Movie Review: Zone Troopers (1985)
Synopsis: A Nazis ambush during World War II leaves an American Army squad dead except for Sarge, Mittens, Joey and a news reporter, Dolan. Trapped 10 miles behind enemy lines and lost because of misfunctioning compasses, the men try to find their way home before being captured and killed. However, they find a new complication. An alien spaceship has crashed in the area, and the Nazis are hunting for its survivors. Determined not to let that happen, Sarge and his crew work to prevent it despite being grossly outnumbered.
Who's in it? The movie stars Tim Thomerson, Timothy Van Patten, Art LaFleur, Biff Manard and William Paulson.
Review: As has happened way too often since I've gotten older, I went to bed intending to watch a certain movie this morning and woke up not remembering the title (I really need to start writing things down). As a result of that, I instead chose Zone Troopers, which has been in my library for a while. Overall, I have to say I liked it, though that opinion is a bit mixed.
The premise of the movie is decent. It's essentially a war movie with a science fiction twist. The alien survivor (Paulson) the men encounter isn't violent but because the Nazis are searching for it, their attempt to get back to their side of the line is greatly hindered. Basically, it was four against hundreds.
The four main characters were a bit one dimensional - Sarge (Thomerson) for example was the war-hardened soldier with little or no emotion while Joey (Van Patten) was the child-like private who didn't smoke and loved comic books. However, while that might hurt some films, I do think it helped this one. Sarge, for example, seemed like someone who would be just as likely to kill the alien than save it if it meant the Nazis couldn't get it. Meanwhile, Dolan (Manard) was a reporter/outsider who joined the group unannounced and could easily have an ulterior motive.
The fight scenes were also surprisingly good and even had a couple surprise deaths. By the end, I was even beginning to wonder if this would be a movie that had a happy ending or if saving the aliens meant one or more of the squad members would need to sacrifice themselves.
My only real complaint about this movie and the reason my opinion was mixed is I do think it tried too hard at times to be a comedy. A great example of this is when the alien, who they discovered eats tobacco, traded them a virtual woman (Anita Zagaria) for cigarettes. It and similar comedic moments really didn't fit a movie that was better as a serious science fiction/action film.
Final Opinion: It's not a perfect movie and there were a few scenes I would have liked to either seen re-written or eliminated completely. However, I was entertained and that's always the most important thing.
My Grade: B
_________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other movies that take place during World War II:
Movie Review: The Return of the Vampire (1943)
Comments
Post a Comment