Cannibal Mercenary (1983)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This film is about a Thai Vietnam vet whose daughter is dying from polio agrees to go into the jungle and take out a drug lord who has an army of cannibals. Now if that ain't a cool plot I don't know what is. So it literally starts with our main character having a Vietnam flashback and then just doing some John Wick level stuff. So this guy offers him the job of saving some girl from the jungle and in return he'll get seven grand which I'm sure is enough to help is daughter. So when you see this characters hotel room, it looks kinda like the hotel room scenes in the opening of Apocalypse Now this film is basically a low budget horror version of Apocalypse Now.For Starters the English dub is bad, not the worst I've ever heard but its pretty bad although I think it adds to the cheesy entertainingly bad nature of the film, same goes for the writing. Really everything is of bad quality other than some of the camera work and technical aspects. Also the gore in the film is well done and one of the more memorable aspects of the film that in combination with the bonkers plot and bad dubbing makes for a good time. The movie has this problem when there are a few scenes where you go in and assume that it is either a flashback or actually happening and they film doesn't tell you so you have to kinda sit there and wait for the movie to let you know which adds to the hilarious ineptness and humorous confusion the film has going on. This film is quite the gem of a bad movie and its surprisingly entertaining while it doesn't live up to its title. Also the film steals music from Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead which I thought was pretty funny and it isn't just used once its used like 7 times and every time it seems just out of place also music from Goblin's soundtrack to Dawn of the Dead is used. Plus all the Viet-Cong wear bright blue shirts and shorts with racist conical hats which make the film all the more cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. Its got this almost Ed Wood like quality with some of its continuity errors and stuff like that.On the Gore Meter from one to ten One being something like Nosferatu and ten being something like Peter Jackson's Braindead Its a 4.5 not too gory but there is gore to be seenHonestly I'm sad that a company like Arrow Video hasn't picked this title up cause I'd love to see an HD widescreen transfer of this film. Its exploitation trash cinema gold and the fact that it doesn't have much of a following or at least a decent release is a shame. I will admit it gets a little bit boring toward the half way mark but it quickly picks up. I'm gonna give it a 3.5/5

Long, brutal, everything-goes action adventure with awful dubbing and some pretty painful dialogue, yet loaded with stunning amounts of shocking violence, edited by a madman, rough around the edges, with awkward orchestral music(..and yet ANOTHER movie "borrowing" Goblin's score to DAWN OF THE DEAD!)choppily added here and there. This film's pace is the very definition of breakneck, and the mission is epitome of bleak for our heroes, Thai soldiers,who must brave every giant obstacle imaginable trying to make it through the jungle occupied by the Viet Cong, to find a woman with a designated target for them to assassinate(..a drug lord whose men are cannibals with machine guns and a taste for absolute carnage). Our heroic leader accepts an assignment from his former commanding officer to infiltrate an enemy in exchange for money that can help his sick daughter get the operation she needs. He, and his brave men(..who are all a bit unorthodox and hard to manage at times, their leader needing to crack the whip to keep them in line when they threaten the assignment at hand), will have to withstand more than many would be able to in order to complete the mission.Bodies are torn apart by bullets, several are beheaded, a stake is hammered into a skull while the victim is buried from the neck down(..this after the poor guy had to suffer firecrackers exploding between his legs!), a castration, a little girl is gunned down in front of her mother, cannibals eat brains right from the open skull of a murdered soldier, eyes are gouged out, an ax is slammed right into a shoulder, and a victim is extended in the air by a noose around his neck(..his head shot multiple times). Blood often gushes from wounds and while bound by rope, soldiers' faces are urinated on! One of our heroes soldiers scales a tree, brings down a snake, and toys with it for entertainment. One female spy's identity is uncovered and she's subsequently executed on the spot without mercy. Our hero attempts to rescue a fallen soldier, hoisting him on his shoulders, running through hostile territory as enemy forces unleash a flurry of gunfire, only for him to get riddled with bullets. The director emphasizes the horrors of war, shooting the mortified faces of the Thai soldiers who witness unspeakable acts of cruelty by their opposition. Practically an entire village is slain when the Thai soldiers attempt to save the little girl who is killed in an unflinching manner. And, the climax is incredibly depressing.I had never even heard of this movie(..the version sent to me was titled JUNGLE KILLERS, but from what I understand this is the true cut of the movie, itself not of the greatest quality)before it was sent to me by a real cool dude, and I thought it was surprisingly entertaining. Strong performance from the lead actor, he contributes both emotionally and physically to the role. There are some explosions of martial arts sequences which look quite demanding to those who engage in fights(..a standout sequence has the Thai soldiers attempting to battle a large assortment of baddies who outnumber them).

The plot (of sorts) concerns a tough ex soldier who is coerced into undertaking one last mission in Vietnam in order to pay for the vital operation that will save the life of his daughter who is suffering from polio.Setting off into the jungles with a few rag tag comrades the mission is to locate a female contact who will reveal unto them the nature of their objective (why in the hell couldn't the bloke who hired them just inform them in the first place?!) The problem here though is that our boys don't actually meet up with the woman until about two thirds of the way into the film! In other words there is no discernible plot whatsoever until this point!!! All we get are our hero's wandering aimlessly around the jungle, falling foul to a number of grisly VC set traps and getting into a number of skirmishes every now and then.I have to say that the film suffers horribly from obvious padding throughout and is further ruined by truly some of the worst voice over work I have ever heard. Added to this, it's a badly structured and unforgivably boring affair for the most part.However…….. the last 30 minutes do admittedly pick up admirably when our hero's mission is finally revealed. Their task is to assassinate a drug dealing Colonel who is leading a bunch of cannibals! - Cue some pleasantly gory torture scenes which should certainly please all fellow gore hounds! The very best bit for me though was an hilarious scene in which three of our hero's are mistaken for VC forces and captured by some simple villagers who promptly tie them down and proceed to urinate on their faces! The act itself coupled with the expressions of relief on the perpetrators faces had me in absolute hysterics……but it gets even better for when the main hero turns up to clear up the misunderstanding one of his men complains lethargically and I quote 'They peed all over us.' whilst another comes out with the classic line, 'You know it really smelt like champagne.'(!!!) For a similar, but more enjoyable gory war flick try also Jungle Heat.

A special forces Sergeant named Wilson is sent into the Viet Nam jungle to find and hunt down an army of bloodthirsty cannibals headed by a demented war criminal."Cannibal Mercenary" is one hell of a brutal and gory flick.The acting is quite convincing and the film offers plenty of war images including numerous shoot-outs and explosions.The actor who plays a broken anti-hero Wilson is especially good.The camera work is awesome and the gore is absolutely brutal.For example there are decapitations,throat slashings,castrations and lots of ultra-violent torture on display.The scene where one man is buried up to his neck and his unprotected head is cracked open with hammer and chisel has to be seen to be believed.Overall,"Cannibal Mercenary" is a very nasty Thai exploitation flick that should especially satisfy fans of Italian cannibal flicks.If you are not easily offended,give this gruesome shocker a look.8 out of 10.