Bullet Points: Counterforce (1988)
Today I would like to salute the heroes of YouTube… those brave souls who upload movies that are getting no love from physical media outfits or any of the streaming services. Movies that would otherwise be lost to time if not for these cinema preserving YouTubers. Movies like the subject of this edition of Bullet Points, 1988’s Counterforce…
- Psych: Counterforce gets right into the action… or does it?? Harris (George Rivero, Conquest), Nash (Andrew Stevens, 10 to Midnight), Ballard (Isaac Hayes, Truck Turner) and the junior member of the team, Sutherland (Kevin Bernhardt, Top of the World) are on a rescue mission… or are they?? The skilled foursome take out some guards, make their way inside the building holding their commanding officer Vince Colby (George Kennedy, Savage Dawn), they are about to rescue him when Colby pulls off his own ropes and his stopwatch… it was all a training exercise! One of these days I am going to write down all the action movies that I have seen start this way.
- Deja Vu: Many questioned Menahem Golan and the folks over at Cannon for casting Robert Forster as Abdul the terrorist in The Delta Force, well the brain trust behind Counterforce were not among them. Forster plays The Dictator that is making life miserable for the people of the Arab Republic of North Africa. So it is no surprise when an attempt to blow up the miserable Dictator is made in the scene following The Dictator giving an anti-American speech. The Dictator survives the blast and being the madman he is, wrongly assumes that it was his most outspoken (and peace loving) Dr. Mohumar Kassar and not a plot carried out by the Americans he hates so much… which means Kassar is now a target for The Dictator’s revenge.
- Counterforce Protection Agency: Acknowledging they are responsible for Kassar’s dilemma, the United States government dispatches Counterforce to act as bodyguards for Kassar. As soon as they arrive at the airport, there’s already trouble… Harris spots a guy on the roof taking photos and he chases him down. The amateur paparazzo ends up dead, but not before he was able to pass his camera off… the local authorities can’t believe that just five minutes after the arrival of Counterforce they already have a dead body to deal with. Harris wisecrack that it’s a new record and then it is time to meet the man they are there to protect. Dr. Kassar (Louis Jordan, Octopussy). The team meets Kassar and his wife Roxana and young son, Hassan. Despite the high probability that there will be an attempt made on his life, Kassar has no plans on canceling an upcoming speech… this sounds like trouble!
- Emergency: Sure enough, Kassar gives his speech… masked baddies show up, panic strikes, the crowd clears out, the Counterforce kills some masked men and .. Kassar ends up getting shot! But at least it’s not fatally, so it could have been worse. Kassar ends up in the hospital and this leads to the bad guys having to get creative. The head baddie is Koura (Kabir Bedi, Terminal Entry), the nephew of The Dictator. Koura hires a master of disguise to sneak into the hospital, who ends up planting a bomb that will not only kill Kassar but everyone in the hospital… fortunately that bomb is countered! This leads to Harris coming up with an elaborate plan to get Kassar out of the hospital that leads to multiple car chases! Once Kassar is back to safety… Koura decides to take a different approach. Instead of going after Koura, he has his men kidnap Roxana and Hassan and hold them in separate locations… if they can’t get to Kassar, they’ll get Kassar to come to them. A solid plan for sure… but you can’t count out the Counterforce!!
Counterforce was not a made for TV movie, but it felt like the television version of The Delta Force. It included two Delta Force alumni in the cast and there were a few scenes where one could compare the two films.
The casting of the members of the Counterforce was random as hell. Were they first four guys who auditioned? Despite the randomness, there was some chemistry between Hayes, Stevens (who portrayed a martial arts expert of sorts, also random as hell) and Bernhardt. But their leader, George Rivero, felt like the odd man out to me at times… but thanks to very little downtime, it really wasn’t an issue. The Counterforce were busy beavers since there was almost always something going on in Counterforce… which is a great feature for an action movie to have.
A great feature for a review to have is some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Continuity: The hair of George Rivero (or Jorge Rivero for those in the know) seemed to be much more consistent in Counterforce than it was in Werewolf, a movie I have watched countless times on MST3K.
- AKA: The working title for the movie was Death Squad.
- Bastard Count: I counted a single bastard in Counterforce.
- Favorite Analogy: Sutherland (or Flyboy to his friends) says the hospital parking lot is “busier than a bumble bee in a bucket of tar”.
