Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) User Reviews

Commandos adventure set in Golden Triangle with Van Cleef, Kinski and Borgnine as secondaries

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 28 May 2009]

This action-packed picture concerns upon a troop of commandos-for-hire(Lewis Collins, Manfred Lehmann)is assigned by a businessman as financial backers and the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA(in charge of a histrionic Ernest Borgnine) to obliterate Golden Triangle between Laos , Cambodia and Thailand. The commando is led by captain Wesley, a tough, two-fisted mercenary . He contacts an inmate, expert on helicopters(Lee Van Cleef in similar role to Snake-Kurt Russell in rescue in N.Y). The adventure starts when the veteran band of mercenaries land deep inside the jungle to destroy opium traffic and smuggling commanded by General Khan. Another mercenary( Klaus Kinski)as back-up , in case they run into problems. They help out the jungle's inhabitants along with a kidnapped reporter(Mimsy Farmer). The mission meets an unexpected turns and twists when they're betrayed. Meanwhile they find a Catholic priest(Alan Collins or Luciano Pigozzi ,the Italian Peter Lorre)ruling a mission in middle of jungle. The jungle countrymen are submitted to drug-lords and the Reds Jemeres .

This fast-paced film packs adventures, large-scale blow-up,routine plot, and lots of action for the most part. Cheesy scenes about a car races throughout a tunnel under construction with embarrassing scale models such the director previously made in his film ¨Car crash(1980)¨, but contains a better scenario on the bridge explosions and over the burning installations with helicopter scenes. Cinematography is quite nicely , capturing the atmosphere of everywhere, from Hong Kong's skyscrapers to a Thailand jungle pretty cool, furthermore some stirring images filmed with camera above the shoulder. Lousy musical score by means of synthesizer by Nemec and isn't composed by Ennio Morricone. The film is produced in middling budget by Erwin C Dietrich , habitual director and producer of soft-cores and Jesus Franco's usual financier.

The film was made in the wake of ¨Wild Geese¨(Andrew McLagen with Burton, Moore and Richard Harris) and Wild Geese II(Peter Hunt with Scott Glenn, Edward Fox, Barbara Carrera)which depended in their all star cast. And belongs a trilogy directed by Anthony M Dawson(Margheriti) formed by ¨Commando Leopard(1985)¨ and ¨Der Commander(1988)¨ repeating similar actors, Collins, Kinski, and Manfred Lemann, technicians and screenwriter, Tito Carpi.These jungle-setting exploitation films from the 80s will like to action lovers and euro-trash enthusiastic.

CODENAME: WILDGEESE (Antonio Margheriti, 1984) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 19 February 2010]

This was the first of a German-produced war trilogy by leading Italian "Euro-Cult" exponent Margheriti; I actually watched the follow-ups (COMMANDO LEOPARD [1985] and THE COMMANDER [1988]) prior to it but, as often happens, the original is still the best (if still not saying very much in this case). To begin with, it has the best cast: Lewis Collins (star of all three films), Lee Van Cleef and Klaus Kinski (who also turn up in the third and second entry respectively, the latter in a different role since he dies here), Ernest Borgnine, Mimsy Farmer and even that "Euro-Cult" stalwart noted for his resemblance to Peter Lorre i.e. Luciano Pigozzi aka Alan Collins, albeit uncredited (he did similar duties, again playing someone else, in one of the sequels). The title would seem to aspire towards a cut-rate version of THE WILD GEESE (1978), itself followed by an inferior (and entirely unrelated) second helping a year after this one; anyway, the war we are dealing with here is not strategic but moral – since the mission involves annihilating an opium compound deep into the jungles of the Far East (thankfully, we are spared the sight of slithering reptiles which is usually obligatory with this type of setting, and one of the sequels did in fact have such a scene). Collins is the tough leader of a crack squad who typically rubs his men the wrong way but eventually earns their respect; the aging Cleef is a helicopter pilot(!) who took the job in exchange for a prison sentence hanging over his head (besides, he can handle himself on a battlefield); Kinski and Borgnine are, ostensibly, the men who oversee the plan and put it in motion respectively…but the former, along with Collins' own superior, are revealed to have ulterior motives (incidentally, the hero's own son had lost his life to drugs); Farmer and Pigozzi, then, are people the team meets on the way – she is a journalist captured and rendered a junkie by the native militia later freed by Collins, and he a priest who also administers medicine to the wounded but winds up literally crucified for his beliefs. The film emerges to be undeniably proficient in the action sequences (especially the scene in which Kinski perishes via flame thrower in a large fuel depository – a set which would actually be re-used in its immediate follow-up!) but is otherwise fairly routine, indeed clichéd; mind you, it offers mild entertainment while it is on (particularly the verbal sparring between Kinski and Borgnine) but is in no way memorable and certainly far below the work Margheriti could turn out in his heyday (though he had always been somewhat erratic).

