Rating: 
Summary: Blurring the line between good and bad
Review: "Invasion USA" should be a definite guilty pleasure for anyone who thinks it's possible for a movie to be so bad it's good. It's just plausible enough that it COULD happen, but more than ridiculous enough to provide ample laughs along with the action typical of Chuck Norris movies. The plot, to the extent that one exists, concerns an evil Russian agent named Rostov (you know he's bad because he has a very swarthy complexion), who leads a small army in an invasion of Florida. Rostov is one vicious guy: in a memorable early scene, he buys arms from a guy, then shoots him in the crotch and throws a coke whore out the window before departing. Later on, he and some cronies drive down a residential street randomly bazookaing houses. Rostov's fiendish plot is to sow unrest among the people, turning them against each other in order to create disorder. He and his men are always one step ahead of law enforcement, so who can stop Rostov and insure the continued triumph of truth, justice, and the American way? Why, ex-superagent Matt Hunter, that's who. After he survives Rostov's attempt to kill him, Hunter springs into action. In the streets, in the alleys, and even in the mall, Hunter is a one-man wrecking crew, plowing through bad guys to get to Rostov. He foils numerous terrorist plots, leading up to the all-hell-breaks-loose firefight of the conclusion. If all this sounds pretty ridiculous, it's because it is. Early on, Rostov talks a bit about how America's open society leaves its citizens vulnerable to terrorist activity, but the movie quickly abandons any philosophical inclinations for the standard '80's action fare. Still, if you're a fan of Norris movies, or the bad action genre in general, "Invasion USA" is a worthy view. It actually manages to be one of Norris's better movies, although such a compliment is surely damning it with faint praise.
Rating: 
Summary: 'Invasion' Norris!
Review: "When you open your eyes, I'll be there and it'll be time to die," said Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) on national television to a bad Russian dude. "Invasion U.S.A." is a startling revelation to lordage. Chuck Norris is definitely a divine person and takes out the garbage without a problem. Stinky mess. People blow up his house for no reason, so he goes on a rampage after the men who did it. Bad guys destroy random houses in a neighborhood and try to take down a mall. Oh no, that doesn't fly, Chuckage drives his pickup through the mall crashing through store windows and takes no prisoners. So much destruction and mayhem to entertain me, yes. I enjoyed this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: An Utterly Ridiculous Yet Fun Actioneer
Review: Ah the '80's. Reagen, over-indulgence, superficiality, and of course, the seminal genre that we now know as 1980's action movies. Invasion U.S.A. is everything that an 80's action movie should be: action packed (no matter how ridiculous and moronic the plot lines are), extremely right-wing, and of course, having stone-faced macho men declare war on the entire world. This film lacks in every aspect of a "good" movie (realistic action scenes, drama, good acting, interesting and or thought provoking), yet manages to suceed magnificently on the entertainment scale. One of my favorite scenes in the film are when Chuck Norris takes on the Russian dude in a man to man close combat rocket launcher scene! Also, I must say I was quite intrigued as to how Chuck Norris's ridiculously big truck managed to remain un-scathed through all of the gun battles that occur in this movie. All in all, Invasion U.S.A. is the perfect movie for a night with a couple of buddies. Don't expect that much, and you'll enjoy this mindless 80's action flick.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Bad Movie
Review: Ah, days gone by. The days of Cannon films, mindless, loud, ultraviolent, ridiculous 80s action films. A previous reviewer gave an impressive account of Cannon and the Golan/Globus production duo that gave us classics like Death Wish 3 and Cobra. Invasion U.S.A. is a great bad movie, period. Chuck Norris, normally an awful actor, looks to be trying really hard not to act at all. Matter of fact, Chuck looks plain creepy, his face completely blank and emotionless. He plays an ex 'government agent'. Turns out there's a planned nighttime invasion of America being cooked up by an evil Russian general, an old nemesis of Norris. There's also some Cubans, and even Arabs from some unnamed country. They invade America one evening, killing Americans easily because we're weak, etc, etc, and they even roll into town to blow up a few suburban family homes with rocket launchers. Chuck Norris is the only one in America with any real idea of what's going on, so he wearily puts on his twin Uzi straps and sets out to kill the invaders. It's a typical 80s, updated cowboys and Indians flick, dripping with cynicism. Invasion U.S.A. also adheres to an ironclad Golan/Globus rule: the badder the criminal, the worse he has to suffer before dying horribly. This movie would have scared young children in 1985 into thinking Russia would actually invade and we would be bazookaed in our own homes. But now it reveals itself to be a true masterpiece, a moment of cinema from a bygone era when exploitation, paranoia, fear, violence, and profit were running amok. The director is Joseph Zito, so you're in good bad genre hands, he having directed The Prowler and Friday the 13th The Final Chapter before. The film makes no sense at all. Like Death Wish 3, for instance, the film deserves a lot of credit for so completely disregarding anything of quality, save for the bullet-riddled violence. Plot, acting, direction, plausibility are all jettisoned in favor of pure gratification of hidden right-wing fantasies. If you long for the 80s, love bad movies, love Chuck Norris, love Golan/Globus, love moronic guy movies, this is highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Bad Movie
