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)