Sunday 12 April 2015

KILL ZONE (USA/Philippines, 1991) [capsule review]

Directed by Cirio H. Santiago

region 1 DVD / fullscreen / English audio / no subs
I watched Cirio H. Santiago's KILL ZONE last night. Now, I love Santiago's movies and that's just the way it is. LOL. Good thing too, at least in regard to this film, because, well, to tell you the truth it's an alright film but not a masterpiece by anybody's standards. The first 70 minutes were alright...ish, nothing too exciting, but the last 10 minutes. Man, those last ten minutes!!

Anyhoo, a quick plot description: The war in Vietnam is raging. Heaps and heaps of US soldiers are being killed all the time. Too too many according to colonel whatshisface played by David Carradine.

The problem: the Vietcong are on the other side of the border, in Cambodia and needless to say colonel Carradine's superiors won't let him send troops into Cambodia. Well, Carradine is a renegade colonel, so he does it anyway. For the longest time we the viewers think he's cool for doing so but then... we get to the last ten minutes. And those ten minutes are totally bonkers. If the first 70 minutes were so-so the last ten minutes are worth the entry fee alone!

There's a bunch of well known faces in the film apart from Carradine; Nick Nicholson, Ken Metcalfe, Jim Moss, etc. And someone called Vivian Velez is in it as well and I've just discovered she was in a Filipino-US horror film called BLACK MAMBA from 1974, a film that also has John Ashley and Rosemari Gil in it. Why didn't I know about this film!!!

KILL ZONE is one of the few Filipino Vietnam war flicks that has actually been given a fairly decent release on DVD. It's out from Roger Corman's New Concorde. The film is presented fullscreen and there's no subs. The extras consist of a trailer for the film and trailers for EYE OF THE EAGLE 1 & 2 and one other film (I forget which one).

Entertaining enough for its 81 minute duration but not ranking at the top of the genre.
(Jack J)

TRAILER:



VHS (ntsc) /Japan / fullscreen / Eng. audio /Jap. subs


Credits:

Cast (copied from IMDb):
David Carradine ... Col. Horace Wiggins
Tony Dorsett ... Sheriff
Rob Youngblood ... Capt. Jeff Holland
Vic Trevino ... Lt. Lazaro
James Gregory Paolleli ... Ropes
Geno Bolda ... Bloomquist
Jim Moss ... Lewandowski
Francis Evaristo ... ASP
Richard White ... Medic
Vivian Velez ... Waranya
Cesar Villanueva ... Lam
Ronald Asinas ... Sgt. Park
Ken Metcalfe ... Gen. Walter O'Neal
Ned Hourani ... Adjutant
Archie Adamos ... ARVN Capt. Tan Sau Thuy
Eddie Gaerlan ... Soldier
Roxanne Silverio ... Dien Loc
Bob Larson ... Intelligence Manager
Steve Rogers ... Officer #1
Nick Nicholson ... Corporal / Radio Squawk
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Ginnivan ... Helicopter Gunner (uncredited)
Philip Gordon ... VC Commander (uncredited)


18 comments:

  1. Santiago is such a godsend! Love how ostensibly drunk Carradine is in this one. Glad you're back to updating the best blog on the internet! Year of the monkey!

    ReplyDelete
  2. worked in this film i was a main cast it was a lot of fun working with tony dorsett david carradine and jim moss and james paolleli robert youngblood and last but not least ciro h santiago iwas bloomquist in the movie geno bolda good times

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Nicoles,
      That's awesome! Thanks for commenting. I can't find you in any of the credits listings, what's your full name? Were you in other of these films?
      /Jack

      Delete
  3. yes jack i was my name is geno bolda iwas bloomquist in killzone and fist of glory with dale cook and blood ring i was good buddys with jim moss and did about 30 movies but only got some credits my phone number is 928 201 8747 you can text me or call collect from i would like talk

    ReplyDelete
  4. hello ITS NICOLES SORRY DID NOT GET TO FINISH OFF WITH YOU YESTERDAY HAD TO GO TO WORK I LIVED IN THE PHILIPPINES FOR TWO YEARS AND I MET ERIC HAHN HE WAS MY CASTING DIRECTOR DUNE WARRIORS AND FIST OF GLORY DALE APOLLO COOK WORLD CHAMPION KICKBOXER WE WERE ALSO MAIN CAST IN THAT MOVIE TOGETHER I WAS ALSO THE RADIOMAN IN ESCAPE TO NO WERE AT THR BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE IN THE HUT I KILLED FAST BUT IM THE RADIO MAN IN DAVID CARRADINE KILLZONEI HAVE SOME GOOD PICTURES STILL PHOTOGRPHS OF ME IN DIFFERENT MOVIES AND OF ME AND A LOT OF PEOPLE YOU HAVE INTERVIEWED LIKE NICK NICHOSON ERIC HAHN BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT ERIC HAHN FOR YEARS DID GET A COMPUTER TILL 2012 I NO THAT JIM MOSS PAST AWAY SO DID NICK AND CIRO SANTIAGO FOR ME ME THAT WAS BIG TIME LOSSES PLEASE TEXT ME OR CALL ME OR GO BACK FOURTH ON THE COMPUTER I APPRECIATE IT JACK THANK YOU FOR REACHING OUT NUMBER 928 201 8747

