When I was in Japan in the early '90s I saw an american film on TV there. It started off as a fairly standard "Lets send the Special Forces Guy with some sort of amnesia and the Computer Nerd into Afghanistan to recover the crashed Russian Super Plane film." They go through Afghanistan having fairly typical Buddy-Buddy Action film adventures until the last 15 min or so of the film where it takes a sudden turn into La-La Land.
They reach this monesary and are escorted into the catacombes beneath the monestary by this priestess who apparently knows the Special Forces guy. They are shown this glowing ball thingie by the apparently psychic priestess and the Computer Nerd immediately leaps to the obvious conclusion.
(Not exact as it's 12-14 year old memories, but it went something like this)
"My God! That has to the the Deep Space Probe we lost last year. Obviously it fell through a black hole, traveled back in time and witnessed the whole of human history! Making it the Ultimate Weapon!"
Then the Russian Spetnzats troopers show up and the glowing ball thingie/ultimate weapon is made to self destruct so they can't capture it.
Any clues what the name is?
Wow, when i saw the title of this thread i thought i had this one nailed as SPYS LIKE US the comedy with Dan Akroyed and Chevy Chase!!!
But of course after reading your description i see its def not. Sounds interesting, have no clue, but if you figure it out post it cuz it couild be worth watching :)
Quote from: Puzzled on December 22, 2006, 04:55:32 PM
When I was in Japan in the early '90s I saw an american film on TV there. It started off as a fairly standard "Lets send the Special Forces Guy with some sort of amnesia and the Computer Nerd into Afghanistan to recover the crashed Russian Super Plane film." They go through Afghanistan having fairly typical Buddy-Buddy Action film adventures until the last 15 min or so of the film where it takes a sudden turn into La-La Land.
They reach this monesary and are escorted into the catacombes beneath the monestary by this priestess who apparently knows the Special Forces guy. They are shown this glowing ball thingie by the apparently psychic priestess and the Computer Nerd immediately leaps to the obvious conclusion.
(Not exact as it's 12-14 year old memories, but it went something like this)
"My God! That has to the the Deep Space Probe we lost last year. Obviously it fell through a black hole, traveled back in time and witnessed the whole of human history! Making it the Ultimate Weapon!"
Then the Russian Spetnzats troopers show up and the glowing ball thingie/ultimate weapon is made to self destruct so they can't capture it.
Any clues what the name is?
Is the movie called the experts with john travolta?
Nope, no Travolta. Nobody famous or memorable was in the film. If there were I'd have something to track it down based on.
Bump (I hope this isn't frowned upon).
do you remember what the stars look like?that might help?
Quote from: 316zombie on August 21, 2007, 06:29:05 PM
do you remember what the stars look like?that might help?
They didn't have any especially distinguishing features I'm afraid. The Computer nerd was, well moderately nerdish (pretty sure he wore glasses) and the Special Forces guy with amnesia was moderately buff and athletic looking. The plot up until the space probe scene was fairly pedestrian and I really don't remember any details about it other than they were initially sent in to recover wreckage from a crashed russian jet. It was implied from the plot that there was something about the space probe/glowing ball that caused the plane to crash.
I'm pretty sure if anyone can identify it, it's going to be because they recognize that scene with the space probe. It just came so completely out of left field and was such a totally non-obvious conclusion to reach.
This is a longshot, because some of the few facts I could find do not match up to what you remember, but:
Heroes Stand Alone (1989)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097501/
Quote from: Andrew on August 21, 2007, 07:50:50 PM
This is a longshot, because some of the few facts I could find do not match up to what you remember, but:
Heroes Stand Alone (1989)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097501/
I will check it out. It's entirely possible that I was wrong about some of the details and it does sound like it could fit. The two actors are plausible fits for my vague memories of what the characters looked like.
I've ordered a VHS of "Heroes Stand Alone" off of Amazon. So hopefully in a week or so I'll know if it is the film.
Edit :
Got the tape today. Will find out in a couple of hours if it is indeed the movie.
Unfortunately "Heroes Stand Alone" is definitely not it. No glowing ball, no priestesses, no "ultimate weapons". From the little I've watched it's basically your standard "Rambo Pt.II"-ish plot, ie. guys sent on a mission to fail while being stabbed in the back by a treacherous superior.
Though intriguingly, the main russian baddie does once reference "He did this once to me in Afghanistan" at one point. But the Chad Everet wasn't in any previous movies that might fit.
This sounds like a vague possiblility "Curse of the Crystal Eye". Anyone seen it?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094926/
Quote from: Puzzled on June 19, 2008, 07:27:58 PM
Unfortunately "Heroes Stand Alone" is definitely not it. No glowing ball, no priestesses, no "ultimate weapons". From the little I've watched it's basically your standard "Rambo Pt.II"-ish plot, ie. guys sent on a mission to fail while being stabbed in the back by a treacherous superior.
Though intriguingly, the main russian baddie does once reference "He did this once to me in Afghanistan" at one point. But the Chad Everet wasn't in any previous movies that might fit.
This sounds like a vague possiblility "Curse of the Crystal Eye". Anyone seen it?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094926/
From one of my reference books, "Curse of the Crystal Eye" is described as a adventure film with lots of horses and extras, set in the desert and caverns. It also mentions the one character falling in love with the ambassador's daughter, and that it is a Corman film.
