#Invasion USA

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Before the Christmas move we all love near and dear to our hearts was mad in 1988.

Before Mel Gibson's best Christmas movie in 1987.

There was the first, best Christmas Action movie of my life, staring Chuck Norris.

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Invasion U.S.A. French poster (Joseph Zito, 1985)

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Invasion U.S.A. will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on July 30 via Vinegar Syndrome. Produced by Cannon Films, the 1985 action movie features reversible artwork.

Chuck Norris stars and co-wrote the script with James Bruner (The Delta Force). Joseph Zito (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) directs. Richard Lynch, Melissa Prophet, and Billy Drago co-star.

Invasion U.S.A. has been newly restored in 4K from the 35mm original camera negative with HDR. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by director Joseph Zito

Audio commentary by The Cannon Film Guide author Austin Trunick

Audio commentary by director Joseph Zito, moderated by film historian Michael Felsher

Interview with director Joseph Zito

Interview with screenwriter James Bruner

Interview with editor Dan Loewenthal

Interview with composer Jay Chattaway

Interview with actress Melissa Prophet

Interview with actor James Pax

Archival interview with screenwriter James Bruner

Cannon Carnage - Featurette on the film's make-up effects

Original trailer

Matt Hunter thought he had put his fighting days behind him when he retired from the C.I.A., preferring to live in the serene solitude of the Florida Everglades. But when notorious Soviet terrorist Mikhail Rostov decides to exact revenge against Matt, this one-man-army has no choice but to dust off his martial arts skills and face off, Uzis in hand, against his deadliest enemy. However, as Matt tries to remain one step ahead, the insidiously evil Rostov begins deploying bands of guerrilla fighters across the state to terrorize innocent civilians and force Matt out into the open and compel him to face off for one final, bloody showdown.

Pre-order Invasion U.S.A.

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On January 8, 1986, Invasion USA debuted in France.

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That other holiday action movie

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1000 Years from Now (Captive Women, 1952) & Invasion, U.S.A. (1952) - Double Feature, R-1956

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Invasion U.S.A. (1985) // Dir. Joseph Zito

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Invasion U.S.A. is a dumb, fun action film with plenty of explosions and Chuck Norris being the equivalent of a serious Bugs Bunny with the mayhem he brings to the table when the bad guys invade his turf.

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Movie Review | Invasion U.S.A. (Zito, 1985)

As someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas and finds a lot Christmas cheer a tad off-putting, you’d think I’d love a movie that depicts as close to a literal War on Christmas as you get in a mainstream motion picture. But having seen this a couple of times, I didn’t like it previously and still don’t like it. I think I have two fundamental problems with this movie.

One, I don’t inherently have a problem with graphic violence or high body counts, but I do struggle when this much of the violence is directed at unarmed civilians. Putting aside moral considerations, on a narrative level, there isn’t much tension when the people the violence is directed toward can’t or don’t fight back and the aggressors’ willingness to kill has already been established. It takes half the movie for the hero to show up and change the direction of the violence. This often gets grouped with Red Dawn in terms of paranoid right wing fantasies about America getting invaded, but putting aside all the attention John Milius devotes to things like characterization, performance, emotional stakes and tactical considerations, he wisely limits the scenes of violence targeted towards unarmed civilians.

Two, Chuck Norris can be charitably described as a Bressonian presence. His lack of charisma by itself is not a problem. Richard Lynch as the villain is also giving an understated performance. That by itself is also not a problem. The problem is that they’re both playing things super low key and nobody else is making up for the charisma gap. The good Chuck Norris movies don’t magically imbue him with a great deal of charisma (although I think he manages to have some in Lone Wolf McQuade and Code of Silence), but they do wisely put him next to charismatic actors. Here the movie largely isolates both the hero and the villain and limit their opportunities to act off the supporting cast, with a few exceptions. Norris chatting with his buddies and Lynch double-crossing the effortlessly sleazy Billy Drago are the only times anybody here has any charisma; the latter is the best scene in the movie. Or more accurately feels dropped in from a much more fun movie I’d rather be watching.

So with those two fatal flaws, I have a hard time getting much enjoyment out of this, especially when it’s paced nowhere near as frantically to work on the unhinged level of something like Death Wish 3. In part the movie is the victim of the relative craft involved; you’ll note the other movie is shoddier but the violence pops a lot more there as a result. I do think the blockiness of the direction occasionally yields interesting results, like the strange ritual of death quality of the scenes where Norris offs a few soldiers in an alley and the final cat-and-mouse showdown. And the nighttime cinematography by Joao Fernandes, which makes the black uniforms of the villains blend into the pitch black darkness and lets them emerge like spectral presences, is better than you’d expect from this kind of movie.

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Invasion USA (Joseph Zito, 1985)

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On December 10, 1952, Invasion USA debuted in the United States.

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Movie Releases for July 30, 2024

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