Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Hal Needham
Starring: Barry Bostwick, Michael Beck, Persis Khambatta, Edward Mulhare, Henry Silva
From: Golden Harvest
The one time I saw a movie because of... an iPhone commercial? 'tis true. Last night I saw an ad for the iPhone 13 which shows a young adult male driving around on a scooter, and his new device is withstanding a lot of punishment. At the very end, with no explanation his scooter starts lifting off the ground, about to fly in the air. Yeah, it is a reference to E.T., yet because I am me the first thing I thought of: the awesomely bad ending to Megaforce! My reaction to the commercial's conclusion was akin to Henry Silva seeing Barry Bostwick (who at least sported a marvelous look) fly through the air on a “rocket-powered motorcycle”, brought to life by effects that have aged real poorly.
The movie as a whole: decidedly not good. It's just so incredibly juvenile and stump-dumb. The titular Megafoce is supposed to be a elite group tasked with stopping powerful entities that governments don't want to touch for a variety of reasons... yet they are all immature goofballs, including Michael Beck as “Tex”, sporting a bad exaggerated Texan drawl & wearing a great Skol t-shirt. The storytelling: quite bad. It's a lot of nonsense-ostensibly it's about the team stopping a general played by Silva from invading a foreign country-incomprehensible moments & dull bits broken up by explosions and wackiness, although it really only comes alive in the finale.
It is not so bad it's a laugh riot like a Samurai Cop, yet it is not something I'll give a bottom of the barrel rating to. Among other things, this isn't the worst Hal Needham movie I've seen... that designation belongs to the second Cannonball Run film. The action does help, along with a goofy electronic score. Silva as the lead heel is always a treat for me. For those that rate diversity high, this does have a number of nationalities present. And Lord, what clothing.
Furthermore, the title song-from the group 707 and as heard in the end credits-is not only a real banger, it's an earworm. Megaforce was never seen by me as a kid so no nostalgia is present (it has to be brought up as I've seen plenty of people online note they do have positive if faded memories of this); if you hadn't viewed this since a kid and you look upon this fondly, it may be best if you DON'T revisit your childhood. Then again, as a child you might not have noticed in the silhouette scene some what had to be purposeful “suggestive hand placement” from Bostwick while he's chatting w/ Persis Khambatta...
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