You probably already checked them, but just in case, here are the external reviews for "Curse of the Crystal Eye":
http://www.dvdlaser.com/search/detail.cfm?id=15315
http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=13499
Meanwhile, here is another title that might be worth checking: "Sky Pirates."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091964/
Unfortunately, it's definitely neither of those films as well. So I guess I'm back to square one.
Just to make sure: has "Treasure of the Four Crowns" been eliminated?
Quote from: Andrew on June 24, 2008, 07:44:12 PM
Just to make sure: has "Treasure of the Four Crowns" been eliminated?
"Treasure of the Four Crowns" is definitely not it. I saw it many years ago and remember mocking it quite a lot for the cheezy "Stuff flying at you" that happens so often. The Buddy-Buddy film didn't have anything like that sort of stuff.
I have another that you might want to check out. Not much to go on, but this one interests me a lot, so I keep rummaging around for possible leads:
Falcon's Gold (1982) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083915/)
Thank you very much for not giving up on this. I would love to have a copy of this just to show people and watch them go "HUH?".
Unfortunately, it's almost certainly not Falcon's Gold either. I don't recall any nudity (there weren't even any women until the end, IIRC) and doesn't sound like Spetnzats troopers would show up in it.
Can anyone track down "Shocktroop"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206290/
The summary sounds like it is a possible candidate, though there's no mention of the orb.
Put in an order for Shocktroop. We'll find out in a couple of days if it is the one.
Tape was defective jammed in my vcr. Hopefully it didn't bust it. Have to try again with a different tape.
Well my second attempt at checking if Shocktroop is it, has shipped. Hopefully this one won't break as I'm FF through it to check out the end.
Ah well another swing and a miss it looks like. The ending is definitely nothing like the movie I remember. I've rewound through it to see if it might actually have been earlier in the film, but no such luck.
Pity it fit almost perfectly. Well at least my VCR still works.
Well I am still looking for suggestions. Anyone know of a Japanese language equivalent to this site?
Does anyone have a copy of "Interzone"
I found this description of it and the last bit sounds like it certainly could be it. The name Swan rings a bell and I can see how a post apocalypse world might be mistaken for afghanistan.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093268/
http://www.badmovieplanet.com/inferno/archives/interzon.html
"The first scene in the movie makes no sense. We meet our hero, Swan going to one of those after-the-apocalypse bars that happens to be in a cave. I'm not even going to elaborate. It was ridiculous, you couldn't understand what the people were saying and it really didn't help move the story along in any way. Well, then we meet the evil Mantis, a really buffed chick with an army of cutthroats and her partner Balzicon.(I'm not sure his name was Balzicon but thats what it sounded like) They happen to be attacking these monk like guys that protect the Interzone. Just so you'll know, the Interzone is the only habitable land left after the nuclear war. They don't explain that right away, I had to read the video box. The monk leader is injured after erecting a mental forcefield and before he dies he sends one of his men, Panasonic (!) to find Swan. Panasonic does find Swan. Together they free Tara, a slave girl, fight a fat guy and basically get captured by the bad guys. Swan's plan to defeat Mantis was to act like he wants to team up with her, betray Tara and Panasonic then free them. Then he and Tara go back to destroy Mantis' ammo supply and get caught. Mantis tortures them to death, but Panasonic comes to save them (too late) and uses his mental powers to resurrect Swan. This of course costs Panasonic his life. Tara is still dead at this point. Swan rushes to the Interzone and singlehandedly scares all of Mantis' soldiers away. (!) Then he fights and kills Balzicon. Then he fights and kills Mantis. Then we learn that the great secret in the vault the monks were saving is all the knowledge and beautiful things that mankind has accomplished. (GASP)"
Here's a clip on you tube. Does it seem familiar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P8Gnf797gM&NR=1
I have "Interzone" in my collection. It is an interesting loose-association match for what Puzzled describes. It's a post-apocalypse story, with the main guy a loner (he does end up with the pretty girl and the young bald monk named Panasonic helping him). The bad guys look like the normal bad guy mob in a post-apocalyptic film. The monks do guard a treasure horde that consists of consumer items made before the world went to heck in a handbasket.
Quote from: Andrew on July 26, 2011, 07:24:06 AM
I have "Interzone" in my collection. It is an interesting loose-association match for what Puzzled describes. It's a post-apocalypse story, with the main guy a loner (he does end up with the pretty girl and the young bald monk named Panasonic helping him). The bad guys look like the normal bad guy mob in a post-apocalyptic film. The monks do guard a treasure horde that consists of consumer items made before the world went to heck in a handbasket.
Ah, so no glowing orb then. There definitely wasn't a collection of consumer items, that much I'm sure of. One more swing and a miss then.
I was watching a truly magnificently awful film Bloody Mallory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Mallory) and it occurred to me that this might have been an italian or european film that was dubbed into English for release in Japan. As I saw a number of movies like that (Dario Argento mostly) and the wackyness of the plot does fit with what I've seen from other movies that have been also brought over. There is a certain european penchant for saying "screw logic or making sense".
Does anyone have any ideas as to where to look for such information on foreign action films. Unfortunately I don't speak any european languages.