Synopsis: A team of highly trained American ninja-commando's are sent back to Vietnam on a deadly mission to rescue some US POW's. They are the Ultimax Force – the first ninja commandos.

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Views: Somewhere, in the jungles of Vietnam, some 2490 US servicemen lie in wait for their rescue (apparently). The US government reaches out to some members of The Black Dragon Club who, after a trip to the Ninja Society Of California which is oddly led by Shaolin monks, are sent on a mission to rescue the POW's from Vietnam. These guys are the Ultimax Force – the first ninja commandos, as the VHS sleeve so proudly announced. The team is led by Chris, a foul mouthed American boy that wears a Japanese headband throughout the whole film and looks like he just got out of high school. He is joined by Dick, Mike, and Bill who all bring their own techniques and characteristics to the table. Once in Vietnam the team soon meet their connection in a bar brawl before heading out on a series of subplots, one of which includes Chris taking revenge on the nasty Viet-Cong camp general that imprisoned and tortured him during the war!

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The last time I saw Ultimax Force was probably over 30 years ago. I remember that the front cover wasn't too appealing to me, showing a group of white guys in balaclavas with guns – something that usually meant terrorism here in Belfast – but as it turns out, Ultimax Force was packed full of ninja action. The film plays like a blend of Missing In Action with the finer moments of a Godfrey Ho ninja flick (the ninja bits of course), with some over-the-top cast members that could give Stuart Smith, Pierre Kirby, and Mike Abbott a run for their money. The script is pretty crass for the most part, packed with tons of bad language and dodgy lines that were seemingly written by a 16 year old who thought this is how adults speak. But as it turns out, it was actually written by Joe Mari Avellana – a Filipino actor, director, and writer who penned many fun titles such as Final Mission, Equalizer 2000 and Return Of The Kickfighter with Richard Norton, as well as the wild Ultracop 2000 with Yukari Oshima and Philip Ko. As an actor, Joe starred alongside Norton as Papa Fung in Rage, appeared in a number of the Bloodfist movies, Caged Fury, TNT Jackson, and The Hunt For Eagle One with Mark Dacascos. The man at the helm is Willy Milan, a Filipino director with over 40 credits under his belt one of which is the fun, Street Warrior (aka Revenge Of The Street Warrior) that was released on VHS with artwork that was a total rip-off from Michael Pare's Streets Of Fire that came out just a couple of years before. With Ultimax Force, Milan doesn't do a terrible job as such but its pretty run of the mill for an 80s action flick inspired by Rambo and American Ninja...

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There's a lot to love and laugh about in Ultimax Force, with one of my favourite moments being the really long scene of the men getting changed into their ninja outfits in the forest. I don't love it because I get to see these men topless, but more so for the fact that it takes so bloody long and involves shots of them applying almost every article of clothing. Of course, for a movie like this that came out at the height of the ninja craze along with films such as Enter The Ninja and the awesome Sakura Killers, Ultimax Force is all about the action – something of which there is plenty of and most of which is quite good. While it's nowhere near as amazing as Corey Yuen Kwai's No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder or Sammo Hung's Eastern Condors (both of which are similar in vein), Ultimax Force keeps action fans happy with plenty of ninja fun for the first half of the film before going into commando territory in the second.

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Overall: A lot of fun and typical of its era, Ultimax Force is packed full of ninjas, explosions, and terrible lines – but entertains!