Violent Zone

This preposterous movie is filmed upon a Philippine island, the opening scene occurring in summer of 1945, as the Pacific Theatre of operations during World War II is nearly at an end, then moves forward to the present, again upon the island, where is gathered a motley group of mercenaries for an assignment that the scenario never actually reveals, but is ostensibly a mission organized by a wealthy man to locate his long-lost son reported to be in the hands of Vietnamese as a latter-day prisoner of war at some other place entirely. This all seems to be a trifle shy of logic, but it rapidly becomes worse as each mercenary is given a million dollars to accomplish something that is never revealed and there is upon the island an evil person (or persons) engaged in an attempt to kill the visitors (each of whom has been selected for a never defined specialty), although we can expect none too soon in the minds of viewers who will be hungry for any hint as to what is actually taking place upon the screen. The script, direction, and production values are extraordinarily poor, with possibly the most noteworthy scene being that during which a villain nears a cave that serves as sanctuary to four people and, after yanking the detonation pin from a grenade, he delivers a threatening and lengthy address to the beleaguered quartet, three of whom, including two women, slowly push a massive granite statue of Buddha that would appear to weigh three tons or more across the floor of the cave so that the torpid grenade will bounce from it, and that it does, rolling back and finally exploding at the feet of its thrower, who is therewith flung through the air to his apparent demise; but no matter, he soon pops up, sound of body and clothing, to reenter the fray, and this is but a small sample of the imbecility that never quite reaches a zenith in this dreadful piece.