Plantiana
Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
SparkMore
n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Celia
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
disdressed12
to me,this was just a standard run of the mill military actioner.i didn't think it brought anything new to the genre.it wasn't very exciting.even the final gun battle at the end of the movie was ho hum.this thing is also very predictable.having said all that,the movie was passable entertainment.Fred Dryer(the 80's TV show Hunter,and ex-football player)plays the main character in the movie,while Kathryn Erbe( Eames-Law and order:Criminal Intent)lookalike Kasey Walker plays one of the main terrorists.Dryer is OK in his Role,but I thought Walker was very impressive.anyway,you've probably seen it all before.for me Death Before Dishonour is a 5/10
Dr. Gore
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* I bought this video for two bucks. "Death before Dishonor" is one of those shameless pro-American military flicks they used to make back in the 80's. And what the heck is wrong with that? I mean, granted, Fred Dryer is no Rambo but he gets the job done. He destroys anyone he perceives as a threat to the American way of life. Dryer has to guard the American embassy in some fictitious Arab country. Soon the rebel army will attack his embassy, kidnap his colonel and generally upset him. They've pushed this marine to the breaking point.As a ridiculous action movie, "Death before Dishonor" is mildly enjoyable. One car chase scene has him driving after the bad guys through various back alleys. He then takes his windshield out and shoots a rocket at them while driving! Yeah! That'll show them not to mess with the marines. Of course, they never learn and soon they're back to harass Dryer again. If you're expecting subtlety from this flick or any particularly enlightened attitude toward affairs in the Middle East, you will be sorely disappointed. "Death before Dishonor" is all about the Americans, (good guys), killing rebel Arabs and their Russian masters, (bad guys). So if you're looking for a simple, (and cheap), B-war flick, "Death before Dishonor" fits the bill.
udar55
I decided to dust this one off and give it another watch. I don't know if that was a good thing. DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR is the quintessential one-sided, "We're good, they're bad" action film. Not since John Wayne's THE GREEN BERETS (1968) have I seen a film so amazingly biased.The scariest thing about DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR is the film's politics. The film is so glaringly jingoistic that it landed itself on the "Worst List" of the book "Reed Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People." While set in the fictional country of Jemal, it is quite obvious who these guys fighting Israel are supposed to be. And who the good guys are. While discussing the complex problems in the Middle East, Ellie asks Burns, "Are you the kind of person who knows what is exactly right and what is wrong?" "Yes," replies Burns before he tells her "don't get us mad." DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR is the kind of film where multiple bad guys can't hit the hero (granted his underlings do die for the cause) with machine guns, but he can blow them up with a rocket launcher while driving a car. Where a "by the book" bureaucrat finds out the hard way (via car bomb) how "savage" these people really are. I think The Phantom of the Movies summed it up best in his review when he said, "it may well be the best 1943 war movie made in 1987." It would be funny, if it weren't so darn frightening.Actually, there is a bit of fun to be had with DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR. Director Leonard, a veteran stuntman, crafts some nice car chases with a rather nice car stunt at the film's end. The film definitely holds its own against its contemporaries such as THE DELTA FORCE (1986) in that regard. Dryer, with visions of Eastwood in HEARTBREAK RIDGE (1986) dancing in his head, is amazingly bland as the tough as nails Marine. Watching him drag around here, it is hard to believe he carried a TV series for so many seasons. You can tell he was hoping for a cross over opportunity into theatrical features, but failed miserably. But there is something inherently funny in his featureless performance. Finally, fans of "what in the world" moments should also keep an eye out for the scene where Brian Keith, being photographed by terrorists, gives them the finger…with his ring finger!
cuffdaddy
Not a bad movie, I've seen worse. They overplay the "Marine Hymn". They play it about 10 times in the movie but it has some good action scenes. The scene where the terrorists are learning to use plastic explosives is funny, especially the look of relief on their faces when their instructor cuts the det cord before the plastic explodes.
