Laser Mission [Soldier of Fortune] ** (1989, Brandon Lee, Debi A Monahan, Ernest Borgnine, Werner Pochath) – Classic Movie Review 11,339

Director Beau J Davis’s low-budget US/ German/ S African 1989 Laser Mission [Soldier of Fortune] is Brandon Lee’s second credited film, in which he plays US special agent Michael Gold, a mercenary loner and expert in unarmed combat, sent to Cuba on a mission from the CIA.

His job is to go undercover to find leading laser-weapon expert Professor Braun (Ernest Borgnine), who may be acting against Western interests, and seize him before the KGB does. Using all his wits and skills, Gold (Lee) risks all in an action-packed climax to combat a ruthless enemy who will stop at nothing to dominate world power.

Laser Mission [Soldier of Fortune] is a fairly lively and carefully constructed action thriller taken at a good lick with satisfying bursts of action, though Phillip Gutteridge’s familiar script (based on a story by David A Frank) is efficient rather than inspired.

It stars Brandon Lee, Ernest Borgnine, Debi A Monahan as Alissa and Werner Pochath as Eckhardt, with Graham Clarke as Colonel Kalishnakov, Gerry de Somma as Ernesto, Pierre Knoesen [Pierre Knoessen] as Manuel, Karl Johnson as Prentice, and Maureen Lahoud as Roberta.

Lee followed it with Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). Then Rapid Fire (1992) is Lee’s penultimate, last fully completed film. In 1993 Lee was killed in a weapons accident towards the end of filming his next movie The Crow.

Werner Pochath (1939–1993).

Austrian actor Werner Pochath died of AIDS on April 18, 1993, aged 53. He was the long-term partner of ballet dancer, director and choreographer John Neumeier, in whose arms he passed away.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,339

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