User reviews

A cheese fan's dream, with Chuck Norris on top form as a gun-toting hardman out to single-handedly stop the invasion of America by those pesky Russians. From start to finish, INVASION U.S.A. is one of Cannon's most outrageous and over-the-top action epics, featuring a plethora of outlandish action scenarios all achieved on what must have been a relatively low budget.

The movie features B-movie stalwart Richard Lynch as a deranged madman out for revenge on our bearded hero. Along the way, Lynch takes care of sleazy coke dealer Billy Drago and his coke-snorting prostitute in one of the most violently laughable set-pieces ever put on film. From then on in, it's Chuck versus the terrorists. Our hero proves fast with his mini machine guns and even faster with his one-liners, dispatching crim after crim in a series of spectacular showdowns. Highlights include the attempted bombing of a school bus and a massive shoot-out in a shopping mall (so good they copied it in Seagal's MARKED FOR DEATH).

Things end with a massive battle that provides a maximum number of explosions for your dollar – even if one scene of an exploding van is repeated three times, each from a different angle in an attempt to make it look like a different vehicle. Supporting characters are wisely kept out of the way, walls are demolished, the scenery-chewing hits an all-time high and Chuck doesn't even attempt characterisation (in fact, he barely even speaks). No, this was the same year that COMMANDO came out and automatic weaponry ruled the box office. It's an action fan's delight, proving far funnier than any mainstream comedy you can name.

There's a 20-minute stretch in 'Invasion U.S.A.' where Chuck Norris' Matt Hunter character keeps showing up out of the blue to thwart various Commie terror attacks that his character would have had no clue were about to take place. We all know the real Chuck Norris is omniscient, but who knew that his characters were as well? 'Invasion U.S.A.' is high on dead bodies, and low on logic and common sense, but it's a fairly well made film from the technical side, and seeing Norris operate at the peak of his hairy-chested machismo is always a treat.

Best Chuckism; "If you come back in here, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights you're gonna be beggin' for a left.".

Oh come on! This movie is hilarious!!

Chuck Norris is the funniest action hero since Charlie Sheen in "Hot Shots Part Deux"! Of course the plot (what there is of one) is completely ridiculous, and only exists to have an excuse to blow stuff up and for Chuck to beat people up. This only adds to the laughability! I highly recommend this to any person looking for the ultimate in exagerated action films. And those quotes! Classic!!

"If you come in here again, I'll hit you with so many rights..you'll beg for a left!"

Exciting, thrilling film depicting an one-man army who comes to the rescue of the United States when a terrorist attempts to overtake entire nation by means a violent full-fledged invasion carried out by the ¨Russian enemy¨. Entertaining and moving movie about an absurd conspiracy for invasion US that threatens American economic prosperity. The picture concerns upon a dangerous international terrorist group trying to destroy United States via some continued series of terrorist operations but CIA discovers the scheme and assigns the mission a retired agent. As Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) goes back in action against a fearful enemy spy (Richard Lynch) and his troops who invade Florida. It's a pulp movie of political war genre in which there are turmoil, repellent violence,suspense, intrigue, tension, action using tons of explosions and bombings; resulting to be quite bemusing. The history deals about a nasty Russian and his hoodlums causing destruction and panic, versus Norris and American patriots who fight strongly to vanquish them.

This is a routine actioner with Karate star Chuck Norris as retired CIA agent resulting go be one of the best roles he'd made to date, as he's nice as tough, cold, stubborn Matt Hunter. It's a predictable, shallow and brainless film though will appeal to Chuck Norris enthusiasts because of it contains some excellent action sequences. In spite of lack luster and budget is quite agreeable and entertaining. The plot is almost ridiculous and senseless but it's developed in fast moving and numerous surprises and for that reason is amusing. In the film there are some nasty, ominous villains well played by Richard Lynch and Billy Drago at a brief intervention. This paranoia-political-thriller movie has precedent in those films of the 50s and 60s in which take place fantastic invasion on America as ¨Sinister invasion or Invasion USA (1952)¨, that bears remarkable resemblance, by Alfred E Green and ¨Battle beneath the earth¨(1967) by Montomery Tully. The motion picture takes part of a genre which in the 80s attained splendor, thus: ¨Red Dawn¨( by John Milius with Patrick Swayze) and ¨Amerika¨ ( by Donald Wyre with Kris Kristofferson) where the communists -Russkies generally- execute invasion on America. Thrilling and pulsating musical score by Jay Chattaway and mediocre cinematography by cameraman Joao Fernandez. The motion picture is produced by Cannon films ( Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus ) and professionally directed by Joseph Zito, a craftsman expert on terror and action genre (Delta Force one: the lost patrol, Red Scorpion, Friday the 13th: the last chapter,The prowler and Missing in action, again with Norris ). The motion picture will appeal to Chuck Norris fans. Rating: Average but entertaining