Derivative Combat Action Thriller with a Load of Whiz Bangs!

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 24 May 2008]

"Horror Castle" director Antonio Margheriti's "Code Name: Wild Geese" with Lewis Collins and Lee Van Cleef qualifies as an explosive, action-packed, but formulaic military actioneer about hard-nosed mercenaries dispatched with the blessings of the DEA to destroy an evil Asian general's opium factory in the Golden Triangle. Predictably, complications arise, and everybody finds themselves in for a considerably more difficult mission than they were prepared for from the outset. Although it is not related to the 1978 Richard Burton epic "The Wild Geese" or its tardy sequel "Wild Geese II," the Tito ("Tentacles") Capri, Gianfranco ("The Last Hunter") Couyoumdjian, and Michael Lester screenplay clearly borrows elements from the two earlier films, but rearranges them so there are enough differences. The rugged cast includes Ernst Borgnine, Klaus Kinski, Mimsy Farmer, Manfred Lehmann, and Frank Glaubrecht. Margheriti and cinematographer Peter Baumgartner lensed this actioneer on location in Hong Kong and lush jungles of the Philippines. Some of the action scenes, such as a fast-paced car chase through a tunnel under construction and most of the explosions that occur in long shot are done with cost-saving miniatures, as Margheriti did with his Karen Black & Lee Major's thriller "Killer Fish." "Code Name: Wild Geese" is nothing memorable, but it is done with a lot of savvy and Kinski's fake elite British accent make it worthwhile, especially if you're in the mood for a shoot'em up with no shortage of explosions and a high body count. One of the last scene when our hero attaches a flamethrower to a helicopter skid and burns up everything and everybody at an opium plant gives it an edge.

Captain Robin Wesley (Lewis Collins of "The Final Option") is a top-notch mercenary who trains his men under conditions as close to actual combat as he can. Obviously, Margheriti and his scenarists pilfered the first scene from the Andrew V. McLaglen thriller "ffolks" with Roger Moore whose title character keeps his mercenaries on their toes with similar exercises. Wesley is called in by his employer, Baldwin (Wolfgang Pampel) to blow the smithereens out of a opium factory run by a ruthless, bald-headed warlord. Fletcher (Ernst Borgnine of "Marty") represents the DEA, and Charlton (Klaus Kinski of "Nosferatu") hangs around as back-up in case Wesley and his men run into trouble. Before the mission begins, Wesley loses his helicopter pilot so he strikes a bargain with the authorities to release Travis (Lee Van Cleef of "For a Few Dollars More") to fly for him. Travis is an expert chopper pilot who has flown in five wars but wound up in prison for smuggling.

Initially, everything goes according to plans and our heroes wipe out the opium factory. During the heated combat, Travis leaves his post in the helicopter to help the mercenaries and an adversary smashes the fuel tank, sets the chopper afire, and it blows up. Wesley and company take some casualties, but now they have to march out. The warlord learns about this debacle and sends an army out to make an example of our death-defying heroes. The local guerrillas liberate a bamboo prison nearby and rescue Katy Robson (Mimsy Farmer) who has been held hostage and shot up repeatedly with heroin. They take her with them. Wesley and his men tromp through the jungle and find a priest (Peter Lorre look-alike Luciano Pigozzi of "Baron Blood") running a mission. At this point, our heroes learn that there is a second opium factory and a train that delivers the narcotics. While they are away blowing up the train when it crosses a bridge, the warlord's army storms the mission, kills everyone, and crucifies the priest. Eventually, back at mission headquarters, Fletcher and Charlton figure that no news is good news and decide that our heroes must have lost their helicopter. Charlton arranges for back-up and leads it into the jungle on a motorized riverboat with a squad of well-armed thugs. Everything changes radically when Charlton hurls himself into the fray.

