) bending over in hot-pants, but nowhere near as much gore as one might hope for in a film by the man who gave us Cannibal Ferox.

I watched this Umberto Lenzi 1985 action/jungle adventure last night. Its plot resembles the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle COMMANDO from the same year (Italians ripping off popular cinema...nah!) with a young child being kidnapped by mercenaries. Of course, the Italians one up the Terminator by including 5 commandos led by the always reliable Antonio Sabato. After an initially slow half hour set up, THUNDER SQUAD really picks up with the group trekking through the jungle and shoot up lots of stuff. Lenzi throws in a bit of social commentary regarding genocide and political machination but never dwells on it if he feels a good explosion can take the viewer back into the land of the Thunder Squad. Familiar faces Werner Pochath and Ivan Rassimov pop up as two members of the elite squad. This was release in the US on video as WILD TEAM.