Phantom Soldiers

From the opening fifteen minutes of action packed carnage the on screen style of the 'Phantom Soldiers' garbed in black biochemical warfare outfits equipped with the unforgettable image of gas masks adorned with protrusions are the stuff of apocalyptic nightmares. The outfit of death close in on a Vietnamese family community mercilessly wiping them out with all manner of automatic weaponry & biological killing man woman & child with extreme prejudice for humanity. The American special forces green berets are sent in as led by Michael Custer but are lured into a trap and all bar two of his men are wiped out before the three of them are captured by the mysterious band of rogue soldiers. We are introduced in equally action packed & explosive circumstances to Texas Ranger brother, Daniel Custer who learns of his brothers captivity by the media labelled 'Phantom Soldiers' and fatigues up for a Rambo rescue mission. Daniel is surprised by the mercenaries but not killed as he is seen as a Pentagon attache & so fed the story that the 'Phantom Soldiers' are not at all what he seems & given the relative freedom of their camp only to discover a Russian propaganda at the underbelly as well as finding his brother & men held captive, readied for execution. Escaping the attentions of his minders Daniel frees his brother & men as they make a break for freedom armed to the hilt as an explosive finale ensues in bloody & action packed style reminiscent throughout the entire movie. The style of film making is excellent & the superb use of full frame material is extremely well realised as Director Irvin Johnson produces scene after scene of solid actor dialogue delivery & spectacular head & body multiple bullet hits in bloody & gory detail. This is one movie that clearly came at the end of the Vietnam war action film stable & was overlooked cinematically even on its shamelessly low video release issuing which is a great shame as this stands out as a real highlight & even dares to contain original themes previously unseen as a result of its low profile exposure.

The movie really is impressively bad. The story is stupid. The director is totally incapable. And on top of all that, the lead actor has as much charisma and talent as a dead amoeba. Interestingly however, you hardly notice all that with every single actor being at least as bad as and talentless as he is. In fact, a colorful test image is easily more entertaining than this useless and brainless piece of stupid crap. Honestly, the director should have pursued a career at Walmart instead... Some so called directors just don't have what a takes! Please stop making movies!

For 40 years Troma has has shown that independent movies can be a lot of fun. The big difference is, that Troma knows EXACTLY what they are doing. The director of "Phantom Soldiers" obviously doesn't.