Sort of a low cost combination of “The Wild Bunch” and “The Dirty Dozen”, The Losers stars the always awesome William Smith as the leader of a biker gang called The Devil’s Advocates who get called into a top secret rescue mission to go into war torn Cambodia and bring out a captured CIA operative. Makes sense, right? When a mission calling for tact, stealth and unmitigated skill is called for, who better to send than a bunch of Government-hating bikers and their incredibly loud motorcycles.

Despite the implausible set up, the film works as the muddled mess that it is: part anti-establishment biker film; a sex and drugs exploitation film; alpha male action film; and scathing anti-war film… all are mixed together into an entertaining mess.

The movie takes its time getting to the actual rescue, with much time spent in the gang’s various activities. From former Vietnam Vet Duke’s secret plan to find the Vietnamese girl he once fell in love with, to Dirty Denny’s tireless quest for whores, bars and brawls to Limpy’s blossoming love affair with a Vietnamese whore with an illegitimate child, these subplots take over most of the first half’s running time. It does tend to give more character development to the types of people that we don’t usually invest this much time with, but it does slow the pace of the movie to a slow crawl. Once the gang’s motorcycles are fitted with various plates of armor and machine guns, the movie kicks into first gear, with a stellar battle scene with some impressive if unrealistic sights.

There’s just enough of humanity, yet tough guy amiable swagger, to make the character believable. We’re never given any real reason why Smith and company would be chosen for this mission, especially since Smith has had conflicting issues with the CIA operative in the past. Motivations aside, it doesn’t detract from the fact that this is one damn fine movie.

As I stated above, the movie has some severe pacing issues. While some may argue that it is for character set up, it doesn’t alter the fact that this movie is basically all build up to a battle and then an anti-climax.

Some of the dialogue especially between Duke and his woman is embarrassing to listen to, and most of the performances border on the just plain bad. We never get to know the motives of the bikers, but maybe if we were given some more insight it could explain why many of the biker gang just couldn’t care less to be there, with lackadaisical attitudes. Why did they agree to even come in the first place then? Some more of a fleshed out back story could have given some insight into this and explained some of the character’s actions.

Also released under the title “Nam’s Angels,” The Losers proudly declares what it is. It never claims to be anything more. It’s bikers! It’s jungles! It’s motorcycles with machine guns! What more do you need? The Losers is a silly, fun movie with a lot of action, explosions and tough guys in your face. William Smith gives a great performance and the movie, while suffering from those mentioned pacing problems, can still be viewed for the screw ball acting and scenarios. As a movie, The Losers delivers on what it promises and gets results. And that’s asses in the theater seats.