Kill Zone (1993) User Reviews

Another Carradine clunker!

[fmarkland32 · 3/10 · 26 September 2006]

David Carradine stars as a bad ass military commander who not only disobeys orders but also kills villagers that help our good guy marines out! Despite this cold blooded display of politics, Carradine organizes his troops' ambush and kills those pesky Viet Cong who are hiding everywhere. Kill Zone as expected holds little credibility outside of just settling down and watching a one man army flick but the action sequences are shoddily choreographed and the look of the film incredibly cheap-jack, making this for Carradine enthusiasts only. Still you have to love Carradine's macho braggadocio which consists of unleashing the F-bomb and chewing his cigar.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

Low budget, low vote

[john_hirte · 3/10 · 29 October 2005]

Pretty corny movie. I love Dorsette, though. He is all buff and running around the jungle with no shirt, one arming an M60, ammo criss crossed over his chest, awesome! The acting is so deliberate it is funny. But what I really love about movies like this one is the close attention to detail. Any Marine, if they could stomach the movie, must be reeling over the horrible uniforms. I have not come up with a date the M203 Grenade Launcher was introduced into service but I was surprised to see it in the movie, the M79 was it's predecessor used in Vietnam. The 203 may have appeared toward the end of the war, the time this movie may have been set. You also have to appreciate all those well aimed shots as guys are running, turning and firing from the hip are beautiful! Whoever was the "Military Adviser" on this one should go spend some time with Dale Dye! Well, that's not fair, but wouldn't hurt. I'm sure whoever it was they did not set out to do a bad job. It may have been deliberate, who knows. If it weren't for movies like this one there wouldn't be anything to compare good ones to.

The Corman/Cirio jungle slogs are the blandest.

[tarbosh22000 · 3/10 · 14 March 2014]

In the thick of the Vietnam war, Col. Horace Wiggins (Carradine) is bent on the total annihilation of the enemy. He gets into disagreements with other military personnel about how to proceed executing the war. Wiggins is a hard man to deal with. When Wiggins disagrees with the soldiers on the ground, he goes into the firefight himself. Not only are there conflicts between the good guys and the enemy, but also the military brass and the soldiers. With all this conflict going on, will anyone ever escape the KILL ZONE? Another day, another exploding hut. Amazingly, this is yet another jungle slog that brings nothing new to the table. It all feels very familiar, because the footage we're watching actually IS familiar, as it's edited from other Cirio jungle classics. Actually it's a bit unfair to say there's nothing new. The name "Horace Wiggins" is pretty awesome. And Carradine brings a new level of incomprehensibility to the role because he says most of his lines while trying to keep a cigar in his mouth. It's hilarious to watch him try to multi-task like that. Despite his inspired name, his unintelligible mush-mouthiness detracts from what could have been a razor-sharp performance.

We kid the Carradine-ster, but this movie would be unthinkable without him. Take him out of the equation, and you would have, as I believe the saying goes, "bupkus". He actually really comes alive towards the climax of the movie. He sports a (not the most flattering) tanktop, dons a doo-rag with a skull and crossbones on it (because now he means business, you see) and starts growling like an animal. It's this type of energy that should have been going on the whole time in this movie. It seems they saved it all for the very end. Shame, really, as that would have lifted this particular guard-tower-fall/hut/jungle movie above the rest.

But the Corman/Cirio jungle slogs are the blandest. The best ones are the Italian ones. Yes, we've seen so many of them, we can actually define the subtle shades of the multifaceted jungle slog movie. It's like a fine wine or cheese. The Corman/Cirio outings are all consistent but mediocre. The Italian ones are more vibrant and have more ideas. The problem here is, as an audience, you don't CARE like you should. There's absolute zero on the character development front. If we maybe knew who these people were or there was an iota of backstory, we might care, but no. Apparently that crucial element that would turn the tide in their favor was too much to ask from these filmmakers.