    ReplyDelete
  5. jack its nicoles i was also the in escape to nowere 1990 im the radio man in the hunt get killed i have dialogue but didn't get credits main cast character in fist of glory my character name is nichols and iwas also in blood ring director teddy page and fist of glory director jose mari avellana he was in boys in the company c

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nicoles/Geno Bolda. Thanks for your info. Thanks for the offer to call you but it would be too expensive. I bet you're in the US, right? I'm in Denmark/Scandinavia! If you wish to email me here's my blog email address:

      balimystics@yahoo.co.uk

      I'm not too fond of spam, so I'll delete the address in a week or so. Are you on facebook? Even if I have never met them in real life I am "friends" on facebook with a few of the other actors from Filipino films, and Eric Hahn is one of them. I think he lives in Mexico.
      You were in 30 movies!?!? Wauw. IMDb only mentions three. Have you got a list of them? I'd certainly like to know the title if you've got them/can remember them.

      Delete
  6. HI JACK ITS GENO AKA NICOLES TRYING TO FIND ERIC HAHN NOW FOR MANY YEARS NOW YOU WERE SAYING HE LIVED IN REYNOSA MEXICO VERY DANGEROUS PLACE TO LIVE MANY THOUSANDS HAVE DIED IN THAT PART OF MEXICO DO ME A FAVOR IF CAN GET HOLD OF HIM ON FACEBOOK AND LET ME IF HE IS ALIVE HE HAS NOT POSTED ANYTHING SINCE 2009 HE DOESNT WOT CONTACT THATS FINE JUST LET ME KNOW HE IS ALIVE OR DEAD IM DOING VERY GOOD NOW IVE BEEN WORKING FOR CAESARS PALACE LAS VEGES FOR 28 YEARS THANK YOU JACK APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH GOD BLESS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Geno,
      I'll see what I can do. I had some brief contact with Eric Hahn a few years ago, but I'm not in contact with him as such.

      He switched to another facebook profile a few years back - I think he lost the log-in to the old one or maybe it got hacked. I don't think he was much on facebook anyway. I'll report back to you here.

      Delete
  7. thank you jack i appreciate every thing you do im about 150 fifty miles from the mexico border but in arizona a long way from mcallen texas how long ago did you talk to eric he has not posted anything sense 2009 even after nick nickelson passed away still nothing you would think he would have posted something after died but nothing thank you very much jack i will take trip back to the philippines next year try to find some old actor friends thank you you so much keep posted on eric hahn

    ReplyDelete
  8. hey jack its geno from killzone do you no when you talk to eric it was before covid 19 like 2019 or before that let me no wot year you possibly talk to eric appreciate it

    ReplyDelete
  9. also jack have you ever seen the mexico version of killzone just watched last on telmodo there is like four scene that american version had cut out two the scene im in one with David Carradine one with tony dorsett pretty cool scene i heard there a vietnamese there is also one in polish version my wife is from poland i went there in 2018 for two months went auschwitz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I haven't seen the Mexican version of KILLZONE!!
      I didn't know there was one. O_O
      Thanks for the info. You and your wife were in Poland in 2018. Kewl!! I'm located in the north of Europe.

      Delete
  10. Geno! Apologies for the delay. I've checked Eric Hahn's profile on facebook, and it doesn't seem like he's used it for a long time. People have sent greetings for his birthday for years but no reply. I'm not sure if the profile on fb is the one that got hacked or not. If it is it means his newer profile is gone.
    Here's a link:
    https://www.facebook.com/eric.hahn.359

    ReplyDelete
  11. Geno, I had another look at Eric's profile, and he has a handful of friends whose surname is also Hahn. They're most likely relatives of his. Try and write to one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yeah I was in Mexico on vacation and
    Watching TV Killzone came on in Spanish and there’s like three scenes that they cut out of me with dialogue ones with David Carradine and the other ones with Tony Dorsett. The one with Carradine is inside the bunker but thank you Jack for looking into the thing with Eric I really highly doubt he’s alive with all the fighting down in Minnesota Mexico, so many people have been killed down there but I’ll look into the website for the Facebook for him. I will go back to Poland also next year in the Philippines as well my wife’s a nurse practitioner, and I have work for the casinos for almost 30 years Caesars palace

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries, Geno. I wish I could have found out where he is and told you.
      Interesting info about the Spanish dubbed version of the film.

      Delete

Yes, we have a comment filter now! It seems most comments these days come from shit spammers in India so there you go.