Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold (1990)

Directed by Aaron Norris. Starring Chuck Norris, John P. Ryan, Billy Drago, Paul Perri, Richard Jaeckel, Mateo Gómez, Begoña Plaza, Mark Margolis. [R]

Col. McCoy (Norris) heads into a fictional Latin American country to rescue DEA agent hostages and ravage the cocaine operations of kingpin Drago. The rest of the titular team are largely sidelined until the last twenty minutes; this is purely Chuck’s show, and he does pretty much what one would expect. Ryan goes amusingly over-the-top as a hellbent US general and angular Drago is slimy and ruthless, but their efforts are wasted in this standard-issue macho action programmer. The occasional good stunt and requisite high number of explosions and gunfire can’t camouflage the bargain-basement scripting for this low-energy rip-off of Missing in Action and the middle Rambo flicks. It’s a sequel to a crummy movie, it was directed by Chuck’s brother, and Yoram Globus is listed as a producer; does anything else need to be said? Also known as Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection.

24/100