A large group of international terrorists led by Soviet agent Rostove invade America unexpectedly and go on to turn country against each other. However after turning down the job, ex-government agent Matt Hunter takes up the assignment, when they kill his friend in an attack that was aimed at him. Rostove and Hunter share a past, and now Hunter wants to seem him dead and Rostove fearful obsession of Hunter could disrupt their plans of turning America against each other.

Who you kidding? No one can take down Chuck. Not even an army of international mercenaries! Gee this is gold medal stuff from Norris (whose name appears in bold gold letters to head the credits) and he even co-wrote the insane screenplay. Touchdown! Get ready for something so stupendously outrageous and wonderfully dumb that you'll get an all out assault on your senses and plenty "bang" for your buck. While your funny bone will get a real tickle out of it! Director Joseph Zito and actor (or better put karate champ) Chuck Norris tackle this preposterous, but always riveting anarchy macho action camp that the 80s loved to heave up. Plenty of gunfire assured and Norris showing off with those eye-opening moves (no not that bare chest sticking out of his always half/or unbuttoned shirt), but the main weapon of choice seemed to be anything that caused numerous explosions. Meaning a high and random casualty rate! Zito's bravura style never lets up, as the crunching stunt-work holds up strongly and the perverse violence towards innocence amazes. Joao Fernandes' professionally shoots the film with the right scope to capture the mayhem and Jay Chattaway's roaring score fits ruggedly into the mix.

A denim wearing Norris is looking comfortably stiff and expressionless throughout as former CIA agent Matt Hunter. The excellent Richard Lynch goes monstrously hammy as the mastermind villain Soviet agent Rostov and Alexander Zale sticks to a rather icy and relaxed mode as his right-hand. Showing up in smaller parts is a bored looking Eddie Jones, the feisty and useless irritation that was Melissa Prophet and Billy Drago as a greasy drug dealer. Now that armadillo was a star. I thought Norris was going to have a buddy to work off, but it seem to get the boot.

The hysterical premise is corn, laughable and downright punishing in its look at the heart of America and Reagan-era that turns the country upside down. It done with serious faces, which only makes it more stupid and plot holes are that large due to probably all of those explosions. Norris character must've been so gifted in that he was the everywhere man with his pick-up truck. How does he do it? How does he know? Because he was at the right place at the right time to prevent what he could… well 99% of the time. However nothing beats how he manages to disappear then reappear to stump those villains. They didn't know what hit them! The juvenile script on the other-hand did, but these carefree one-liners were ridiculously fun and Norris always had a way with words. The less the better.

Loud and senseless gung-ho gusto. With security like Norris, America should never fear an invasion on their doorstep.

One thing I will say about Invasion USA is that when the action gets going it doesn't let up. It's like watching an Indiana Jones movie that way.

The Russians have decided that the way to conqer Ajmerica is to spread naked terror. So several landing craft land one night in Florida and terrorists disembark. The idea is to spread chaos and mayhem with attacks on civilians in places that they congregate.

We however have Chuck Norris on our side, a mysterious agent who has some history with the terrorist Commie leader Richard Lynch. So whrever they strike in the Miami area, Norris is johnny on the spot and does them n at a prodigious rate.

Surprisingly for a Chuck Norris film little martial arts is used except in the end with his final confrontation with Lynch.

It's cinem paranoia at its finest. The best acting is done by Norris's pet armadillo.

A crazy terrorist named Rostov thinks that Americans don't value their freedom. Since they are in no danger of really losing it, Rostov decides to attack the USA with a bunch of mercenaries. He proceeds to demolish towns and instill terror. He then blows up Chuck Norris's house and frightens Chuck's pet baby armadillo. Big mistake, Rostov. BIG FRIGGIN' MISTAKE!

From the title you can only manage to expect an overblown macho action-fest and that is precisely what this is. Schwarzenegger had 'Commando' also in 1985 and Stallone came out with a similar vehicle in 'Cobra' the next year. The idea of one guy taking out hordes of bad guys with his trusty weapon of choice - a pair of uzis with unlimited ammo in this case - is here much like in the aforementioned films.

