{"id":4355,"date":"2024-10-05T20:53:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T20:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:49:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:49:32","slug":"code-name-wild-geese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/code-name-wild-geese\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Name: Wild Geese"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Code Name: Wild Geese <\/strong>(1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, language, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Antonio Margheriti (as \u201cAnthony M. Dawson\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jan Nemec and Eloy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Baumgartner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Kinski, Manfred Lehmann, Thomas Danneberg, Frank Glaubrecht, Wolfgang Pampel, Bruce Baron, Hartmut Neugebauer, Rene Abadeza, Luciano Pigozzi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s be clear, Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> is NOT a sequel to The Wild Geese nor is it associated with it in any way. The only thing the two movies have in common is that they\u2019re both about mercenaries. The similarities end there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You could say that Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> is an international project. It\u2019s a German-Italian production. It was filmed in Hong Kong and the Philippines. It features American and British actors. They went global with this one. It took about two years for it to reach the US where it played briefly in theaters. It opened at a limited number of theaters, none of them near me. I had to wait until it came out on video about seven months later. I tried to watch it one Saturday night and couldn\u2019t even finish it. It was horrible. If I was a normal person, I\u2019d probably say something like \u201cI can\u2019t believe I wasted my time and money.\u201d Because I\u2019m Movie Guy 24\/7, I CAN believe it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of course, that was before I developed a taste for junky European exploitation movies. Once I did, I gave Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> another chance and made it all the way through. I even liked it. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s a good movie. It\u2019s still bad. It looks and sounds cheap. It\u2019s incompetently made, badly acted, poorly dubbed and written in the most simplistic manner possible. The plot is convoluted. The action scenes are clumsily executed. I have every reason to give this movie a one-star rating, but I\u2019m not going to. When you take Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> for what it is, it\u2019s actually rather enjoyable. It\u2019s a totally different set of standards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast of Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> is mighty impressive. It has Lewis Collins (The Final Option), Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Ernest Borgnine (The Poseidon Adventure), Klaus Kinski (The Soldier) and Mimsy Farmer (Autopsy). Three bad asses, a frightening villain type and a hottie; it\u2019s a B-movie lover\u2019s dream flick. The plot has DEA agent Fletcher (Borgnine) employing the services of merc leader Captain Wesley (Collins) and his team- Klein (Lehmann), Stone (Glaubrecht), Arbib (Danneberg) and Kowalski (Baron)- to destroy an opium factory in the Golden Triangle. With their regular chopper pilot out of commission, their handlers Brenner (Neugebauer) and Charlton (Kinski) bring in a new guy, a convict named China (Van Cleef) who\u2019s promised an early release from prison if he takes part in the operation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of course, nothing goes exactly as planned once they raid and destroy the facility. Not only is their chopper blown up, they\u2019re stuck with an American journalist (Farmer), a heroin addict who never explains why she\u2019s locked in a prison cell on the premises with several locals. Then they learn of the existence of a second factory. This means trekking through the jungle to destroy it as well. Along the way, they blow up the train that carries the opium. All the while, they\u2019re being hunted by Cong soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director Antonio Margheriti (Yor, the Hunter from the Future), working under his American pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, has a thing for Sergio Leone (the Man with No Name trilogy) judging by his frequent use of tight close-ups of the characters\u2019 eyes. That was my main take-away from this viewing of Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong>, an actioner with every genre clich\u00e9 you can imagine- e.g. gun battles, explosions, guards falling from towers, more explosions, an enemy army with no regard for civilians\u2019 lives, still more explosions and the surprise revelation of a villain. Check the main cast list again; it\u2019s exactly who you think it is. There\u2019s also a car chase so ludicrous, it has to be seen to be believed. It involves Collins\u2019 character avoiding capture by driving sideways along the wall of a tunnel. He goes a good 200 yards at least. You don\u2019t have to look closely to tell it\u2019s a toy car and a miniature set. LOL! I live for stuff like this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Granted, the stars of Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> don\u2019t turn in Oscar-worthy performances. It\u2019s far, far, FAR from their best. Making matters worse is the posh English voice replacing Kinski\u2019s own. He was one of the finest screen slimeballs, but the dubbing makes him almost comical. Collins is okay in the lead. Don\u2019t worry if you\u2019ve never heard of him, he was bigger in Europe (especially West Germany) than he ever was in the States. Van Cleef may be old, but he\u2019s still one of the toughest old birds in old school action cinema. I\u2019m not sure if I buy Borgnine as a DEA agent but whatever. Farmer does little more than try to balance out the high level of testosterone with a dose of estrogen. BTW, if the actor playing the priest (Luciano Pigozzi) looks familiar to you, it\u2019s because he was also in Yor. He played Pag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll concede that Code Name: Wild Geese<\/strong> doesn\u2019t represent cinema at its finest. It\u2019s crap, I agree. BUT it\u2019s entertaining crap if you like cheesy European-made B-movies. It was released by New World Pictures in the US which, for me, is one more reason to appreciate it. I\u2019ll say this much; I liked it a whole lot more than the official sequel Wild Geese II. I still haven\u2019t tried again to make it all the way through that one. Maybe someday, who knows?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Code Name: Wild Geese (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, language, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Antonio Margheriti (as \u201cAnthony M. Dawson\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Lester\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jan Nemec and Eloy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Baumgartner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Kinski, Manfred Lehmann, Thomas Danneberg, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Code-Name-Wild-Geese-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4749,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions\/4749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}