Uhh, this isn't exactly Filipino war, not even Italos in the 'Pines but it's trashy war with... uh, trashy war chicks and they're so damn cute I'm sure you won't mind my posting the trailer here. xD xD xD.
The film was directed by Kenneth Hartford in 1986. According to the IMDb he's only directed four films, HELL SQUAD being the newest one.
Thanks to Diabolik for the rare trailer (off a Danish ex-rental tape). I don't have the film but I certainly want it now! :D
Wauw, check out this awesome trailer for THE EXECUTIONER, PART 2!! It's just been uploaded to YouTube (thanks Diabolik!). The film is about a Vietnam soldier who returns to America and cleans things up. The film is a complete rip off of THE EXTERMINATOR and that's the ONLY reason it's called "part 2". There is no part 1!!! Hahaha. The film company (most likely) hoped people would think this is the real sequel for THE EXTERMINATOR!!
The original film was directed by James Glickenhaus and came out in 1980. This "sequel" (directed by James Bryan) came out in 1984. Incidentally, an official sequel was also released the same year, THE EXTERMINATOR 2 (dir by Mark Buntzman).
Unfortunately, none of the sequels (official and non-official) are released on DVD. And to worsen things even further, the UK VHS is cut to shreds and the US tapes carry the cut R rated print. The old Danish ex-rental tape is uncut (and the Dutch tape is most likely uncut too).
And further cuts; the UK VHS release of THE EXECUTIONER 2 is also cut (even tho the BBFC homepage states they didn't cut it so the cuts probably were done before the film was submitted for classification). Someone I knew yrs back, and who saw the film when it came out, said there are two short scenes missing from the UK tape.
Don Gordon Bell was in WARBUS with Ron Kristoff and he talked a little about it over on the Kult Eye Bleeder blog (in the comments' section).
As always thanks to Diabolik for uploading this for me! EDIT (2020): YouTube deleted Diabolik's channel but fortunately I was fortunate enough to be able to dig it out from the old long gone DEVAG site.
No! BLASTFIGHTER isn't in any way a Filipino Vietnam War film not even close. LOL. But it's very entertaining and you ought to know about it!! :D
Btw, Fred Anderson just told me Njuta Films might include his interview with Michael Sopkiw (but if you can't wait you can read it here. Skip the Swedish intro [unless you read Swedish, obviously] and go straight to the interview which is in English).
Ahh, another bunch of cool trailers from my mate Diabolik's old Danish ex-rental video tapes! A couple of these aren't exactly Vietnam War flicks but they are Filipino movies. Check especially the trailer for NAKED VENGEANCE which is much more explicit than the toned down one that's been up on YouTube previously. As always BIG CHEERS goes out to Diabolik!
This is a different, more explicit trailer than the toned down Australian one I've posted before!
More trailers from rare Danish ex-rental tapes! Antonio Margheriti did three Vietnam war movies from 1980 to '83, THE LAST HUNTER, TIGER JOE, and TORNADO. The first one is easy to get on great restored DVD. The second one is also well known but not released on DVD (I don't count terrible reg. 1 bootlegs & public domain DVDs), and the last one is fairly unknown except to fans of trashy war movie! A pity really as TIGER JOE is GREAT and TORNADO is pretty good too. The best versions are the Japanese video releases that are fully letterboxed. Here's the rare trailer for TIGER JOE and also the trailer for THE LAST HUNTER. The latter trailer isn't rare at all, you can find a restored version on YouTube (from the reg. 1 DVD) but I asked Hans-Jørgen to upload it because I think it has a raw edge quality to it due to its being scratched and old which the nice and clean restored version doesn't have.
Here's the uber rare trailer for Joe D'Amato's TOUCH TO KILL from a rare Danish ex-rental VHS. Thanks once again to Diabolik. :D REUPLOAD!
Incidentally, both Tomb it may Concern and Basement of Ghoulish Decadence wrote about the film yesteday here and here They both posted rare cover scans which I'm now re-posting here but of course all credits go to David Z and Jayson.
Diabolik is my friend in real life but he doesn't really share my interest in Filipino war flicks. However, even so he's become my main source lately for rare trailers for these movies! Diabolik collects Danish ex-rental VHS tapes in a big way and at the moment he's going thru them all in order to find cool and rare trailers for our Facebook fan page devoted to Danish ex-rental tapes. Needless to say, a big round of applause goes in his direction for these "finds". Cheers, mate!!
