Code Name Vengeance is about a terrorist (James Ryan) in an African nation who kidnaps the son and wife of the president there. The CIA knows one guy who can save the day: Monroe Bieler (Ginty). He's reluctant, but since he's spent the last 12 years in an African prison, he's amenable to it. Things aren't what they seem though, when his CIA contact first has Shannon Tweed hook up with him, and then has one of his men join Ginty on his mission. After Ginty picks up old friend Cameron Mitchell, they proceed to rescue the wife and son--but will they make it out alive? And who will kill them if they don't?
This is a pretty fun deal. Ginty with his beard, hair, suits, and occasional sunglasses looked like a 70s soft rocker, which alone could get you there, but then we have a solid action quotient, including a hilarious scene that involves grenades attached to a forklift. The plot meanders a bit, and there are some elements where Ginty's naivete hurts others around him instead of himself, which is a device I'm not a fan of, but with these 80s low budget actioners, sometimes you take the good and the bad, and sometimes the bad even enhances the good. In addition to Ginty, James Ryan was a great baddie, less over the top (Stallone-style) than he was in Kickboxer V, which made him more sinister, and he and Ginty have a solid end battle; Cameron Mitchell was a fun addition as an old soldier going out for one last mission, but I think his character should've gotten a better deal at the end; and then Shannon Tweed isn't in this as much as you'd like, which was too bad--she could've been combined with the CIA guy who was tagging along with Ginty and Mitchell. As a Ginty film, this will get you to the church on time though, especially as a free streamer. Oh, and we finally got a Ronald Reagan presidential portrait! More on that later.
Speaking of Ginty, he's only at 7 films on the site, which is bad enough, but also the last time we saw him was December of '22's Cop Target. Part of the reason for the delay was this film, and another I watched for the "Ginty Moore Beef Stew" episode, The Kinds of Heat, disappeared from streaming, and while I was waiting or them to come back, I kind of unofficially put the Gintinator on hold, which I shouldn't have done. He's all the Ginty you want here, between the 70s soft rocker look, to how well he does the "I'm getting beaten up in prison" routine with all the faces and sounds he makes--no one sells a punch to the gut better than him--and then at the end when he gets his revenge on James Ryan and the CIA agent who set him up, Applegate (played by Don Gordon). If anything, this film is a reminder that we need more Ginty, and I've added Three Kinds of Heat to the Letterboxd list Upcoming Review (watched), which gives you a sense of what's coming for future posts.
Our film's other Hall of Famer was the great Shannon Tweed, who unlike Ginty we last saw back in October when she was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is now 8 films for her, which breaks a 7-way tie she had with, among others, Julie Strain and Dona Speir, for third-most tags as a woman on the site all-time, and now puts in a tie with Kathleen Kinmont for second-most tags--and in so doing, pushes Strain, Speir, et al down to a six-way tie for fourth-most all-time. (Of course, most all time is Cynthia Rothrock with 43--don't see anyone catching her anytime soon.) As I mentioned above, this could've used more Tweed, but it's possible they didn't have her for as much of the shooting. Also interesting here, almost 10 years before Skyscraper, Tweed plays a helicopter pilot. It's too bad there wasn't a sequel to this where she trained Carrie Wink, linking this with Skyscraper, and linking the world of AIP with PM Entertainment. Forget Marvel-DC crossovers, AIP and PM was the one we needed and never got.
We got a Reagan! If you saw my Facebook post on President's Day, I mentioned the phenomenon of the Presidential Portrait, where a character of some official US government status is shown in their office abroad, and to make that office more official looking, the filmmakers add a cheap American flag that's almost see through, and a portrait of the president serving during the time the film takes place. So far (that I know of) we have Bush 41 in another Ginty film, Cop Target, Clinton in the Wilson/Piper actioner Terminal Rush, and Bush 43 in the film with one of the greatest lines in movie history, Shark Attack 3. We need an Obama, Trump, and a Biden, plus if it's possible that 80s Vietnam War films that were shot in the Philippines have maybe a Nixon or a Ford, or if another stray film has a Carter floating around in a flashback sequence--hell, I'll take a Western with a Rutherford B. Hayes if there's one out there. Now I should point out that despite seeing these in so many films, I've only recently decided to start documenting, meaning there were some, like Shark Attack 3, that I didn't initially get a screengrab of, and had to go back and add it to the image page for that review after the fact, so I may have seen others that aren't listed here. In honor of this great find, I've added the Presidential Portrait tag, and hopefully we'll be adding more to it soon!
Finally, Ginty's look in this film inspired me to pay tribute to one of the greatest music phenomenons ever, the 70s/early 80s soft rocker. Now full disclosure, this is not going to be some kind of ironic "yacht rock rules" kind of thing--there is no concept of "yacht rock" to me, as a young child in the early 80s, soft rock was ubiquitous, it was the soundtrack to my growing understanding of the world. Dentists and doctors' offices, department stores, government buildings, etc. all had the smooth sounds of soft rock playing from the PA overhead. As I learned that life is a series of waking up early for school--which then leads to work--standing in queues, and riding in cars--or later as an adult, public transportation--soft rock was there to anesthetize my experience, and ease any possible rebellion I might have considered--how can you throw a temper tantrum about having to go to school while Toto sang (what I thought then was) "I guess it rains down in Africa," or Michael McDonald told Patti LaBelle "we were even talking divorce, when we weren't even married," which made much more sense as a 5-year-old than it does now. We live near an elementary school here in Philadelphia, and every morning I hear at least one or two kids having a temper tantrum, rebelling against the life of work, queues, and commuting that the world is cramming them into at a young age. If only they had the smooth sounds of the Fender Rhodes keyboard accompanying a bearded man singing about his feelings to make the transition more palatable like we did. Just learn to accept it kid, sit back in your car seat, and let Air Supply tell you that "even the nights are better" or Christopher Cross say "when you get caught between the moon and New York City"--it doesn't matter what it means, kid, just let the sound ease the fight out of you, you'll be better for it.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As of my writing, you can get this on Tubi. As great a Ginty this is, I think free streamer is the way to go. And then for the "Ginty Moore Beef Stew" podcast episode, it's number 85 in the archives, from May 17, 2021, so you can check that out as well to see where it placed on our lists.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097073
And my newest novel, Don's House in the Mountains, is available now on Amazon! Click the image to buy.
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment