Truly Dreadful Film

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

How does Jason discover his hockey mask? When does Freddy find his glove? And how soon can we get a cadaver dressed up as the personification of the American government? He stole it from Shelly Finkelstein. He made it himself in his boiler room. And around 39 minutes of so, give or take, in 1996's Uncle Sam.Directed by William Lustig (Maniac and the three Maniac Cop films) from a Larry Cohen script (It's Alive, The Stuff, God Told Me To and around ten more movies on our shelves), this slasher film concerns itself with a soldier killed by friendly fire in Kuwait. Upon inspecting the damage, a commanding officer concludes that they should hush it up, at which point Master Sergeant Sam Harper rises from the dead to kill everyone.Sam's body is finally shipped home to his family — wife Louise, sister Sally and her son Jody, who worships the fallen soldier. He also has a great GI Joe collection which has stayed in great shape for 12 years or so, a testament to teenagers. My thought — he is actually playing with Sam's old war toys as he dreams of joining him in the army one day. Sam's commanding office, Sergeant Twining even gives him Sam's old medals.During the funeral, Jody meets Sergeant Jed Crowley (Isaac Hayes, the singer of the Shaft theme, Chef from South Park and now dead Scientologist), who informs him that war is bad and that he should have never given Sam the idea to join the Army. Jody makes a big scene at the funeral and gets grounded from the fireworks the next day. Guess what? Fireworks suck. They've been the exact same since I was a child and fireworks technology has not advanced in forty years. You are missing nothing, Jody. Stay in your room and play with GI Joe's like I still do at 44 years of age.Read more at bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/07/03/uncle-sam-1996/

This movie is a cheese masterpiece. Come on, from the writer of Maniac Cop and THe Stuff you can't go wrong. Also, from the director of Maniac Cop. This is about a dead soldier who is dressed in an uncle sam costume in a 4th of July parade...if that is not good, I don't know what is! This movie is brilliant and is in my little "Ice Cream Man/Jack Frost" category, all those 1996/1997 cheese horror movies from A-PIX entertainment. The special effects really are not bad, except for the end when you can see the wires which is hysterical. Other than that, the gore isn't too bad, and when this idiot sings the National Anthem horribly, that is a highlight of the film. A great movie if you like cheese movies, recommended to any fans of WAR movies and GORE movies!

The 1990's were a truly weak decade for insane and bloody slashers, unless of course if you think "Scream" and all its uninspired clones qualify as good horror films. Luckily enough, there still was the companionship between William Lustig and Larry Cohen, who finished their "Maniac Cop"-trilogy and even pleased us horror fans with the entirely new and delightfully trashy "Uncle Sam". Naturally, this is a pretty insignificant film when it comes to plotting and building up tension, but it does deliver some great gore and splendid social sarcasm. Sam Harper was a loyal yet slightly deranged American soldier who got killed by friendly fire during operation Desert Storm. Some years later, his heavily burned corpse is brought back to the States just in time for the annual Fourth of July celebration in his hometown, where his young and naive nephew Jody still considers him to be a true role model. He comes back to life, obviously, and starts an ingenious killing spree dressed up like "Uncle Sam"; the symbol that used to recruit young men as American soldiers. "Uncle Sam" works well as a satire, criticizing the US Army forces that often don't really know what they're fighting for as well as typical blind patriotism, but foremost it's an exciting horror flick with several violent deaths and a cool, old-fashioned villain. The drama-story lines in Larry Cohen's screenplay (revolving on the aunt and mother trying to convince young Jody that warfare is actually a horrible thing) are surprisingly subtle and well-argumented. The two female leads (Leslie Neale & Anne Tremko) aren't very memorable and the young kid is rather annoying, but – and as usual – Lustig & Cohen could count on the presence of several B-movie veterans to star in supportive roles. Isaac Hayes is great as the retired army commander and Halloween's P.J. Soles appears as some kid's obnoxious mother. Good fun, recommended!