This latest trailer is from a Vestron tape and it's for Cirio H. Santiago's KILLER INSTINCT. In America the film was released by Roger Corman's company and retitled Behind Enemy Lines. If you look for the US video tape be aware there's also another film by the same title.
My mate Diabolik has just uploaded the rare trailer for BROTHERS IN BLOOD. It comes from a Danish ex-rental VHS, however, it doesn't have intruding subs. :D
Big thanks, Diabolik!
And also a big thank you goes out to a certain nice reader who sent me THE EXPENDABLES (and even sent it twice when the first copy disappeared in the mail!). Awesome. Thanks, mate! Your friendliness is VERY appreciated!!!
Here's a bunch of cool trailers for Filipino movies. They're not all trashy war movie but they all star that group of actors we connect with those movies. The one exception is KILL SQUAD which was actually made in the US (but it certainly looks like a Filipino movie, LOL). The reason I'm excited about these particular trailers is that in contradiction to most of the trailers you'll find on YouTube these trailers aren't dodgy rips from old video tapes but from real film print (I don't have info from the company that uploaded them but to me they certainly look like they're off real film print). Check 'em all. Excitement guaranteed!
This is one of the trailers for RAMBO 4 (aka Rambo aka John Rambo) which I must admit I totally love! Fred Adelman said about it in his review on Critical Condition:
While I generally don't review recent theatrical releases, I'm going to make an exception here because I feel this is an important, nay, essential, viewing experience for fans of action cinema. Quite simply, this is the best 80's action film to be made in the past twenty years and director/co-scripter/star Sylvester Stallone has single-handedly restored my faith in American action cinema. It's not perfect, mind you, but it is the most rousing, bloody, audience-pleasing action flick that I have seen in theaters in many years.
- and I fully agree. Alright, I haven't seen as many 80s action films as Fred but I still agree. :D
RAMBO 4 is so over-the-top violent and gung-ho crazy that it's a splatter movie fan's wet dream. And a trashy war flick fan's wet dream too. And I happen to love both splatter flicks and trashy war flicks!!! xD
Check the trailer and watch the movie!
And here for your reading pleasure; Fred Adelman's full review:
RAMBO (2008) - While I generally don't review recent theatrical releases, I'm going to make an exception here because I feel this is an important, nay, essential, viewing experience for fans of action cinema. Quite simply, this is the best 80's action film to be made in the past twenty years and director/co-scripter/star Sylvester Stallone has single-handedly restored my faith in American action cinema. It's not perfect, mind you, but it is the most rousing, bloody, audience-pleasing action flick that I have seen in theaters in many years.
Stallone returns for the fourth time as a much older and even more world-weary John Rambo, who now lives in Thailand as a fisherman and snake catcher. A bunch of Christian missionaries want to hire Rambo and his boat to take them down river into Burma, where they plan to give medical attention and teach the word of God to a village of innocent souls.
The missionaries, led by self-righteous doctor Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) and his do-gooder girlfriend Sarah (Julie Benz), know that the Burmese people have been going through a bloody genocide for over sixty years, where a cruel National Army commits various atrocities against the people (including a painful-to-watch game of forcing villagers to cross a live minefield), but since they believe God is on their side, they think they are safe from harm (yeah, right).
At first Rambo refuses (he turns his back on them and says, "Fuck the world!"), but Miss Goody Two Shoes convinces him and he finally relents. He takes them down river, drops them off (after a harrowing episode with some river pirates) and returns to his simple (and still nightmare-filled) life. A short time later, the entire village is wiped-out by sadistic homosexual military leader Tint (Maung Maung Khin) and his army (in one of the most bloody massacres ever committed to celluloid) and the missionaries are all taken prisoner and held captive in bamboo cages (one of them is fed live to a bunch of hungry pigs!). Rambo is then hired by the head of the Christian missionary (Ken Howard in a cameo role) to take a squad of mercenaries down river to save the missionaries.
After some conflict with head merc Lewis (Graham McTavish), Rambo joins forces with the mercenaries (he's still mighty handy with a bow!) to save the missionaries. The rest of the film is non-stop carnage of the goriest kind and contains one of the best bomb explosions I have ever seen as well as a final battle that will have you on the edge of your seat repeating the phrase "Holy Shit!" over and over. It's hard to believe Sylvester Stallone had to fight for several years to get this film made on his terms, but once you've seen it, you'll be glad that he fought a winning battle. Stallone has turned in one of the hardest R-rated action films in the history of American cinema.
