Special Forces (2003)

What makes it different from others?

Waste of time

Boring

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I spent my teen years watching Troma films and other crap horror. Actually the only reason I looked it up on IMDb after seeing it on a bus ride is because I seriously wondered if it was made by the US military, the patriotism was so over-the top. I mean, come on. These guys shoot one bad guy in the shoulder and he dies, but they are like superhuman tanks that keep running while getting gunned down, including shot in the head. What's even funnier is reading the reviews and seeing all of the Americans praising it as a great movie with realistic action scenes, and only the Lithuanians, Estonians, etc are the ones who notice how unbelievably biased it is. Like we Americans are so convinced of our natural superiority we don't even notice. My next suspicion, after US military propaganda film was that it was adapted from a video game, nothing else could explain the cartoonishness of the villains. But I was wrong there, too. To think that this is the best form some series, I can't even imagine what the worst looks like. I might look it up for a laugh.

Far and away the best of the American Heroes series. If the other films only followed this one's lead, the series as a whole would be a lot better. But luckily for Special Forces, it stands alone as the clear winner.Jess (Abell), Bear (Clark), Wyatt (Mittleider), and Reyes (T.J. Rotolo) are an elite counter-terrorism team. They are under the command of Major Don Harding (Teague). When megalomaniacal dictator Rafendek (Danker) kidnaps and imprisons American journalist Wendy Teller (Deutscher) in exchange for some of his "freedom fighters" to be released from Guantanamo Bay, the Special Forces are sent into the eastern European town of Muldonia to rescue her, and take down Rafendek and his men. Rafendek is the type of guy who massacres his own people for fun, and Wendy caught it all on film. He's also a Bosnian refugee that has a history with Maj. Harding. Not to mention the corrupt government officials in his back pocket. With the help of a British martial arts expert with motives of his own, Talbot, (Adkins) will they be able to take down this evil warlord gone rogue and save the girl - or will Harding relive his previous Bosnia experience all over again? Special Forces is much more watchable than the others in the series, even enjoyable! The plot is clearer, the camera-work is actually interesting, and there are hand-to-hand martial arts fights that really work, thanks to Scott Adkins, a likable presence who clearly could be the next Gary Daniels. The movie really stands on its own from the series, thanks to the capable direction of Isaac Florentine. We actually know who the Special Forces are, thanks to the very simple but tide-turning idea of showing their names on the screen when we first meet them. It may seem obvious, but it makes ALL the difference. Now we know who they are, as opposed to the mess of the other American Heroes films.The movie starts with more murders than ten movies of its kind put together, and the plot basically is these few Special Forces versus an entire army of bad guys. So needless to say there are countless deaths during the progress of the movie, and plenty of guns going "pew pew!", and the necessary guard tower falls and blow-ups, but you care more this time around. Especially with the revenge subplot involving Harding and Refendek. And with the addition of Scott Adkins, we get some well-staged hand-to-hand combat, not just mindless shooting. The final fight with Rafendek's beret-ed henchman is certainly a standout.We also get some classic catchphrases such as "Smoking will kill ya!", and some more tastefully done patriotism this time around. There's also some good atmosphere, and everything is just more competent here than in the other films. It should have been released during the golden video store era of the 80's/early 90's, instead of being lumped with the other "American Heroes" movies.If you watch one from the American Heroes series, make sure it's Special Forces.

One of the first things i have to say - this movie is just awful, horrible acting combined with terrible script. all the shooting scenes are as unrealistic as it can get. the bad guys cant hit the good guys even at the distance of 10 meters. bad guys holding their AK assault rifles always storm towards the good guys waiting to be shot and killed. WHY Aren't THEY SHOOTING? maybe this is because many of the bad guys have wooden weapons. yes, they have wooden Kalashnikov, the parts that are supposed to be made form metal are just painted black. another scene - the good guys driving with minivan and they get shot at by dozens of bad guys with kalashnikovs - NONE, not a single one of the high powered assault riffle bullets manages to penetrate thin sheet metal of the minivan. and it gets even worse. one of the good guys is shot in the head, somewhere near his left ear and HE DOESN'T DIE!! in fact he continues to drive on with a minivan and do several drivebys to closing enemy soldiers and kill dozens of them before he is finally taken down by enemy bullets. some of the special effects are made by using BAD computer graphics, like the rescue helicopter that is shot down by anti aircraft missile... when the final rescue helicopter(computer animated blackhawk) comes and rescues few good guys who managed to survive, THERE ARE NO PILOTS FLYING IT when it rises up after rescuing good guys. enemy soldiers have no intelligence whatsoever, even a bunch of stone age warriors with wooden clubs would have no troubles of defeating the demented soldiers armed with Kalashnikov in that movie. i feel sorry for everybody who have wasted their time watching this movie. it wouldn't be as bad if it would be a comedy, but it is really terrifying that the authors of this movie were thinking they are doing a serious and realistic(what a laugh) war movie. it is really harder the get even worse.

The only reason i've watched this badly filmed, cheap military action, is that another IMDB member said that there is "an unusual amount of detail & competence" in this movie. Neither detail, neither competence however can be found in it! There's total lack of realism, behaviour of the special force squad is against all army regulations and common sense! Weapon handling is comic, and ballistics are absolutely fake. This is an brilliant example of cheap millitary style movie! The only thing that deserves attention is the brilliant martial arts performance by Scott Adkins /SAS agent Talbot in the movie/. This guy is something serious! Overall, one of the worst military movies in terms of filming, scenario and realism i've ever seen.