The Firing Line has Reb Brown as Mark Hardin (trying saying that three times fast with a Mass accent), a military advisor who's been called in to help a Central American dictatorship deal with their rebel problem. He unfortunately discovers what's really going on, after he helps capture the rebel leader (Mike Monty), and that guy was killed by those who Hardin thought were the good guys. But before that happens, he happens upon Sandra Spencer (Shannon Tweed) in a local bar, and when the military decides Hardin's no longer on their side, Spencer gets caught in the dragnet as well, and when Hardin breaks out, he and Tweed join the rebels so he can get his revenge. They fucked with the wrong military advisor.
This wasn't a bad deal. Fun Reb Brown, a game Shannon Tweed, and all the "Philippines passing for another location with a war" excitement you can handle. One thing I had difficulty with it though was the rebels and the government soldiers sometimes wore the same outfits, and I had trouble understanding who was who, but I'd not sure how much that matters. Was that a rebel soldier who fell over a railing to their death after the explosion behind them, or a government soldier? Does it matter? I mean, when Reb Brown was hosing people down with machine gun fire, it was possible the shimmying victims were rebels instead of government soldiers, and again, does it matter? I would say no, it's Reb Brown being beefy and screaming, Shannon Tweed being statuesque and beautiful, and the Philippines being "insert jungle location here." If you like movies like this, you'll enjoy this one.
We'll start with Mr. Brown, who's now at 12 films on the site. There are definitely more iconic films of his you can turn to, but if you've seen those already, this is the next place to go. It's the beefy "Lump Beefbroth" or "Gristle McThornbody" you want when you see his name on the tin. The mustache adds a nice touch too, like when he's hitting on Shannon Tweed when they first meet, him smiling at her over his shoulder as he buys her a drink has an added layer when that smile includes a mustache. (If I were more of a Millennial or Gen Z I might say it "hits different," but I'm not an asshole like that.) In looking at his IMDb bio, we don't have a lot left of his to review, but two obvious omissions are the Cage films, so I need to track them down and make them happen toot sweet. So maybe he won't make 20 films on the site, let alone 30 Club or 40 Club, but he's give us some classics, which makes him a true Hall of Famer, and while this isn't quite at the level of those, it's still a fun time, and a large part of that is him.
Our other Hall of Famer is Shannon Tweed, who's a bit out of her element in this one, but as I said above, she was totally game for it, and what's fascinating is, almost 30 years later, she became the bigger name than Reb Brown, so now many covers feature her on the tin or thumbnail instead of him. I actually almost missed where this was on Tubi to get these images, because the thumbnail now is an anonymous woman shown from the neck down holding a gun while her dress is blowing in the wind and revealing her legs, leading anyone seeing it to believe this is some kind of sexy Erotic Thriller as opposed to a late 80s Rambo-esque jungle slog shot in the Philippines. That kind of thing only happens because Tweed is in the film, and I wonder if there's some AI algorithm that looks at the cast and generates thumbnails based on that--do they do that now, "dynamic thumbnails?" This is now 11 films for Shannon Tweed, which puts her one behind Julie Strain for third-most all time among woman actors, and which is still 37 behind Rothrock for the most all time. If you're curious, I looked at Tweed's IMDb bio, and see about 30 movies of her left for us to review, which means she can't catch Rothrock, but we could get her close, so we'll just need to make more of an effort to cover more of her movies.
We often hear that New York City is a character on its own in a film, which makes a lot of sense, but what I never expected when I started doing this site was to see how the Philippines is a character on its own too, but unlike New Nork who always plays itself, the Philippines were often standing in for other locations. It's like the ultimate character actor of locations, like an M. Emmett Walsh, doing yeoman's work pretending to be Vietnam or Hong Kong or a random Central or South American republic, and it wasn't just DTV flicks, mainstream films like Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Born on the Fourth of July filmed there too. Maybe there's a crassness to it when you're watching one of these DTV films on its own, but after seeing dozens of them, there's a charm in it, the way there's a charm in M. Emmett Walsh being thrown through a plate glass window in Critters. In recent years, as filming in the US has gotten cheaper, we're seeing fewer of these, as we're seeing fewer films made in Eastern Europe too, but we did get one recently in Scott Adkins's Prisoner of War, which I still have to see, so it's nice to know that, unlike the character actors of old who are sadly leaving us, the Philippines is still carrying on.
Finally, Reb Brown's character introduces himself to Shannon Tweed's character with the classic mating ritual of buying her a drink despite her not requesting it. Because he's a good looking fellow, Tweed's happy he did it, and invites him to sit at her table. In real life though, I never tried this, and no one I know who has tried it has been successful. At best it's a creepy imposition, unless the other person has made it clear they're attracted to you as well, but at that point why not just ask if you can buy them a drink? It goes back to this idea that women are there to be won by men, as opposed to being human beings with their own agency and will to decide whom they want to be with romantically. That's not what happens here though, Brown doesn't "win" Tweed, she sees that he's the guy that bought her the drink and is like "well hell-o!" Anyway, all this to say, perhaps this is a mating ritual that needs to go away, but it's fun to see it in the historical context of this DTV Philippine production where a well-mustachioed Reb Brown is shooting a shot he knows he's going to make.
And with that, let's wrap this up. Currently this is available on Tubi here in the States. I'd say watch it while you can, because it may disappear from there. It's a fun one with Brown and Tweed, and the Philippines playing another country.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101883/
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