Bullet Points: Invasion Force

I am no stranger to the films of David A. Prior, but until I watched 1990’s Invasion Force I had never seen a David A. Prior film about an AIP film crew (that’s Action International Pictures for those in the know) having to fight off a terrorist attack in the backwoods of Mobile, Alabama…

• The Movie Within the Movie: Invasion Force starts out with a fair haired, head band wearing, shirtless, super soldier type making his way through the woods on a rescue mission and avoiding booby traps along the way. Speaking of boobies, the person that our hero is attempting to rescue is a damsel in distress wearing what could best be described as a Jane outfit as in Tarzan & Jane and being questioned about the whereabouts of a precious diamond by a baddie with a hot poker. Before the torture can begin, things start exploding outside… the damsel’s hero and true love has arrived! Even a tank can’t stop the hero from his quest. Then there’s the final standoff… the diamond for the girl… with the hero pulling a switcheroo and giving the bad guy a fake diamond… a fake explosive diamond!! The happy reunion and final shot of the movie turns out not so happy when Joni (Renée Cline) the actress playing the damsel, steps on the foot of Doug (played by David “Shark” Fralick in his acting debut) the egotistical actor playing the hero… Doug pitches a fit and storms off the set like the Hollywood primadonna that he is.
• Meet the Crew: We meet some of the other key players on the AIP crew, like the director Ben Adams (Walter Cox, Street Crimes) who is doing his level best to deal with the various egos of his cast and get the film finished. Then there’s crazy Doug (Douglas Harter, White Fury), a military veteran that has a healthy libido that’s been getting him in trouble for years. Chuck (Charlie Stedman) the explosives/firearm guy and the sleezy producer Jack (David Marriott, Shotgun). Jack shows up and bitches at Ben for ending shooting for the day while there was still daylight, then sexually harasses Joni, all while the crew plays pranks on one another and tell blow job jokes.

• The Lynch Mob: Later that evening Joni tries to smooth things over with Ben, who feels she got the role based solely on being Jack’s girl. After that she takes a walk in the woods to clear her head and that’s when Jack catches up with her and does a piss poor job of apologizing for his actions earlier, she ends up hitting the line “Why don’t you just drop dead?” and a millisecond later he is shot right between the eyes… an army of terrorists have parachuted in, under the leadership of American turncoat Michael Cooper (Richard Lynch, Invasion U.S.A.). Joni keeps her cool, manages to take out one of the soldiers and steal his gun, she then climbs a tree and hides until morning… I was a bit baffled how an actress had the skills to take out an armed soldier, but that would be explained later in the movie.
• The Next Morning: Joni shows back up on the set the next morning and tells her wildly unbelievable story to Ben. The fact that she has a Russian made gun in her possession is enough to get Ben to want to investigate so he takes Joni, Doug and Chuck out for a recon mission in the woods. They arm themselves with some of the actual guns/ammo they had on set for target practice… they don’t find Jack’s body, but they find a camp full of soldiers… Ben also finds himself captured. The other three manage to make it back to the film set and they prepare for a potential “invasion”.

• Seeing Is Believing: Now I wouldn’t give a film crew much of a chance against an army of soldiers, but they proved me wrong. Armed with their movie magic skills, they manage to discombobulate and scare off their attackers! There is still one loose end however, the bad guys have Ben! Pompous Troy tries to talk sense into everyone, saying they were lucky to fool the soldiers once, can they really do it again? Joni then steps up and rallies the troops, they are going to rescue Ben!
• From Bad to Worse: I almost felt sorry for Richard Lynch’s Michael Cooper… he is absolutely dumfounded about what is taking place… this was supposed to be a pretty straight forward mission. Blow up two bridges, cutting off a town of 12,000 people in Alabama from the rest of the world and take them all hostage so the United States government would have to give into their terrorist demands… instead it all goes to shit because of an AIP film crew. It only gets worse for Cooper as we see a final standoff scene that is a near carbon copy of the final standoff scene I described in my first Bullet Point! And then it happened… after Cooper’s demise Invasion Force completely blew my mind in the final moments of the movie.

Invasion Force took what could have been seen as nothing more than a cheap Invasion U.S.A. ripoff and had some fun with it. That fun was infectious and I think I have a new favorite David A. Prior film as a result.

Now for an old favorite of mine, some Bonus Bullet Points…

• Favorite Quote: “Unless you start playing straight with me, you’re gonna find your ass up to your eyeballs in deep shit!” – Michael Cooper
• One Question: Why does the General of this Spanish speaking army, who hired mercenary Michael Cooper to help plan and coordinate this attack on U.S. soil, not have any sign of an accent? He seems more American than American turncoat Cooper.
• Vince McMahon Quote: “We make movies.” – Troy