The leads don't have much of a chance to act because the explosions and the thrill-a-minute heroics keep them dodging bullets and shrapnel. "Code Name: Wild Geese" is the conclusion to a successful trilogy that Margheriti started with Lewis Collins and continued with "Commando Leopard" with Klaus Kinski and "The Commander" with Lee Van Cleef and Donald Pleasence.

Watch it just for the chase scene!!!

[Gregster-5 · 11 August 2001]

Code Name Wild Geese is one of those many movies that bases the plot around mercenary action in a jungle; actually, to be fair, given that every cheapo movie seems to have done that in the past few years, at least this was one of the first. (Is ANYONE really interested in mercenary-in-a-jungle movies?) Most of the action is perfunctory, predictable stuff. Lee Van Cleefe is wasted (as usual) in this; Lewis Collins does his hard man routine.

This movie wouldn't really be worth commenting on except for the chase scene. It's absolutely hillarious! Collins' character revs his car up in a tunnel when he realizes he's blocked in, and drives sideways, YES SIDEWAYS, along the wall of the tunnel! How does he do this? Well, aside from the fact that this is physically impossible, of course he doesn't... we're treated to a exquisitely appalling display of movie miniatures, intercut with grim expressions on Collin's face. It's priceless and worth the cost of a rental alone.

Complete dross

[edcharlesadams · 1/10 · 19 February 2002]

This terrible film is indicative of the type of cheapo gung-ho style jungle rubbish all too common in the mid- to late-seventies. I was surprised to learn that the film only dates from 1984, when from the quality of film they used it appears to be at least ten years older. The plot is virtually non-existent, the action is risible and the soundtrack is perhaps the poorest quality I've ever heard, with music seemingly provided by one man and his synthesizer. Plus some truly awful dubbing. My friend got this film for £5 from the bargain bin at his village shop. He was ripped off.

There's a few moments where "Codename" comes alive but they are few and far between.

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 7 June 2010]

"This is a corporation. Their business is war. For them, the jungle and the city are the same." You know, it's funny. You'd think a movie with a legendary cast filled with personal favorites (Borgnine, Van Cleef, Farmer and Kinski), produced by a legendary German producer (Erwin C. Dietrich), and helmed by legendary Italian director Antonio Margheriti, and filmed in very scenic locations, the results would be, well... legendary.

Sadly, that is not the case. It's not that Codename: Wildgeese is bad, but it doesn't live up to the promise of its cast and crew.

Kind of going along in the vein of The Dogs of War (1980), The Dirty Dozen (1967), the original Inglorious Bastards (1978), and the Eye of the Eagle series (the first one in 1986 and the other two both 1989), and, in true Italian exploitation fashion, basically fashioning an unrelated variant on The Wild Geese (1978) Codename is about a group of men, led by Wesley (Lewis Collins) who invade the "Golden Triangle" (the border of Burma, Laos and Thailand, apparently), to destroy the opium factories of a Burmese warlord. They are hired by DEA agent Fletcher (Borgnine) and his associate Charlton (Kinski) for the crazy, more-impossible-than-impossible mission that you'd have to be downright insane to even consider considering.

It certainly seems dangerous, as the next hour or so consists of people shooting machine guns, guys in brown uniforms falling off guard towers, all manner of blow-ups, including many exploding huts, and Mimsy Farmer shows up as the token woman and also the token reporter that got trapped by the evildoers who put her in a cage. After a few more blow-ups and maybe a double-cross or two, the movie ends.

The problem is, there is little-to-no character development. Even with a vast array of tools at your disposal to involve viewers in your movie, if you don't know who the characters are, or anything about them, the moviegoer begins to lose interest because you don't really care about their fate. So, I would say "Codename: Wildgeese" falls prey to "Lone Tiger syndrome", that is, just because you have a great cast doesn't mean your movie is going to be good. That being said, there are some cool aspects, such as a helicopter with a flamethrower attached to it, and some of Margheriti's classic miniature work, best exemplified in an early chase sequence when Collins' car is speeding through a tunnel, and then he cuts the wheel to the right and, shockingly, drives along the side wall of the tunnel! It's moments like this when Codename comes alive but they are few and far between.

As an avid Italian horror movie fan, I'm much more familiar with Margheriti's Castle of Blood (1964), Cannibal Apocalypse (1980), which does have some action/war elements, The Long Hair of Death (1964), The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963), Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye (1973), Web of the Spider (1971), also with Kinski, and, while not technically a horror movie, the ultimate classic Yor: Hunter from the Future (1983) (a must see). Of his 80's action output that I have seen, it seems the finest is The Last Hunter (1980)...so see that if you want entertaining Margheriti action at its best.

