Raiders of the Doomed Kingdom (1985)

Raiders of the Doomed Kingdom (1985)
Director: Sumat Saichur
Writer: Godfrey Ho
A group of Thai mercenaries set out to rescue a South-Vietnamese general and manage to kill off a lot of people and even land on an island of lepers!
'Highly entertaining war cheese from IFD films and penned by low grade legend Godfrey Ho. The film starts with a powerful montage of a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire, then napalm running naked kids, though once the IFD name flashes on screen, we know its all out cheese from here. After US troops pull out of Vietnam Cobra is made the leader of a small band of mercenaries . They are left to clean up any rogue communists and help free a captured general commander. Basically its a fun action romp for blokes, story's pretty light and involves a lot of running around jungles but thankfully we are never too far away from either violence or sex. Without sounding like I didn't enjoy it the film looks way bigger budget than its material really deserved it sports some huge action scenes and a cast of 1000s. American viewers maybe wise to give it a wide birth or at least be a little cautious as it paints the US in a pretty bad light, maybe one of the reasons it's not been given much of a chance in Western country's. You can't help but laugh though that they clearly use Asian actors for Americans by covering up their faces with either gas masks or sunglasses. That said I do remember more than a couple of American films that have portrayed Asians by painting a guy yellow and taping his eyes back. If your willing to overlook the political side of the film though, its a hugely entertaining movie that even gives John Woo a run for his money with how many blood squibs are used, think of it as the Apocalypse Now of cheeseball Indo/Thai action films.'

(7 out of 10)