My review was written in June 1987 after a screening at Cine 42 theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.
Prolific action director Fred Olen Ray operates on automatic pilot with "Commando Squad", a deadly dull picture that tries to be a destitute man's "Extreme Prejudice". Outlook not so good, quoth the Magic Eight Ball.
In her film starring debut, former Playboy magazine Playmate of the year Kathy Shower keeps her apparel firmly on he bod at all times, essaying the role of a government drug enforcement agent sent to Mexico by her boss Robert Quarry (the screen's "Count Yorga" with many pounds added) to wipe out a cocaine factory operated by an agent turned bad, William Smith. She teams up south of the border with fellow agent Brian Thompson and they withstand torture at the hands of B-movie vet Sid Haig in a boring series of encounters with the baddies en route to a fiery conclusion.
Pic starts out promisingly with a nicely staged and arrestingly lit (in various pastel tones) shootout in a power staton, but falls apart in the second reel, never to recover its momentum. Donned almost throughout the film in an unbecoming black wig, Shower is unimpressive, her beauty hidden and characterization embarrassingly relegate to non-stop voice-over narration. Co-star Brian Thompson is an unappealing leading man, delivering lines in bored fashion and looking more like Klaus Kinski than a heatthrob.
Of the typically Olen Ray-round-up of vet actors (he's replaced A. C. Lyles in this regar), William Smith and Ross Haen are forceful, Mel Welles has a funny turn and Marie Windsor is hilarious operating the Hollywood Book & Poster store as a front for gunrunning. Russ Tamblyn pops up uncredited, just as he was in Ray's concurrent release "Cyclone".
Most of the listless action takes place where many old Hollywood Westerns and serials were shot, not convincingly doubling for Mexico. Best tech credits are explosions.