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Please don't dub Mr. Kinski!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 13 May 2010]

If there's one thing I never understood about the "art" of European trash & exploitation film-making, it's the concept of dubbing actors that already speak English. Quite often I stumble upon obscure cult movies with great names in the cast, like Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, and yet for some incomprehensible reason their lines and dialogs are dubbed by atrociously articulating voices. I don't get it. It's a privilege to work with these actors, as far as I'm concerned, so the absolute last thing you do is alter their voices, right? Here in "Code Name: Wild Gees", the legendary infamous Klaus Kinski talks with the posh and eloquent voice of a seemingly elderly homosexual. The voices of the other international stars Lee Van Cleef and Ernest Borgnine luckily aren't dubbed.

"Code Name: Wild Geese" is a typically early 80's European action movie from the hand of the versatile Italian director Antonio Margheriti. Basically this means it's a nonsensical but tremendously entertaining popcorn flick chock-full of explosions, testosterone-overloaded male characters, car & helicopter crashes and an ultra-thin storyline set somewhere in the jungle of a dubious problematic country. Margheriti shot three movies like this, together with the German producer Erwin C. Dietrich and largely the same casts. I have yet to see "The Commander", but "Commando Leopard" is equally good fun. Lewis Collins stars as the leader of a band of macho mercenaries known as the Wild Geese. They're kind of like The A-Team, except tougher of course and less inventive with artillery and vehicles. The team is hired by government man Ernest Borgnine to destroy an opium plantation in Burma. Commander Wesley takes the assignment rather personally, since his own since died from a drug overdose. Naturally, loads of infiltrations, double-crossing, collateral damage and violent shootouts ensue.

There are plentiful of ridiculously entertaining moments in "Code Name: Wild Geese"; most notably a laughably fake chase sequence in which the cars drive sideways in a tunnel! It's really a stupid sight, especially since the scene ends with homosexually voiced Kinski saying "Isn't that funny?". There are also some very good action sequences and miniature set designs, including a freight train explosion and a helicopter blast. Lee Van Cleef stars as a hired pilot who's initially reluctant to join the battle and Margheriti regular Luciano Pigozzi (the Italian Peter Lorre) plays a priest who provides shelter to the fugitive mercenaries. He also has the, hands down, coolest sequence when his character is found creepily crucified following a retaliation strike by the opium producers. The dialogs are horribly and actually quite redundant, but I guess they needed as much screen time as possible for Ernest Borgnine and Klaus Kinski. Their conversations are truly abominable.

Explosions galore and Klaus Kinski!

[HaemovoreRex · 7/10 · 23 July 2006]

The plot - A group of highly trained mercenaries are hired to destroy an opium manufacturing plant somewhere in Burma. That's it! Oh well, sometimes simple is best I guess.

Whilst far from Antonio Margheriti's best work this film nonetheless provides some cracking entertainment, not least of all due to the great assembled cast here. The Professionals Lewis Collins plays the groups leader and is backed up ably by the likes of genre stalwarts Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Luciano Pigozzi and that great mainstay of madness himself, Klaus Kinski!

Plenty of gunfire and big explosions abound along with some of Margheriti's usual cool miniature model work, most notably in a great car chase scene towards the beginning of the movie.

Fellow fans of Godfrey Ho ninja movies will delight to see an uncredited Bruce Baron in the cast here to as a laid back member of the group with a predilection for alcohol(!)

For Margheriti fans and also those who like a bit of the old mercenary shenanigans you could do a lot worse than to check this one out.

Pretty Bad

[Wulfstan10 · 2/10 · 11 May 2005]

I saw this film quite by accident. We had decided to watch The Wild Geese (with Richard Burton, et al.) but the person who went to the video store brought back this on accident, apparently thinking that there was some connection between the two films, which I suspect was part of the reason it has this name. There is no connection, other than the similar name and the fact that they both deal with mercenaries sent to some troubled region.

I was rather downcast upon finding out this was not the right film, but kept my hopes up. I was very familiar with Lee van Cleef, and find that he can do a very good job, and I had recently become familiar with Lewis Collins from a couple good or decent films he had been in.

