Impasse

Older (1969) good Burt Reynolds movie. Lots of action and a young handsome as always Burt Reynolds who has four vets help him to recover millions in gold that the Japanese hid in the Philippines on a military base in an underground tunnel. This movie was filmed in the Philippines. Good story, I enjoyed the movie, no disappointments.

I think this is a great film and I'm not even a Burt Reynolds fan. It's a fantastic look at the Philipines in the early 70's which is unique.

Was looking for film done in Philippines. Very interesting and entertaining. Using Corrigidor as story line brought a little historical theme to movie.

Nifty little Reynolds gem. This movie was made when he was still on his way up in movies. Its a great little adventure movie set in the Phillipines . I think its worth the time. Movie looks a little dated but that just adds to the like ability of it all.

Burt Reynolds is lost in this film that never takes flight. This story never really clicks and there is not much here to crow about.

An American adventurer (Burt Reynolds) living in the Philippines hatches up a plan to steal three million dollars in gold hidden by the army during WWII. But when one of the key players (Clarke Gordon) goes missing, it puts the heist in jeopardy so he must track down the man first. This film must have been a tax write off for somebody. In the 1960s, the Philippines were a popular place to make quickie low budget movies with a couple of American stars and a Filipino cast and crew. CRY OF BATTLE with Van Heflin and Rita Moreno, SAMAR with George Montgomery and Gilbert Roland and MISSION BATANGAS with Vera Miles are three others that spring to mind. They were programmers that quickly vanished or played the lower half of a double bill. The film seems split in half, the first hour devoted to the search for the missing man and the second half, hunting down the gold and the heist. But for a thriller, the film drags which is fatal and the narrative bogged down with irrelevant characters who just waste the story's time. Like the American hippie played by Joanne Dalsass whose character seems to have walked in from some American International flick. The picture is held together (barely) by Reynolds whose ascent to stardom was still a few years away and the always welcome Anne Francis as the missing man's daughter. Directed by Richard Benedict. With Lyle Bettger, Jeff Corey, Rodolfo Acosta and Miko Mayama. The MGM MOD DVD-r is a anamorphic transfer in its original wide screen ratio.

... then again, maybe not. In the tradition of contemporary ensemble megahits 'The Dirty Dozen' and 'Kelly's Heroes,' the rather sloppily executed action-adventure 'Impasse' (1969), shot among some gritty locales in the Philippines, doesn't generate much heat-- tropical or otherwise-- but is a strong showcase for then-up-and-coming leading man Burt Reynolds. The story, about a group of misfits assembled by expat/rogue Reynolds to 'salvage' a fortune in buried Japanese gold, is marginally entertaining; the script, however, is an abysmal hybrid of superficial caper clichés and third-rate tongue-in-cheek banter; and in the unsteady hands of actor/TV director Richard Benedict the overall feel of the film is two beats off, marred by stop-and-go pacing, uneven acting and an annoying drizzle of hippie-culture schlock. And while the heist itself may have been handled a little more deftly than the set-up, by the time we get there those of us who were looking forward to the ride are hungry and tired and not speaking to one another. 2-plus stars, mainly for Reynolds' easy-and-in-command presence.

I remebered seeing this as the B movie in a double bill, with Charles Bronson in the 'Mechanic'. This was back in the early Seventies, & Burt Reynolds was carving a career as an action man with a sense of humour, & an eye for the Ladies. IMPASSE is a lot slower paced than I remembered, & has the 'De-riguer' action chase, taking place on foot, with Burt diving through all & sundry. Unfortunately this is the highlight of the movie. The Phillipines back drop is nice, the plot on the Corregidor, is interesting, but the movie simmers rather than explodes across the screen, as say, 'The Mechanic'. It has a moral ending as most Hollywood movies did, before falling out of fashion. So, a must for Burt Reynolds fans, & for everybody else,a whimsical action thriller that you may have trouble remembering much about, a few weeks later.