Interesting is the not-so-subtle presentation of uber-patriotism. Chuck Norris wears all blue, drives American cars, lives in the American wetlands of Florida and so on. While the badguys speak with their ridiculous foreign accents, use much different and presumably foreign weapons and even drive non-American cars even if they acquire them in America. Was this intentional? Well that doesn't matter actually, because it is played out to no effect.

What does matter is the film's absurdity. The film begins with a laughably goofy set-up for a political thriller and ends up being a series of loosely connected action scenes with Chuck making his heroic appearance and taking out the badguys with the very bomb they intended to plant. One scene where Chuck saves a school bus will literally have you laughing on the floor for how stupid it is. If you think you have seen "so bad it's funny" then see this film - it is so bad it's... um... very funny!

The only real highlights (things that are actually good for real) are Richard Lynch's turn as the villain. It is a delightfully stereotypical villain role, but it was sadly underused. Ah-nuld's 'Commando' made much better use of it's goofy villains, premise, and overall feel making it an equally stupid, but much more satisfying film in the end. The other thing is the premise at hand here - an attack on America. Uber-patriotic crap aside, that could make for a good and interesting thriller. What the film makers here didn't realize that that idea (as with any worthy thriller) is going to take more than 5 minutes to develop into a screenplay.

Also of note would have to be the film's gun-play. In most action movies people don't aim when shooting, but they at least try to look it and essentially most decent action films get away with that. Here, not only do people don't aim, they don't even look like their trying. There is actually a scene where the badguys storm into a building (that's empty) and just shoot everything. Maybe they thought they were in the AOL customer service office. Damn. 3/10

Rated R: violence and profanity

...the Israel-based film company responsible for roughly 50% of all the B-movies made in the mid-80's. And that's a crying shame. This one is a doozy, even by their standards, and in some ways could be said to be the quintessential 80's action film: it's violent, features a lot of excessive explosions, is moronically jingoistic, and features drug-dealing Communist terrorists as the bad guys. Chuck Norris stars as a former Special Ops agent who has retired to the bayou, where he drives an airboat and captures gators with his Native American buddy. Chuck's introductory scene, at the controls of his airboat, shirtless and wearing a denim vest as his mullet flaps in the wind, tells you all you need to know about his character.

Richard Lynch co-stars as the villainous ex-Soviet agent Rostov, who has amassed a small army with plans to take over America. Their vicious assault on the typical American suburban neighborhood (during Christmastime, no less!) will set your patriotic blood boiling. It's up to Chuck, his jacked-up pickup truck, and his tiny machine guns, to save the day. Also featuring Melissa Prophet as a tepid love interest, but this movie doesn't really care about that kind of mushy stuff, so she's barely there. Slimy movie bad guy Billy Drago shares a scene with lead baddie Lynch, and it becomes a real sleaze-off as to who is the creepiest. Directed by Joseph Zito, and Chuck worked on the screenplay. At one point, Chuck takes time out to watch Earth vs the Flying Saucers on TV. Even during a Communist invasion, you have to take time for the good things in life.

Chuck Norris in the role of ex-CIA bad-ass Matt Hunter, clearly a man not to be messed with. He is a one-man army who comes to the rescue of the United States when a spy attempts an invasion. Is INVASION U.S.A. a good movie? Well, it's okay, Chuck Norris doesn't do much in the way of martial arts and is off screen way too often, and the supporting cast is pretty weak (the two Cannon character actors I was all psyched to see, Billy Drago and James Pax, get about a combined 2 minutes of screen time).

But– before you go throwing yourselves off of balconies– this is still a Norris/Cannon picture, and as such there are a handful of things that should tickle your fancy in this movie. In short, Invasion U.S.A. is a film about kicking several different types of ass,as the need arises.

But one things for sure is that Chuck is clearly doing a lot of the stuff in the film himself.. Not just the stunts, either. He actually wrestles a crocodile. Yes it's hogtied, but I doubt Stallone or Van Damme would ever mess with it. He's also clearly at ease handling an air boat, along with multiple other weapons and vehicles.

The only problem i have with this movie is that there is hardly any martial arts in it. But apart from that this movie has a crazy amount of action, including the destruction of an entire suburban street,so if you are in the mood for a mindless, action packed movie, Invasion USA starring Chuck Norris is the movie you want to see. It is actually a typical 80's Action Movie with lots of stuff blowing up with little conversation....what more do you want?