However, even this hope was to be dashed. This film is really quite bad. The acting is bad, being either wooden or over the top and Lee van Cleef is nowhere near his best here. The whole plot is like a formulaic, brainless version of The Wild Geese, the production values are bad, and the action or chase scenes are poorly produced and sometimes utterly ridiculous. I wouldn't bother with this one and would check out the far superior The Wild Geese (a pretty good film) or even the latter's "sequel" Wild Geese II, which itself is mediocre but much better than this.

stupidly entertaining

[sangue · 7/10 · 13 August 2000]

i don't know, this movie isn't that great, but it's quite entertaining in it's own dumb way, and boasts an excellent cast,( Lee Van Cleef, Klaus Kinski, Ernest Borgnine, Mimsy Farmer.) David Warbeck wannabe Lewis Collins stars as a tough commando sent to the golden triangle to wipe out an opium ring. he inlists the help of a war pilot (Van Cleef) and they venture into the jungle and blow lots of stuff up. the plot doesn't make much sense, and the direction isn't nearly as stylish as earlier Margheriti action flicks like The Last Hunter, but it does have lots of patented Margheriti explosions and some good action scenes, as well as the aforementioned cast. there's also a scene where freaky little Luciano Pigozzi gets crucified in his own church

Codename: Eurotrash

[Chase_Witherspoon · 5/10 · 2 February 2010]

Antonio Margheriti (that's the linguine Anthony Dawson) directs this in-name only second sequel to "The Wild Geese", with ex-Professionals' Lewis Collins as the indomitable Commander Robin Wesley (a very masculine sounding name befitting the tough guy profile), and his band of rag-tag mercenaries as they venture into the jungles of Borneo or thereabouts for a supposedly benign mission to bust an opium operation. But the evil, double crossing Charleton (crazy-eyed Kinski) is playing both sides, and the group find themselves taking refuge in a mission with language assistance from expatriate American (Farmer) as they search for an escape route.

Glorious colour tones, stylish costumes and jazzy synthesisers give this jungle war opus the Armani makeover that was en vogue at the time. Collins' suave sophistication and stiff upper lip as he delivers painfully awkward dialogue is so artificial, it's cringe worthy. Ernest Borgnine looks sedated in his brief cameo, while Kinski, conversely, is so over the top, he's hilarious. Only Van Cleef offers some restraint, but he's a passenger. The set designers, special effects crew and pyrotechnic personnel showed flair with their multitude of explosions, and the bodies blown apart in gory detail give it that Euro-trash touch you've come to expect.

But while the action sequences are fluent and well constructed, and the general gist of the film is easy to follow, there's still an awful lot of stilted dialogue and overly intense acting. Perhaps as a box set with its younger siblings, this could be a cool if somewhat hokey trilogy. Nice try, but in spite of Collins' penchant for smoking stogies, no cigar.

Actually better than expected!

[kreisbanaan · 7/10 · 15 August 2018]

Given the actors, the era, and the previous reviews, I would have expected this to be even worse than the average Chuck Norris movie from the same period. I was pleasantly surprised to be entertained by a movie that's obviously a step above the average Chuck Norris movie from the era. Although it can't hold a candle to , for example, Predator or Platoon, from the same period, the acting is actually pretty decent, the script is definitely not too bad, and the characters come across as real human beings. For a bunch of B-actors, a low budget movie, and obviously a lack of some decent camera equipment, I think they've made the best with what they could do.

two major minuses: One: the music is kinda campy & cheesy and continuously detracts from the visible effort the actors put into to it. It might have been in vogue when Madonna made 'Vogue' but it's sooooo dated now. Think a drunk Vangelis on a Monday morning and you're halfway.

Two: The movie obviously suffers from not having proper camera equipment and not being able to make 'expensive' shots. Nowadays you can make a better movie with a cheap 200 $ drone camera..but of course they didnt have that back then. Although they DID have helicopters in the movie, they just never bothered to use them for any good looking shots. Cinematography: 3 out of 10.

But I think the acting is a LOT better then I had expected, and it's a shame this movie is relegated to obscurity because of it's flaws.

