The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985, TV)
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The Dirty Dozen will live as one of the quintessential war movie classics. Its unique blend of action and humor, along with an incredible ensemble cast ensures it will always be on the top of any war movie list.
Then there's the sequel, The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission. Unfortunately everything that made the original what it was is just not here. Sure you reunite an aging Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel in their respective roles, but the end result comes nowhere close. Granted this was probably a Saturday night movie on one of the big three networks, but still, come on.
The plot follows more or less the same. Major Reisman enlists the help of thirteen (this time) convicts in order to assassinate a German General, who (get this) has plans to kill Hitler. Well, no, we can't have that, can we? Huh? Yeah the reasons given kinda sorta make sense, but still. The plan involves hijacking his train, knocking him off and then using the French resistance to get back out again.
But this time nothing goes as planned. They finally find the general, and let me spoil it for you, they carry out their mission, after a lot of hemming and hawing as the big guy himself shows up. Good philosphical argument, yes. Good bit of movie, not so much. Then they just barely manage to steal a plane and barely land back in England.
The big problem is that Marvin is just too bloody bored with it. You can tell. So many of the same lines and situations from the first movie, how could he not be?! At least Borgnine looked happy to be there for whatever reason! Jaeckel pretty much does as good a job as he did before as Sgt. Clyde. But the rest of the supporting cast, just didn't really do it for me. (But hey, Wolf Kahler gets cast as a Nazi yet again, go Wolf!) You might recognize Ken Wahl and Larry Wilcox though.
But was The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission really all that bad, not so bad as I wouldn't recommend it for a Saturday afternoon popcorn muncher. It just in no way lives up to the Dirty Dozen name. At least its a damn sight better than the Marvin-less other sequels!!!
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