Nothing is left to the imagination as bodies are blown apart, heads explode, limbs are hacked off, people torn in half by gunfire and, in a scene that must be seen to be believed, Rambo grabs a 50mm machine gun and pulverises an enemy soldier's body until it is nothing but a bloody mist. Stallone as Rambo is still a man of few words, but he's in excellent shape for a man of 60+ years (thanks to his injections of human growth hormones [HGH], which he swears by) and is still believable as an action hero.
The politics are pure 80's Reagan era, as the holier-than-thou Christian doctor, Michael, chastises Rambo for his violent ways (even threatening to turn Rambo in to authorities after he kills four river pirates, who would have surely murdered him and raped his girlfriend), only to take a life himself when he's pushed to the point of no return in the nail-biting finale. Stallone also pays tribute to the late Richard Crenna as Col.
Trautman, using scenes of him from the previous three Rambo films in a black-and-white nightmare sequence, even using footage from the alternate ending of FIRST BLOOD (1982) where Trautman shoots and kills Rambo. There are also some obvious uses of CGI (especially Tint's death), but most of it is very quick and the explosion of the old WWII "Tallboy" bomb in the forest is a thing of beauty and managed to jerk back the heads of many audience members in a spectacular "Holy Shit!" moment.
Stallone is to be commended for making such a politically incorrect action flick in a time where political correctness is akin to being a "patriot". This is Stallone's big "Fuck You!!!" to all those who said he lost his chops (not to mention his mind) and that ultra-violent action films were a thing of the past.
After viewing this film with a highly-appreciative audience, I implore my readers to vote with your tickets as a way of telling studio executives that we are tired of watered-down PG-13 rated crapfests and want more of what RAMBO has to offer: Balls-to-the-wall mindless carnage for no other reason then to entertain us. We don't need "message" movies like Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and APOCALYPTO (2006) as an excuse to show us the gore.
Stallone knew what the audience wanted and he delivered it in spades. Thank you! Also starring Matthew Marsden, Rey Gallagos, Jake La Botz and Tim Kang. A Lionsgate Entertainment Release. Rated R, but I'm still shaking my head in amazement that the MPAA let this slide with that rating, considering the amount of carnage on view.
[Originally posted on Fred Adelman's website Critical Condition]
Here's a trailer for the entertaining SLASH that stars Ron Kristoff and Mike Monty. You'll notice the picture quality is really good (compared to the VHS stuff we usually see), I'm sure it's off real film print. It's uploaded by a distribution company in the US who own the rights to quite a few of these films (I've posted a few of them before).
If, like me, you've only previously watched the English dubbed, untampered with, version of the uber gory and trashy Vietnam war movie CANNIBAL MERCENARY from Thailand you're in for a bit of a surprise. HAHA.
Check this trailer out. This version has been given the Tomas Tang treatment in HK!! New gweilo actors are suddenly in the cast and, apparently, a lot of the gore is also gone. This cut & paste version is out on German DVD if you wish to check it out for yourself. The DVD carries both the German and English dub.
Check out this trailer for COBRA THUNDERBOLT. The picture quality ain't grand but as fans of these films we're used to that (but, uhh, why did he leave the counter on!? Haha).
This trailer is from an Australian Roadshow VHS. Like most releases the Aussie tape carries the R rated version of the film. To the best of my knowledge the only uncut tape is the unrated US tape.
This is a trailer for Cirio H. Santiago's KILL ZONE from 1993, not to be confused with the movie KILLZONE from 1985. A couple of people have mentioned to me it's an alright film although not the best in the world. Well, I'm sure less can do and it is a Cirio H. Santiago film after all. xD
Thanks to Robert for posting a link to his YouTube uploads! This looks great! If anybody knows of a release please let me know!! (any format, any dubbing!). Cheers.
Here's a trailer for BATTLE RATS which I just found on YouTube. I actually have the Japanese video release of this but unfortunately the tape was broken when I got it so it needs fixing before I can watch it. Fred Adelman said in his review that "While the acting in BATTLE RATS is some of the worst and stiffest I have seen in recent memory (I was howling with laughter throughout the entire film), the violence is so over-the-top, it makes watching this almost seem like you are having a fever dream". After having watched the trailer I think he's most likely right, LOL.