Quite tiresome and generic 80's action

[Red-Barracuda · 4/10 · 29 September 2017]

It never ceases to surprise me to learn just how much lots of people seem to like explosions in movies. I have always thought that - aside from the admittedly seriously impressive Pink Floyd scored explosion par excellence from the finale of Zabriskie Point (1970) – once you've seen one explosion…well, the others are kind of similar. Which brings me to Codename: Wild Geese, a film complimented quite a bit on the basis for it having an above average number of explosions. While I fully agree there were a lot of them, it didn't change the fact that this was a very formulaic action movie with little interest value overall.

This West German production was directed by Italian director-for-hire Antonio Margheriti, who was also at the helm for the two subsequent films which made up a loose action trilogy, namely Commando Leopard (1985) and The Commander (1988). For my money Commando Leopard was the best of the bunch, although that could be a result of it being the first of these I saw and so consequently had the most patience for. All films feature Lewis Collins in the star role as a tough commando team leader who quite impressively manages to navigate through the entire run-time of all three movies with a face like fizz. In this one he leads a group of mercenaries who are hired by the DEA to take out an opium production operation in the south-east Asian jungle. The rest of the cast is pretty good on paper with Ernest Borgnine as a shady DEA boss, Lee Van Cleef pitches up as a helicopter pilot, Klaus Kinski replete with upper class English accent plays a sneaky associate of Collins' and Italian genre regular Mimsy Farmer is also on hand as a civilian caught up in the middle of the conflict. Despite the promising nature of the cast, they aren't given anything very interesting to work with and so none really register performances that are very memorable at all. But then, this film is about explosions not acting, I keep on forgetting this.

There are other things in it worth at least noting, however, my favourite scene for example being the car chase early on in the movie where Collins drives his car along the side of a wall while driving down a tunnel in an attempt to escape a tailgater – this is a genuinely inspired bit of nonsense which I definitely enjoyed. Later on, we also have a helicopter with attached flamethrower, which isn't as interesting as it sounds but it does sound great I have to say. And there also was a scene where a missionary is crucified, which was at the very least quite distinctive and memorable. But mainly this one really has to be recommended for those of you with a high tolerance for machine gun shooting, explosions, jungle-based antics, explosions, Lewis Collins looking constipated, explosions and scenes with explosions.

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE!

[Mazzarini · 12 August 2001]

Italian director Antonio Margheriti serves up another entertaining action flick. The film has a great international cast, great music, great action and some great model effects. Seek this one out and enjoy, if only someone would release a widescreen version in it's correct ratio of 2.35:1. Quentin Tarantino you did it for THE BEYOND now how about for this. I recommend the following titles if you liked this THE LAST HUNTER, TORNADO, COMMANDO LEOPARD, THE COMMANDER and COBRA MISSION.

20 Minutes

[kevinjmiller-71539 · 2/10 · 8 April 2020]

That's as far as I could get. Action sequences and some good actors (ex. Borgnine and Van Cleef) couldn't overcome the inane dialog and the rest of the wooden actors.

The geese are heading south

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 23 February 2018]

A lot of the plot from the original Wild Geese movie is brought into Cod Name: Wild Geese. Like the original crew that Richard Burton put together they are betrayed by those they are working for. Like that film accounts are settled in a way Don Corleone would have approved.

British action star Lewis Collins puts together the team this time and among others the indispensable Lee Van Cleef is one of them. He's indispensible because he's piloting the helicopter taking the team in. Their mission is to destroy a plant processing opium and Ernest Borgnine of the Drug Enforcement Agency is there, most unofficially.

The plant they are destroying is in the heart of Southeast Asia ruled by a Fu Manchu type military dictator without Fu's style. A bit of the Bridge On The River Kwai is thrown in as an opium train is destroyed also.

Lots of action, but also lots of silliness. A priest who runs a mission hospital helps some of the wounded Geese and gets crucified literally for his help. That was really laying it on a bit thick.

Action fans should like it, but the film hasn't the flair of the original.

Code Name: Rubbish......

[FlashCallahan · 2/10 · 22 March 2016]

What you have here is simply some cross European film made cheaply, featuring some actors who would be quite familiar in their respective territories to garner something of a profit, and to maybe cash in on the Rambo franchise at the same time....

The result is so etching that isn't just bad, it's boring and a shameful waste of talent, considering the excel tic cast.

Lewis Collins is basically reprising his role in who Dares Wins, but this time with added pouting, sending his team to the camp that resembles the one from First Blood: Part II.

Van Cleef looks like he's flew in from another movie. He appears every now and again with that face he has like someone is shining a bright light in his face.

