Nowadays it seems to be thought that films in denunciation of other country's contemporary political beliefs and methodology is a bit out of place, that this matters should be discussed in the political sphere. That is, unless we are talking of action films. I won't criticize these anti-'certain political system' nor anti-Soviet in special movies for the sake of being directed this way, as a lot of quite interesting anti-American movies have been made in USSR: for example, we have not just Dovzhenko's 'Sumka dipkuryera' but his witty inconcluded satire 'Farewell, America'. But I wonder why low budget action films have amnesty to spread such demagogy as having the 1989 Soviet Union in a genocidal expansionist campaign all over Africa, in what is the most delirious portrait of the Gorbachovian USSR I have ran into.
About the film itself, I'll point out that to a certain extent it's a movie channeled by Zito with efficiency and a certain craftsmanship, working in a sober mood even in the most spectacular action scenes. As far as scenics carrying out goes there are some suggestive moments, and some performances, as Carmen Argenziano's turbulent but not histrionic Colonel Zayas are quite compelling. But the script is schematic, the characters developing horribly as relations vary in a trivial way as for resolving the movie in a silly carnival of settlings of scores; I thought the most ridiculous changing allegiances story was Del Ponte's libretto for Mozart's opera 'Die Zauberflöte', but this beats it up...
I feel that this movie's handicap is the horrible Robert Abramoff's script, which is a burden for any appealing carrying out of it. Though seeming sympathetic to a such banal script Joseph Zito gives expression to it in a quite imaginative way, but seems unable to do a scarcely convincing film out of such a horribly written script just by working efficiently. By shooting a more sophisticated and subtle one this would have been a quite interesting movie, but with a so gratuitous script 'Red scorpion' stands as a not just mediocre, but ridiculous anti-Soviet argument.
About the film itself, I'll point out that to a certain extent it's a movie channeled by Zito with efficiency and a certain craftsmanship, working in a sober mood even in the most spectacular action scenes. As far as scenics carrying out goes there are some suggestive moments, and some performances, as Carmen Argenziano's turbulent but not histrionic Colonel Zayas are quite compelling. But the script is schematic, the characters developing horribly as relations vary in a trivial way as for resolving the movie in a silly carnival of settlings of scores; I thought the most ridiculous changing allegiances story was Del Ponte's libretto for Mozart's opera 'Die Zauberflöte', but this beats it up...
I feel that this movie's handicap is the horrible Robert Abramoff's script, which is a burden for any appealing carrying out of it. Though seeming sympathetic to a such banal script Joseph Zito gives expression to it in a quite imaginative way, but seems unable to do a scarcely convincing film out of such a horribly written script just by working efficiently. By shooting a more sophisticated and subtle one this would have been a quite interesting movie, but with a so gratuitous script 'Red scorpion' stands as a not just mediocre, but ridiculous anti-Soviet argument.