Invasion USA (1985) * * *


Cast:Chuck Norris, Richard Lynch, Melissa Prophet, Alex Colon

Directed by Joseph Zito

“America wasn’t ready…but he was!” said the tagline to one of the most outrageous and completely ridiculous bodycount-actioners ever made. Invasion USA breaks away from Norris’ usual martial arts swagger in favor of one man army antics and the result is in parts hilarious and entertaining. Invasion USA is actually a lot more fun as a time capsule than you might expect, for instance this was laughable in the 80s but now it’s just evolved into classic bodycount camp. The big thing is that the movie is pretty much the Chuck Norris Facts:The Movie, we witness Norris drive cars through malls and shoot his uzis at anonymous militia mercenaries (it’s not even really the Russians, though the leader is a Russian) led by grim faced America value hating Richard Lynch. What makes Invasion USA so enjoyably bad is the set up scenes as when the mercenaries blow up the suburbs on Christmas day, they try to blow up a school bus with kids only to have Norris (completely un-phased, may I add) take the bomb off the boss and then nonchalantly put it on the terrorist’s car quipping “Did you lose this” Invasion USA also opens with the slaughter of Cuban immigrants in what would be at home as a parody of border patrol in some futuristic movie. However Invasion USA is technically well made. The production values are slick, the action sequences are exciting and often well put together and the whole movie is paced pretty well. Joseph Zito then films such action at a brisk pace and the final showdown with the National Guard which leads to a the duel with bazookas (Of course) make this one of the most entertaining flicks from Norris’ catalog. Indeed, it feels like a PM movie made in the Reagan era because everything blows up real good. A guilty pleasure then perhaps but there is something that feels so bad it feels good.