Borgnine is the special guest star of the piece, arriving in a suit, spouting out some Basil Expositon, and then walking off again.

And Kinski plays a normal person. If he were to be an absolute nutcase like he allegedly was in real life, he may have injected some much needed interest in the film.

It's as stale as last years bread, and just like the said bread, leaves an awful aftertaste.

Avoid.

Superior action from the reliable Antonio Margheriti

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 10 April 2016]

Here's yet another jungle adventure yarn from Antonio Margheriti, following on from his previous Warbeck quartet. While this movie lacks Warbeck, it makes up for his absence by having a great exploitation cast to die for. I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed adventure yarn which may be cheesy, far-fetched and predictable, but is nonetheless violent, and showcases some top actors going through their motions as they struggle for survival in the jungle. Probably the main disappointment is the music, which, as the credits proudly proclaim, is produced on Yamaha keyboards! The film begins with a shoot-em-up in the dark scene. I don't know what relevance it bears to the rest of the film, but it starts the move in an action-packed way so I'll let it pass. We are initially introduced to the characters at a bigwig meeting presided over by the immortal Ernest Borgnine. Why immortal? Well, he always seems to keep on making films and never letting his age worry him! Borgnine here is the team leader, so his job is to fret behind a desk for the film's course. Sadly he doesn't engage in any of the action in the movie.

Pretty soon, Margheriti's obsession with miniature effects comes into play during a car chase, in which cars fly up the walls of a tunnel. Hilariously these are matchbox models by the look of it, and are easily spotted due to the lack of people in the supposed vehicles! Pointless stuff, but it's fun anyway. Shortly afterwards, our hero Wesley (Lewis Collins) assembles his team and ventures into the jungle at night. The first action scene is an attack on a village, and contains a hilarious moment where a soldier jumps through the roof of a thatched hut and gets a huge spike through his arm! Surely the door would have been a better bet.

The film gets better as it goes on, and the next action sequence is to steal a helicopter and is very well done. It isn't anything you won't have seen before, but there's lots of bloody death and incessant shots of guards tumbling out of guard towers. Oh yeah, and around a dozen bad guys get knives thrown into their chests for variety. The film climaxes at around the halfway mark with a successful attack on the enemy base which culminates in our heroes' helicopter being destroyed - big surprise.

They then have to make their way on foot to another enemy base and destroy that as well. Along the way they stop briefly at a jungle church (!) run by none other than Margheriti's old friend Luciano Pigozzi as the priest. Pigozzi is just one of the familiar faces to reappear from Margheriti's previous movies. The native guy from TIGER JOE is also here. Keep your eyes peeled and you'll see the witch doctor from HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA as a prisoner in one brief shot. This goes to show that, like with Hammer Studios, Margheriti tended to employ the same actors again and again in his films.

Well, the enemy shows up and Pigozzi gets attacked in the film's most horrific scene, enlivened by the quality acting. This is probaby one of Pigozzi's finest moments. Our heroes continue, their numble dwindling all the while, stopping briefly to blow up a (miniature) train and unsuccessfully negotiate a minefield. The excellent finale sees an all-out assault on the enemy base, and a surprise traitor attacking.

Lewis Collins is rather bland as the film's hero, but not a total loss. He tries to be David Warbeck for a lot of the time but doesn't have the same laidback charm. Spaghetti western icon Lee Van Cleef pops up in one of his last appearances as an ex-con helicopter pilot and delivers a solid performance as usual. Borgnine's role is limited but he's there for name value alone. Former giallo star Mimsy Farmer is also around as an opium addict-turned-gunfighting hero. Finally, we have Klaus Kinski doing his patented psycho shtick, at one point drilling a corpse with his machine gun and going berserk! Good stuff, and a fine action/war film which is easy on the brain but looks good and has lots of shooting and explosions for those who like them. Personally, I found this to be a superior action flick and I recommend it to all.

Code Name Wild Geese

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 12 October 2023]

Code Name: Wild Geese is not the sequel to The Wild Geese but don't let that stop you from watching it and making the filmmaker's money.

This is directed by an absolute master of the low budget war movie, Antonio Margheriti, written by Michael Lester and produced by a man who made seventeen movies with Jess Franco, Erwin C. Dietrich.

DEA agent Fletcher (Ernest Borgnine) heads an operation to cut off the supply of opium out of Hong Kong. As always with these deep cover government jobs, the money has to come from somewhere. Here, it's funded by an American businessman named Brenner (Hartmut Neugebauer).

