It's more dirtiness for the fourth entry in the World War II saga where you pretty much know how everything will unfold barring some surprises, particularly towards the end. Ernest Borgine is back in his original role, and Telly Savalas, having played a completely different character in the original theatrical film, repeats his role in the equivalent of the part Lee Marvin played in the first film as well.
Once again, a group of American misfits and murderers and thieves are gathered together for a mission that gets them out of prison, one (Erik Estrada, completely wasted) from death row.
This time, they are out to destroy the creation of a fourth reich that the Nazis are creating in case they lose the war, yet among the group is a traitor. The story flows nicely and there is plenty of action, but there's a desperation here to make a probable fictional storyline seem to be based on fact. A scene where a Nazi communication room is attacked is particularly laughable as the men operated it are gunned down and the equipment shot up, then the building is blown up by a grenade. What a waste of ally ammunition but that wouldn't have been as exciting (or noisy) had there not been any bullets flying before the explosion.
So you have to take all this with a grain of believability attached, and the film does provide a ton of entertainment and feel good deaths of the Nazis even 43 years after the end of the war. There's something laughable though about seeing Borgnine as a commanding officer because of the way he speaks his lines, not always coming off as very commanding and rather dopey in his Marty way to where he doesn't always deliver his lines to sound at all intelligent. Jeff Conaway, Alex Cord and particularly Ernie Hudson stand out in supporting roles with Heather Thomas surprisingly decent as a female officer on the team.
Once again, a group of American misfits and murderers and thieves are gathered together for a mission that gets them out of prison, one (Erik Estrada, completely wasted) from death row.
This time, they are out to destroy the creation of a fourth reich that the Nazis are creating in case they lose the war, yet among the group is a traitor. The story flows nicely and there is plenty of action, but there's a desperation here to make a probable fictional storyline seem to be based on fact. A scene where a Nazi communication room is attacked is particularly laughable as the men operated it are gunned down and the equipment shot up, then the building is blown up by a grenade. What a waste of ally ammunition but that wouldn't have been as exciting (or noisy) had there not been any bullets flying before the explosion.
So you have to take all this with a grain of believability attached, and the film does provide a ton of entertainment and feel good deaths of the Nazis even 43 years after the end of the war. There's something laughable though about seeing Borgnine as a commanding officer because of the way he speaks his lines, not always coming off as very commanding and rather dopey in his Marty way to where he doesn't always deliver his lines to sound at all intelligent. Jeff Conaway, Alex Cord and particularly Ernie Hudson stand out in supporting roles with Heather Thomas surprisingly decent as a female officer on the team.