You guys all dodged a major bullet by not watching MEGAFORCE. I honestly can't recall a worse movie; it was equal parts achingly dull and plain stupid.
It is obviously a big loud "boy's cartoon" with all the armored dirtbikes, armored six-wheel jeep things, armored airplanes, and armored armor, but boy's cartoons can still work, if you care to tell a decent story with a beginning, middle and end and also populate that story with interesting characters. Megaforce populated itself with accents-in-lieu-of-characters: Michael Beck (The Warriors), the number two guy on the call sheet, was the loudly accented "Dallas" a cowboy soldier; Edward Mulhare (Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Knight Rider) was the strangely British-accented general from the "Republic of Sardun" (which I guess is south of Ireland and east of Philly), Persis Khambatta (who should have been a Bond girl) was the exotically accented Major Zara, Henry Silva was also a thickly cowboy-accented Duke Guerera, and this not-even-close-to-grand ensemble was led by the non-accented Commander Ace "Call me Hunter" Hunter who acted more like a frat boy meets Valley Girl than the capable leader of a military assault unit.
I honestly don't recall what the plot was because I was beside myself when at the 45 minute mark NOTHING had happened in the movie other than they filmed in the desert because the Megaforce HQ was in the desert and then after a long while they flew to the other side of the world to fight...in the desert.
I remember lots and lots of dust from all the vehicles and dirt bikes rolling around in the desert and then lots of explosions, some in the sky and other on the ground causing more dust, lots and lots of it, to be kicked up. I think this movie was retitled in Japan as "Dust And Explosions Movie Caused By Excitable Man Wearing Fashionable Headband."
Zoran Perisic, he of the Superman: The Movie Zoptic photography process, got a big credit in the opening scenes for the now-as well as then-obvious screen-effects process shots which got big laughs for being so obvious (in the 1978 Superman, they were and are charming).
Looking at it now, I don't know why kids would like this movie, as that was their target audience. The "action" was simplistic: lots of dirt bikes and a few neat looking six-wheel vehicles tearing up the desert and battling enemy tanks with rockets. Nothing was well-staged or photographed in a fun or unique manner, and all the Megavehicles had a sameness about them (unlike the GI Joe toyline which came out around the same timeframe and was all about variety in characters and vehicles). Aside from Persis being a very attractive woman, none of the characters were fun or memorable - compare the ensemble of Aliens to the group from The Abyss - which one do audiences remember better? Megaforce's group of actors was even more dull than the team in Abyss.
This movie was a giant turkey and it needed to be treated as such. Was Barry Bostwick high on substances while making this movie is the only question I want answered. Lastly, Albert S. Ruddy was the producer of Megaforce. He also produced The Godfather (if you have not seen The Offer on Paramount+ about Ruddy making Godfather you MUST watch it) and before that co-created Hogan's Heroes. Ruddy had such a weird career in Hollywood. He also produced Cannonball Run 1 and 2, the western Bad Girls (with the amazing Jerry Goldsmith score), and Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.
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