Working with his partner Charlton (Klaus Kinski), Fletcher hires Robin Wesley (Lewis Collins, who is also in Margheriti's Commando Leopard), a man who has just lost his son to heroin. He's all for this mission: to burn down heroin operations throughout the Golden Triangle alongside an army of mercenaries like Klein (Manfred Lehmann) and helicopter pilot China (Lee Van Cleef). As you can expect, there are twists, turns and double crosses. Most importantly, it has Mimsy Farmer and a flamethrower mounted on a helicopter.

Kinski: Wild Eyes

[Bezenby · 7/10 · 8 March 2017]

Woohoo! Another Antonio Margheriti jungle actioner, this one starring Lewis Collins (from Commando Leopard!) and Klaus Kinski (from Commando Leopard!) and Lee Van Cleef (from Death Rides a Horse etc) and Ernest Borgnine (from also good eighties action film Skeleton Coast) and Mimsy Farmer (from the Black Cat, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, that Pink Floyd film and other stuff). I'm knackered from thinking of all those films those folks were in. Goodnight! This one isn't as good as Margheriti's The Last Hunter, but then I'm hard pressed to think of a better action film than that, but it's on a par with Commando Leopard, suffering slightly from the lack of John Stiener being a Glaswegian, but then helped by a depressingly old looking Lee Van Cleef as a helicopter pilot and helped immensely by eternally middle aged and jolly Ernest Borgnine. These guys are all on hand to help out Lewis Collins, a soldier heading for the jungle of some country I couldn't quite figure out in order to destroy drug factories! Collins and Cleef and a few other jungle warfare guys head off for the jungle and start blowing the absolute crap out of everything, picking up a junky Mimsy Farmer on the way. She's doesn't have too much to do in this one I'm afraid, but then again it's all about the action and less about the acting, so let's get to the bit where I mention the helicopter with the flamethrower attached.

Near the end the get double crossed by either Borgnine or Kinski (you guess which one) and can only escape by wasting scores of bad guys and countryside with a flame thrower attached to a helicopter. Margheriti gets to break out his famous miniature sets at this point (and also during a really daft car chase near the start) but you can't mark the guy down for effort.

This is yet another impossible-not-to-enjoy Italian trash film made by one of Taratino's heroes. I wonder why he never takes the hint and makes a decent action film with barely any dialogue?

Talent has to work, regardless of weak material (sigh)

[lor_ · 15 March 2023]

My review was written in September 1986 after a Times Square screening.

"Codename: Wildgeese" is a routine commando action film boasting an interesting (though poorly used) cast of international talent. Pic was shot in the Far East in Spring 1984 with working titles such as "Wild Geese Five and "Wild Rainbow", followed shortly by an uppercase British production "Wild Geese II", which ironically did not receive as wide a domestic release (via major label Universal last year) as this New World product.

Lewis Collins (who toplined "Who Dares Wins" for the "Wild Geese" and "Wild Geese II" producer Euan Lloyd) stars as Capt. Wesley, a mercenary who brings his international team to carry out a daring raid against drug depots in Thailand. Very predictably, the businessmen who are working with his boss, drug enforcement official Fletcher (Ernest Borgnine), turn out to be the bad guys.

Trekking through the jungle and endless machine gun battles are just the excuse for prolific Italian director Antonio Margheriti to display his usual topnotch explosions, bot full scale amd miniatures. For gung ho action and interesting storylines, he did a far better job recently with "The Last Hunter" (1980) and "Tornado" (1983).

Inadequate post-synching of dialog hurts the picture, with Klaus Kinski not even showing up to loop his own lines (he is given an inappropriate British voicing). Collins fits the part as a cool commando, but has grumpy acting looks as if he's just received a call from UA telling the James Bond role went to Timothy Dalton, so he's stuck in this Continental B-pic. Mimsy Farmer is properly shrill as a freed prisoner who's been forcibly turned into a drug addict, while Lee Van Cleef and Ernest Borgnine lend their formidable personalities to nothing roles. Margheriti's favorite actor, Alan Collins (real name: Luciano Pigozzi) shows up uncredited as a Swiss priest who is literally crucified by the baddies.

Margheriti has since completed a followup film "Commando Leopard", starring Lewis Collins and Kinski.