Sam Harper was a marine who was killed by friendly fire in the war of Kuwait. His body is brought back home around the time of the July 4th celebrations to be buried along with his parents. To his nephew Jody, he is somewhat of a hero and we wants to grow up to be just like him. But he's really the only one who sees him as a hero, as his mum, aunty and friends where afraid of him. But not too long somehow a burned flag landing in his grave has Sam suddenly rising from of his coffin. Where he decides to knock off someone that's dressed up as Uncle Sam and borrow the costume. Then he goes on a murderous rampage killing those who are unpatriotic and that try to stop him.Strange! Yeah, 'Uncle Sam' is rather peculiar to say the least. Being a fan of Larry Cohen and enjoying everything he has been involved in. From be it, writer to director or both, I've yet to see a flick I haven't liked of his. Well, that's me pretty much me being a one-eyed fan. Cohen teams up again with his buddy director William Lustig, who both brought us the terrific 'Maniac Cop' films that are a real blast, but here I couldn't hide that I was slightly disappointed about this project. I had an okay time with this ham, but the horror element felt mishandled and unsure. The weird thing is the horror moments come across as something of a second thought. I wouldn't be surprised if you're thinking that you're watching an anti-add campaign for the army to begin with. It takes an eternity for anything to happen and Cohen's script takes pot shots on the Desert storm war, Army and Government officials, and the shameless glory about it and how the word hero is loosely used in a very heavy manner. It shows the fixation of these topics perfectly. The last point is a good one, as we don't really know these people we supposedly call heroes. It also shows us how kids can easily be influenced in what they think is right. Damn that marketing ploy by the army in using toy soldiers in getting kids interested ;) Hell, I was a nut for plastic soldier figurines and creating battles when I was young.Cohen's thoughtful (though not perfect) screenplay is packed with many tearing satirical comments with a tongue-in-cheek approach, but the direction would've been bettered suited if it didn't come to be so hard pressed in delivering these scenes. There's nothing subtle about it. That's pretty much the first half of the story too and it does come across like a political drama, though at times it did feel and look like a TV soapy. The odd second half is when the 4th July parade starts and exploitation comes to boot with the killer being resurrected and knocking off victims who disrespected the American way of life and not supporting the troops. It picks up the pace here and strings some neat and inventive deaths. Damn it's particularly spiteful stuff, though not terribly gory, but it had its fair share of bloody moments. But still it feels like that they felt "Oh no, we got to add some bloody mayhem" and so they packed it all in the latter half. Sure it's nonsensical, right-o, but the wit we come expect from a Cohen script seemed absent. So it takes itself rather seriously by flinging about inspirational speeches and critical symbols and messages that are hard to overlook and since the actual context is absurd, it needed a bit more humour to soften it. The fun factor felt rather short. I just couldn't shake the feeling it was more interested in preaching than frightening. Actually trickles of it worked, but more often it passed me by. You could call the plot a slasher with a political opinion or just trash that will rot your teeth.I'll move onto another subject and talk about the quality the production. Low budget for sure, but actually the makeup and costume design for the killer is very well done. The bloodier moments are definitely up to scratch. The camera-work too was a bright light in the feeble mix. By adding enough showy angles that makes certain scenes stand out. Though sadly that's where the buck falls short. The atmosphere is non-existent and the same for the score. The b-cast is more then decent when you see the names involved. With the likes Issac Hayes, Bo Hopkins, Robert Forster, David Fralick, Timothy Bottoms and P.J. Soles. But even with these reliable names they all seem to be on cruise control and give rather soporific performances. The leading kid is a real doofus and the kid in the wheelchair seems to know so much about what's going on, even though he doesn't appear until later in the story. How does that work out? That's one of a few confusing things that crop up in the story that make you go "Huh?" The second rate direction by Lustig is rather tosh in patches and kind of restrained. The pacing is awfully uneven and torrid to begin with and the petering tension doesn't cause an ounce of excitement. I would've preferred to see Cohen behind the camera instead. There's a visible blooper that's plain abysmal towards the films' climax, which is very hard to miss.I didn't get much fun out of it liked I hoped I would, though I didn't think it was a total mess and it's something a bit different. But then again this is a Larry Cohen fan speaking here. I give it another try in the future, but I'll make sure next time I'm intoxicated.Side-note: There's also a blooper played at the end of the credits, nothing that great but worth a gander.