KnotMissPriceless
Why so much hype?
Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Comeuppance Reviews
Sgt. Bill Lance (Prior) and Sgt. Jack Casey (Matthews) are battle-hardened warriors who play by their own rules. While in the depths of the jungle fighting the Russians (is this Vietnam?), their superior officer, Col. Meredith (Smith) punishes them for their rogue ways by having them take some new recruits along with them on their patrols. Now outnumbered by the enemy and surrounded on all sides, Lance and Casey will have to use all their warlike ways to prevail. Will they do it? Anyone who knows David Prior and the AIP style of filmmaking will appreciate this movie. It's no Deadly Prey (1987), but what possibly could be? While Deadly Prey was Ted Prior's movie, Hell On The Battleground is all about Fritz Matthews. Here Fritz gets his moment in the sun and he's truly never been better. He's a mulleted mega-meathead who literally spits his terse dialogue and it's a lot of fun to watch. He even plays his own theme song on acoustic guitar, "Casey's Bad Boys". Truly mustaches and mullets are the order of the day here, as surely they were in Vietnam. Ironically, the great William Smith is 'stache-less here, but he's as gruff as ever.Speaking of Smith, once we're firmly into the movie, Smith - who sounds like a 45 of George C. Scott played on 33 1/3, breaks into a solemnly-spoken poem about Casey and Lance. Apropos of nothing, Smith intones this ballad of the two mighty heroes. Truly in a movie that is highly repetitive and contains shooting, shooting, maybe some grenade launchers and an exploding helicopter, some more shooting followed by maybe a little more shooting, this moment of poetry from an unlikely place stood out. Are Casey and Lance aware that Col. Meredith is writing poetry about them? And how would they feel about that? Those are the unanswered questions that are the food for thought here.Apparently, since this was the 80's, our heroes are fighting the Russians, and there's even a guy that looks exactly like a Red Scorpion (1988)-era Dolph Lundgren. He even has the blonde brush-cut hairdo. The Prior brothers continued fighting the Russians in The Final Sanction (1990), and there they were represented by Robert Z'Dar. So who comes out on top? You'll have to see for yourself. Also, we're not sure if this was common practice or not, but Lance and Casey's wives ( Alyson Davis and Ingrid Vold) are along with them, encamped on the battlefield. Both Davis and Vold were in the same year's David Heavener vehicle Deadly Reactor (1989) together. Do they only come as a pair? But it just proves even further that 1989 was probably the top year for video stores in the U.S. Product was coming fast and furious, and only now are we beginning to sort it all out.There's the cross for good luck, and AIP staple Sean Holton is also on board, and this movie does probably top Jungle Assault (1989) and Operation Warzone (1988) for AIP war material, but the problem is there's no one strong, central villain. There's no baddie to boo and hiss at. It's just the nebulous concept of "Russians". But that aside, there are enough decent/funny/worthwhile moments to keep this one afloat, and it has a short running time, so it's not a burden to watch like some of its more bloated competition. Yes, it's very dumb, but it's fun dumb. And it was all done on a tiny budget and released to video stores for the viewing public. It might not be to EVERYONE's taste, but you have to respect their work ethic and the fact that they got it done.Featuring yet another quality end-credits song by Steve McClintock, "I Believe In The Battle", Hell On The Battleground, powered by the Prior-Fritz-Smith triumvirate, comes out as towards the top of the AIP war movie canon.For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com
davidecasteel
I rate movies of this genre on the number and quality of the muzzle flashes displayed. This one is almost 6 stars for number (732, 800 being 6 stars) and the quality is phenomenal! Some of the flashes are so large that one wonders how they were achieved (more than 5 feet long!). The crew certainly did not stint on the blank ammo budget.Generally speaking, the AIP war films in the 1980s all scored very well in the muzzle flash department, but (as other raters have indicated) the movies pretty much sucked in plot, acting, tactics, etc. Because my focus is on other things, I just ignore all that and enjoy the action. It's mindless, but it's fun.
webstergrayson
This is the first David A. Prior movie I have ever seen, and although I really wasn't expecting much, I have to say that I was disappointed. Based on the title, and what I know about the director from reviews I've read on this sight, I was expecting an entertaining, violent, stupid low-budgeter. This is what I got, minus the entertainment.This movie, which focuses on a training mission in Vietnam that unexpectedly succumbs to an enemy ambush, is really just a bunch of tediously repetitive bare-knuckle fights and shoot outs mixed with a little bit of clichéd, banal war movie dialogue. I was really disappointed to find that most of the movie's dialogue is too boring to be unintentionally funny, and the and the action is to repetitive to be entertaining at all.The only part of the movie that that was the least bit interesting is one really weird scene in which we see the movie's two main heroes(Fritz Mathews and Ted Prior) heading off on their mission and hear William Smith's narration in the form of what sounds like some kind kind of bizarre poem. I couldn't help but smile while listening to Smith's odd, cornball commentary.Overall, this is a stupid and often boring film recommended only for David A. Prior aficionados and die-hard fans of the B action movie genre.
plantostickthat
When i rate an action film, i rate it on two levels, two extremely difficult tests. It needs to pass one of these to succeed. The tests are:1. Was it entertaining as a normal movie, and 2. Was it entertaining as a b grade film.This failed miserably on both levels.Basically the story goes: Seasoned veterans break army command and wins on the battlefield, but they need to be punished, so are assigned with hot shot new recruits. This turns bad when they are trapped in the bush by enemy soldiers and all they can do is wait.Apparently.......So basically the entire movie is us watching them sit in the trenches saying 'we can't go out because they outnumber us so badly'. About an hour of that. Now THAT is entertainment. And then, the stupidest part..... This one soldier just decides to wipe out THE ENTIRE ENEMY ARMY by himself, with his trusty machine gun. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHH.WHY DIDN'T HE JUST DO THAT AT THE START???? WHY SUBMIT US TO HOURS OF 'we can't leave the trench because we'll just get killed'. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHH. You get the idea of how angry it has made me..don't make the same mistake of watching it.