Review: Ah, days gone by. The days of Cannon films, mindless, loud, ultraviolent, ridiculous 80s action films. A previous reviewer gave an impressive account of Cannon and the Golan/Globus production duo that gave us classics like Death Wish 3 and Cobra. Invasion U.S.A. is a great bad movie, period. Chuck Norris, normally an awful actor, looks to be trying really hard not to act at all. Matter of fact, Chuck looks plain creepy, his face completely blank and emotionless. He plays an ex 'government agent'. Turns out there's a planned nighttime invasion of America being cooked up by an evil Russian general, an old nemesis of Norris. There's also some Cubans, and even Arabs from some unnamed country. They invade America one evening, killing Americans easily because we're weak, etc, etc, and they even roll into town to blow up a few suburban family homes with rocket launchers. Chuck Norris is the only one in America with any real idea of what's going on, so he wearily puts on his twin Uzi straps and sets out to kill the invaders. It's a typical 80s, updated cowboys and Indians flick, dripping with cynicism. Invasion U.S.A. also adheres to an ironclad Golan/Globus rule: the badder the criminal, the worse he has to suffer before dying horribly. This movie would have scared young children in 1985 into thinking Russia would actually invade and we would be bazookaed in our own homes. But now it reveals itself to be a true masterpiece, a moment of cinema from a bygone era when exploitation, paranoia, fear, violence, and profit were running amok. The director is Joseph Zito, so you're in good bad genre hands, he having directed The Prowler and Friday the 13th The Final Chapter before. The film makes no sense at all. Like Death Wish 3, for instance, the film deserves a lot of credit for so completely disregarding anything of quality, save for the bullet-riddled violence. Plot, acting, direction, plausibility are all jettisoned in favor of pure gratification of hidden right-wing fantasies. If you long for the 80s, love bad movies, love Chuck Norris, love Golan/Globus, love moronic guy movies, this is highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Sept . 14, 2001
Review: Amazing how truth sometimes imitates fiction, isn't it? We all thought it could never happen here. Wouldn't it be great if we could just rewind September 11 like a video tape and throw it away?
Rating:
Summary: The CANNON Group...oh, how I miss thee.
Review: Another tremendous, over-the-top, Chuck Norris epic from the good folks at Cannon. In my opinion, this one ranks as one of Chuck's best! If you enjoyed this one, you should check out it's sequel/prequel, "AVENGING FORCE". Not many know that this is a continuation of the character made famous in "INVASION U.S.A.". But, this time out, Michael Dudikoff plays Matt Hunter...and, there's hell to pay! This is also one of Michael's best. Another great Cannon production! I miss the salad days!
Rating:
Summary: The army of Chuck
Review: Anyone around in the 80's, when Nancy Regan told us to 'just say no', the US military was paying $900 for a hammer, and and Member's Only jackets were cool, will have most likely had the experience of seeing a Cannon film. For better or worse, the Golan/Globus group were quite prolific, and their movies tended to focus on visceral elements to satisfy the public, while other aspects like a credible plot, believable story, or realistic characters got swept under the rug, but hey, it worked pretty well and they made great gobs of money (I'd be happy with a single gob of money myself). This is the company responsible for such films as American Ninja and it's sequels, Sylvester Stallone classics as Over the Top (it's Rocky, but instead of boxing, it's arm wrestling...where's Joel and the 'bots when you need them?) and Cobra, Superman and it's sequels, Deathwish 2 thru 5, Missing in Action movies, Delta Force, and Invasion U.S.A, to name a few. During the 80's, the Cannon EZ Bake movie machine churned out up to 15 movies per year up until it's bankruptcy in 1990. One thing for certain, if it was a Cannon movie, you were pretty sure to get big guns, car chases, people getting shot, people getting blowed up real good, and lots of explosions, and Invasion U.S.A certainly doesn't disappoint. The antagonistic roles in these movies often was decided by how the political winds blew at the time. Be it the Russians or the Arabs or whoever angered us, you could be sure they would show up as an evil force in a Cannon movie bent on destroying the Amaerican way of life. Things you weren't guaranteed to get were cohesive plots, character development, continuity, and credibility. These were testosterone fueled, shoot-em up explosion orgies intended to entertain without requiring a lot of thought. Invasion U.S.A. features Cannon perennial Chuck Norris as Matt Hunter. Matt is an ex-operative of some government agency, we're never told which one, so I'll guess it's the CIA. He lives in the middle of a swamp, I'm assuming Florida, as much of the action in the movie takes place in Miami. Why he'd want to live in the middle of a swamp by