If you want a nice sense of "jungle slog deja vu", check out Kill Zone (not to be confused with AIP's movie of the same name).

Another Carradine Classic!

[sharx000 · 27 February 2002]

Haven't found a Carradine Vietnam film that isn't a gem yet. Love the two attempts to break the pencil. No No.3 pencils thank you!! This film is another filled with great querks that only Carradine himself could pull of so good! Still trying to figure out if he tells the guy to "Act like I got a pair" or "Act like ya got a pair"..either way...way to go Carradine. Another great ending also!!!! They get better each time!

One of the worst vietnam movies i've ever seen

[pberthoty · 1/10 · 14 February 2023]

This movie is so bad it's hilarious. The same scene of the Vietcong getting blasted and jumping up the air. A whole group of 5American soldiers getting wiped out at once. A guy jumping out of the tower that gets blasted after he jumps. The background where Colonel so-called Carradine with a 50 caliber bullet Around his deck in a fakey background, It's ridiculous. As of vietnam veteran Writing this review while watching it, I could not even last through 10 minutes of this terrible movie.

Most of the u s and v c aren't even dressed correctly Turn on an alarm and on.

I had to turn it off before I started to puke, especially when I saw the philippino jeep driver that was supposed to be vietnamese.

Anybody that gives this more than one star has never been in combat much less been to vietnam.

Filipino Casualties of War

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 16 January 2019]

KILL ZONE is another nondescript Filipino Vietnam War flick from the prolific director Cirio H. Santiago. This one stars the inimitable David Carradine as the leader of a squad of American soldiers who go around blowing up a heck of a lot of stuff in the usual search-and-destroy missions, so expect copious stock explosions and the like. This film seems to be heavily inspired by CASUALTIES OF WAR and ends up in very dark territory, but overall it's quite slow, cliched, and predictable.

Why must every Vietnam war movie portray Americans as bad?

[radiocia · 2/10 · 2 April 2013]

I wanted to like this movie. In fact, until the last 15 minutes I did like it, for the most part.

It had its faults. Movies that use a lot of guns, even B-movies like this one, should hire someone that KNOWS something about guns to coach the actors. At the minimum, actors should be made aware of the concepts of muzzle and trigger discipline. They should be taught how sights work. These characters are frequently seen with boogerhooks on bang switches and pointing their guns at their buddies, and they mow down enemy relentlessly firing without aiming or even shouldering the weapon.

Because of that, I wanted to HATE this movie, but the acting wasn't that bad and the story was compelling. As B-movies go, it was much better than average, and certainly worth a watch.

We have a team sent on a secret, an unauthorized mission, and they accomplish it. Then we have a commanding officer show up and massacre the indigenous people who made it happen and assisted its success.

What started as a decent action-adventure war flick degenerates into just another left-wing presentation of how BAD America is, and those who serve Her.

Almost greatness

[Dedoctor · 8/10 · 10 December 2006]

This movie accurately shows the struggles of the U.S. Military in the Vietnam War. The clash between the higher ups and the men on the ground speaks true to the reason why we lost the war. Carradine's character is a man's man who should have run the war! I loved his quote "Maximize enemy casualties." While the action is a little far fetched the message is clear. This movie should be included in all of the Vietnam classics. With better sound editing this movie could have been on par with "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now". With the success of Tony Dorsett's character I think that the government should have drafted NFL players. The athleticism that they bring to the fight is impressive. I know a lot of you who have seen this movie are wondering what I am talking about but there is a lot of sub surface meaning here. This movie covers the philosophical debate of good vs. evil, Carradine vs. the NVA but don't forget evil will always try to resurface. Many of you may not know this but Carradine began his great acting career in martial arts films and hasn't looked back yet. We see an example of Carradine's Martial Arts background with his technical use of the sword. The most heart breaking moment of the movie is where Tony Dorsett's character make the ultimate sacrifice to allow himself to be killed in order to blow up the NVA weapons cache.