I have watched a very large amount of the movies made by David A. Prior. `Jungle Assault' would be my last one to watch made by him under AIP Studios (though I still have four more of his films outside of that company to see), and it seems fitting that this was the last one as it is almost an embodiment of many of Prior's other AIP films. It has most of the same elements, like Vietnam vets, hokey shoot-em-up scenes, William Smith, and the forests of Alabama posing as a steamy jungle. At the same time, this movie takes some of Prior's better elements and mixes them in with some of his worst elements, resulting in a film neither good nor bad. Just there.
William Zipp and Ted Prior are the film's protagonists, two Vietnam vets that have been drifters since the war days, going from town to town, drinking as much liquor as they can and wandering away when they get bored. After getting in a barroom brawl with some local tough guys (which was actually a pretty good B-level fight scene), they are contacted by their former commanding officer, played by William Smith. Smith, now a retired general, asks his old friends to do him a big favor by going into a foreign country and bringing back his daughter. Said daughter is a political activist that has joined up with some terrorists that she thinks are freedom fighters, and Smith wants her away from them before she is killed. A few odd things I found here: This is supposed to be a South American country. Unless I heard wrong, it was a communist country, of which there aren't any in the Americas except for Cuba. It also wasn't clear why the terrorists bothered to keep Smith's daughter around. She seemed to be giving them some exposure, but they didn't seem to need it. Oh well, I guess it doesn't much matter, for all that matters is that terrorist leader Rosa is bad and needs to be stopped. So the boys infiltrate the country because they have nothing better to do. Now here is where all the good elements stop. Before this point, it was all fun and games with Zipp and Prior. I was liking their goofy characters and looking forward to more. There was that good fight scene and of course Smith. I thought Smith's scenes and dialogue were all good, but once we go from the streets of Alabama to the woods of Alabama, all the bad elements come into play. Zipp and Prior immediately run into some drug runners, guys dressed so hilariously you won't believe it when you see them. Our heroes are rescued by a British soldier that tells them he is an operative that will help them out. Zipp and Prior trust him (despite a warning by Smith to trust no one) and the result is their immediate capture. The operative is actually Rosa's right hand man, a mercenary played by David `Mr. Armageddon' Marriott. From here on out the good guys spend the movie escaping from the bad guys and picking off the rebel army one by one in what comes off as a conglomeration of David Prior's `Deadly Prey' and `Operation Warzone,' two really poor films. While `Operation Warzone' came a year later, there is little denying the similarities in the shooting scenes. Gunplay onscreen has always been David Prior's weakest aspect, and it really shows.
I don't hate this movie like I do `Deadly Prey' and `Operation Warzone.' It could be that I actually liked the goofy song played over the end credits, or that I liked the beginning third of the movie. Or maybe it was just that I was all done with Prior's AIP collection. What a joyous thing! Zantara's score: 5 out of 10.