himself I don't know, but maybe it has something to do with his past work with the CIA and just wanting to leave it all behind. Soon we are introduced to our lead bad guy, Mikhail Rostov, played by Richard Lynch. You may not recognize the name, but you'd most likely recognize the face. He's had quite a career in movies and TV, generally always playing a bad guy, due to his somewhat sinister look. Eventually we learn he's planning an invasion of the USA and a small army of armed men hit the beach. Their plans involve dressing up like authority figures, attacking civilians, and causing civil unrest. Apparently, Rostov and Hunter have a past history, as Rostov wants to eliminate Hunter. Once it's discovered that Rostov is in the US, the agency tries to get the now retired Hunter back into action, but he declines, as he says they should have let him kill Rostov when he had the chance, and it's now their problem, not his. Rostov, still bearing a super sized grudge, finds Hunter's place in the swamp and blows it up real good, but doesn't manage to kill Hunter. Along with his house, they also killed his friend, and now Hunter decides to take on the mission. Naturally the agency says that if he is caught, they will have to disavow any knowledge of Hunter. By now, I am starting to wish I could disavow any knowledge of this movie.... We get various scenes of the bad guys blowing stuff up, killing Americans here and there, and talking about how weak we are, how easy it is to kill us. One scene in particular is when they pull up into a suburb and start blowing up houses. Rostov shoots like six houses with a bazooka, and it must have been one of those spiffy auto-loading kind as I never saw him reload once. I always thought bazookas were one shot deals, and needed to be reloaded after each use, but what do I know? Anyway, Hunter mixes it up with terrorists he finds, dispatching them usually with twin uzis strapped to his chest. He takes out large numbers of terrorists with much ease. This all leads up to a final confrontation, where a trap is set for the terrorist army, and the fall for it. The terrorists end up fighting the army in a fairly large battle, while Hunter and Rostov square off and guess who comes out a live in the end? Rostov is dispatched in a typically spectacular fashion, as is par for these kinds of movies, and the day is saved. Oh yeah, I alomst forgot, there is a side story involving a female reporter, but that goes nowhere, so it's not really worth mentioning. Given what this movie was, there a couple of things that kind of annoyed me. One was the attempt to present it as somewhat patriotic. This was a common theme at the time this movie came out, but looking at it now, it seems so transparent. And Chuck Norris really didn't get to use his martial arts skills in this movie. He hit and kicked a couple of people, but why cast a martial arts expert in an action movie if you aren't going to allow him to use his skills? Seems like such a waste. Even at the end, when he's fighting Rostov hand to hand, they could have incorporated some into that, but they blew it. Oh well....If you want a no brainer actioneer with lots of guns and explosions and little or not plot, then this movie is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious Trash
Review: Back in the 1980s, when I was influenced by all the anti-Communist propaganda of the time, I found this movie to be worth watching. I hated the terrorists for killing innocent people, and I loved it when Chuck meted out justice his way. Now that the Cold War is over, the anti-Communist theme has become dated and absurd. I still watch the movie if nothing else is available, but am now better able to analyze it in a more enlightened way. The story is ludicrous. I found the mall battle hilarious, because one terrorist is going put-put with his submachine gun after Chuck crashes the party with his pickup and goes on to ram another terrorist (the special effects of this scene weren't even good, as one could clearly see a dummy being rammed). The movie obviously displays a fiercely pro-U.S.A. message, although I don't see how two unescorted landing craft full of terrorists being able to land on Florida's beaches could be anything but an insult to the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The scene of the terrorist commandeering and shooting up an empty office building was probably the stupidest scene of the movie. What was the motive behind this? And it wasn't hard to notice that all of the terrorists downstairs having it out with the National Guard (in a shootout that was largely one-sided) were dark-skinned, while the terrorist boss and his crew who landed by helicopter were all light-skinned. Coincidence, or something more profound? In the wake of 09/11, more Americans will pop a title like this back into their VCRs and be inspired by what they want the War on Terrorism to be like. That shows us how little some of us continue to try to separate fantasy from reality.
Rating:
Summary: "Invasion U.S.A."
Review: Chuck Norris battles terrorists who have invaded the United States, led by one of his old arch-enemies.
This dumb headed film is one of the worst things to come out of the 1980's, full of stupid ideas and bad acting. A real embarrassment for all involved, it did nothing more than employ scores of stunt persons and special effects technicians.
(R)- Very strong physical violence, very strong gun violence, gore, profanity, female nudity, some sexual references, drug abuse, adult situations
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