After watching lots of disappointments starring Chuck Norris ( "Breaker Breaker" and "Hero and the Terror", to name a few), this came to me as a surprise. The plot is of course totally ridiculous (terrorists trying to invade America in 1988!), but that didn't matter. That is just a signal to the viewers: Leave your brains outside the room before entering and watching this movie. The movie has several really good action scenes, and Chuck Norris is just so superior and so bad-a** compared to the terrorists that it's really entertaining. A fun movie for at Saturday evening with your friends.

My verdict here is 6 out of 10.

When an old rival and commie scum, Mikhail Rostov, plans to invade the USA, and create chaos, he makes the supreme misstep of killing Chuck Norris's Indian friend. Now it's time for Mikhail to die. This is a perfectly watchable, highly quotable Chuck Norris film. It takes a little while to get going, but once it does and good old Chuck is kicking all kinds of commie ass the film really comes into it's own. "Red Dawn" is definitely the better commie ass kicking film hands down, but this movie is nothing to sneeze at either. The film could have lost the girl reporter though as she did absolutely nothing in affect to the plot in any single way.

My grade: B

People complain about Kevin Costner making self-indulgent films, but Chuck Norris has hit an all time low portraying himself as the ultimate bad-ass one-man army. The story is convincing enough, but the direction is one-sided and the stunts are too staged. The only real excitement is the shootout in the shopping mall. But if you're a Chuck Norris fan and are looking for an action film geared specifically for his talents, this movie is for you!

Chuck Norris stars as Matt Hunter (Persumably no relation to Michael Dudikoff's character in Avenging Force) a one man army who single handedly protects the US of A from Russian terrorists looking to take over our country for mostly obscure reasons. Invasion USA is the perfect bad movie, some movies are dull and stupid (Tango and Cash) some are hilariously misguided (Gymkata) and some are made just to provide fireballs and provide a right wing message so overwrought that it could only be made in the Reagan era. (Like this one) Invasion USA works as campy entertainment due to the whitebread normality that predates the movie's terrorism. Indeed one scene in particular has our main bad guy Rostov(Richard Lynch) sneer "They make it so easy, don't they?!" after watching a family put up the Christmas tree. This of course adds a level of pretentious goofiness which make the results quite fun to say the least. Now in terms of quality is what makes this a one star or three star film, as much as I hate to admit it, Invasion USA is made professionally well and the action sequences are well staged. Making this the perfect stupid 80's action flick. Also of note is in theaters everyone burst out in laughs during a gun fight which had an entire baseball team hit the floor when the shots were fired. If anything else, this is what Red Dawn should have been.

* * * out of 4-(Good)

In 1985, when this film was out, it was a rocking thriller that any of Norris' fans would have given their thumbs to see.

It has NOT aged well.

The plot itself, about communists invading America, was a little far-fetched even for then. A good "what if" scenario at the most.

But when Chuck cuts loose, watch out.

A series of action scenes that make ol' Chuck out to be nothing less than a superhero. The bomb on the bus. The bomb in church. The truck chase. The supermarket shoot-out. The man had ESP and ice in his veins. As great as these scenes may have looked, reality was non-existent.

When Rostov firebombs the homes on Christmas eve however, it was sad to see. Seeing the little girl crying in her front yard while her home and family burn down will NOT be easy to see. Showing kids playing in the street and people getting Christmas shopping out of their cars before the carnage brought it home. This was the "This Rostov guy is SCUM" scene. Made you hate him even more.

Kudos to Richard Lynch. He does make a great villain.

Commies invade Florida led by ol' coke nose himself, Richard Lynch. Little do the Reds know, bearded former CIA agent Chuck Norris is here to defend the USA! Norris punches, kicks, shoots, and explodes his way through the enemy forces. He singlehandedly wards off an invasion of the United States. If that doesn't redefine badass, I don't know what does. Many classic scenes and lines. Loaded with testosterone. Super violent in the best Cannon tradition. Norris is excellent in what might be my favorite movie of his. Richard Lynch is a pretty scary individual that I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Billy Drago has a memorable scene. I don't think it's a huge spoiler to say he dies but HOW he dies you will have to watch to find out. You won't see it coming, trust me. Essential viewing for fans of Norris, Cannon, and action movie buffs.