Zone Troopers
October. 01,1985 PGAmerican soldiers, led by The Sarge, are stuck behind Nazi enemy lines. As they make their way across the Italian countryside, they come across an alien spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods. The alien pilot is dead, but one of the ship's passengers is on the loose. As the GIs hunt down the alien by splitting into smaller groups, they're not only tracked by the Nazis, but also a whole host of other aliens come to save their stranded party.
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Reviews
Pretty Good
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
In WW2, a group of lost US Soldiers, led by the great Tim Thompson, finds a lost alien. A shapeshifter, the creature is also sought by the Nazis. A fun movie with a lot of goofs in it, it's still worth watching.
A group of American soldiers end up deep behind enemy lines in Italy during WWII. They're flabbergasted when they encounter some honest-to-God aliens and alien artifacts in the woods. The aliens are hard to read at first, not seeming to be on either side. Our heroes consist of the growling Sarge (Tim Thomerson) who clearly has as many lives as a cat, the earnest Joey (Timothy Van Patten), who digs pulp sci-fi magazines of the era, a corporal nicknamed "Mittens" (Art La Fleur), and war correspondent Dolan (Biff Manard).You know you're in for a good time when Hitler himself (Alviero Martin) shows up, basically so he can get decked in the face by Mittens. The actors are all very engaging and entertaining, especially the always amusing Thomerson, and "Class of 1984" villain Van Patten, who believes that the aliens must be from Mars. Granted, the characters sometimes do reckless and stupid things, but in a lark like this, that's not as much of an issue as it might ordinarily be. Co-writer / debuting director Danny Bilson maintains a fairly breezy tone, occasionally getting serious but never too, too serious. He and his co-writer Paul De Meo (their other credits include "Trancers" and "The Wrong Guys") have no pretensions about what kind of movie they're making, which helps. It's just amiable, straightforward, goofy fun.Visual effects are kept to a minimum, but the sets and props are nicely done, and the creature makeup (by John Carl Buechler and his team) is pretty good. A Charles Band production (his first to be filmed in Italy), it features a solid music score by Bands' brother Richard, and makes good use of the classic tune "In the Mood".It's hard not to have a smile on ones' face while watching this.Seven out of 10.
This movie was pretty much a hoot. Being a fan of WWII and Science Fiction films it had everything a growing boy needs. Charles Band and his company have a good track record turning out good cheesy fun. Tim Thomerson is "Sarge" the battle hardened vet with the tommygun. His character may have been inspired by Lee Marvin's in "The Big Red One" because they both are evidently impossible to kill. It struck me funny that the guy blew himself up,(along with a Nazi) but when he reappears at the end of the film his buddies take it as granted. The young punk kid is the only person with a clue to what's happening because he reads comic books, (see,I told you Mom) A spacecraft crashlands in Italy and the sole survivor is captured by the Wehrmacht. It is important enough that ol' Hitler hisself comes down to take a look and gets punched in the face by one of our boys that was captured. Well, Dogfaces team up with Bugeyes and proceed to kick a little Kraut behind with some nifty rayguns. Some waxy looking dudes who look kind of human show up to rescue the bugeyed alien. Were they the same species? I don't know. The dialog was fairly spot on and the weapons looked authentic. There was a very weird looking German tank that shows up. I'm sure it was homemade. All in all a pretty entertaining film.
When watching certain movies, you just know from the very first minute that you're about to have a great time. Zone Troopers is like that the film opens with the credits while a golden oldie song is playing (I believe it's called In the Mood' ) and the right light-hearted atmosphere is set immediately. Of course, I can't give too much praising and recommendation, but I certainly enjoyed my viewing. It reminded me about the silly and funny quickies from the 60's. Like Roger Corman used to make em! (Little Shop of Horrors, The Raven). It's a pleasant mixture of comedy, war and Sci-Fi, but comedy definitely gets the overhand. Four surviving members of a platoon in WWII are stuck behind German enemy lines and they discover a crashed space ship. They rescue the funny looking alien from Nazi-experiments and continue their battle along with the invaders. The script is filled with hilarious sequences and one-liners. The absolute highlight is Art LaFleur hitting Hitler himself in the face after nearly being recovered from a beating he took himself!! Furthermore, the make-up and visual effects are really cheesy and silly but that only makes the whole thing even funnier. The aliens (their origin is never revealed, but they're considered to be Martians) look like an inferior breeding of Ewoks and they make adorable yummy-noises. Zone Troopers surely gets my recommendation if you're looking for 90 minutes of pure, brainless fun. It's a nice (and even necessary change) from all those so-called Sci-Fi classics that take themselves way too serious anyway.