It’s the utter shamelessness of Bruno Mattei’s films that have made him a Shitty Movie Sundays All-Star. There was no iconic scene from a Hollywood blockbuster that he could not find a home for in one of his movies. Strike Commando 2 (Italian: Diabolical trap), his 1988 followup to the incredible Reb Brown vehicle from a year earlier, steals scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lethal Weapon, but doesn’t lift plot from those movies. And when I write that Mattei steals scenes, I do not mean thematically. I mean there are scenes in this movie that could have gotten Mattei and producer Franco Gaudenzi sued for plagiarism.
Strike Commando 2 follows Vietnam War veteran Michael Ransom (Brent Huff, taking over the role from Reb Brown). His old commanding officer during the war, Major Vic Jenkins, played by none other than legendary thespian Richard Harris, has been working for the CIA since the war ended. Ransom learns, from a fellow vet, that Jenkins, declared dead recently, has in fact gone missing. Ransom, feeling he owes Jenkins for saving his life during the war, sets off to find Jenkins and, if need be, get him out of any trouble.
The plot gets a little convoluted at this point. Ransom thinks it’s the CIA that has disappeared Jenkins, and he’s right. But, they did so because the KGB tried to kidnap Jenkins. When Ransom finds the CIA safehouse in the Philippines where Jenkins is being hidden, it turns out he has inadvertently led a mercenary gang of heroin-smuggling ninjas to the location, and they kidnap Jenkins. Then, they send a ransom message back to the CIA demanding ten million bucks in diamonds in exchange for Jenkins, or they will turn him over to the KGB. The CIA, forgiving all the roughhousing 
that Ransom undertook finding the safehouse, then enlist Ransom to deliver the, well, ransom, to the bad guys and rescue Jenkins. More follows, but that would be spoiling too much. Just know that, for the shitty movie fan, it’s predictable yet nonsensical, and a joy to watch.
Ransom is joined by Rosanna Boom (Mary Stavin), whose character is a straight ripoff of Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark, minus the statutory rape. In her first scene, she’s in a drinking contest with a local tough at her ramshackle bar. It’s the most stunning moment of cinematic larceny in a film full of them.
Stavin is more than just this flick’s pretty face, though. She wins the canned ham award for overacting. She summoned vast reserves of energy when she delivered her lines, belying her petite nature, like an angry punk rock singer. It’s what she had instead of talent.
One of the main bad guys in this flick is Kramet (Mel Davidson), who is the Ronald Lacey analogue from Raiders. He’s erudite, overdressed, and a psychopath. Only in this movie he’s KGB, and not a Nazi. Then, in the final act, he turns into Gary Busey from Lethal Weapon.
As for Huff, after watching this film, I would not be surprised if it turned out that Ben Stiller found inspiration for his character in Tropic Thunder in Huff’s performance as Ransom. It’s a weirdly twitchy performance, as if Ransom has been taking hard stimulants whenever he’s offscreen. It also looked as if he was having a blast playing the character.
Then there’s Harris. According to the internet, so it must be true, Harris was paid 300,000 bucks to appear, soaking up a substantial amount of the budget. His performance is a true study of how to mail it in and still look like a professional. There are times when his performance is almost wistful, as if he were experiencing sublime revelation while mouthing the words of screenwriters Claudio Fragasso and Rosella Drudi. It’s not the most memorable performance from a talented actor slumming it for a payday, but it is funny. Over and over throughout the film, it would just hit me. “That’s Richard Harris. Richard Harris!” His career wasn’t sufficiently in the shitter to do this movie. He still had English Bob in his future for crying out loud. Money talks, I guess.
This is a stupid and objectively bad movie. But, it’s a blast. Mattei was really good at keeping audiences engaged. The movie never gets bogged down in exposition, because he knew no one would care. Viewers tune into this movie to watch ninjas fight and stuff blow up. And both those things happen. In fact, Mattei’s need to make that happen required him filming not one, but two climactic scenes at the bad guys’ jungle compound.
Other shittiness abounds. Many of the fight scenes are undercranked, giving them an unintentional slapstick quality. And the music, from Stefano Mainetti, is the kind of cheap synth work more appropriate for a puppet show on PBS. It’s bad to the point of distraction.
Nevertheless, Strike Commando 2 approaches the ideal of the shitty action movie. It’s full of action, light on details, and is pure fun. It’s a great example showing that all the bloat of modern Hollywood action flicks is unnecessary. Strike Commando 2 makes it into the top 100 of the Watchability Index, displacing Contamination at #57. Mattei turns in another work of shitty gold.