Reviews

I've had a special place in my heart for this movie since I first saw it skewered on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Elvira took a shot at it, too. It is the perfect set-up for parody, and I can't watch it without mind-altering leaps to the absurd.

It holds up as well as any of this genre do, and if you're in the mood for a 1950s B (or C or D) horror flick with a pseudo-scientific explanation this will fill the bill. Just don't expect "The Day the Earth Stood Still" - it is what it is. If you want something good watch "Them." This makes a pretty good double-feature with "The Beginning of the End." I've seen it packaged in a collection of Gamera movies, one of the nine movies for eight bucks things, where it really doesn't belong.

If you are going to see this I recommend getting the MST3K version if you can find it, because it's hysterical. The Elvira DVD is pretty much intact, with an interruption for her to give a pretty funny analysis of one of the scenes. Both of these are from better quality prints than most of the versions you find of the movie alone.

I gave it a rating of 8 for being an excellently awful genre flick.

First off this is not really a war movie. It is set in the (when it was made) present day. Viet Nam is my generation's war. How we lived with it, how we lived after it, shaped my generation. This movie is a look into the emotional roller-coaster that re-living the war can be for those who were there. The war scenes are used to illuminate the present day conflicts.

Maybe it was because I saw this at 2 AM, maybe it just brought back some memories; I don't know. Casper Van Dien is a little light for the lead, I admit, but the writing and pacing on this film are very effective. Listen to the words and watch some very good acting by the rest of the cast.

The American video title of "Under Heavy Fire" is just wrong. Even when I try to justify it by the heavy emotional fire soldiers took coming home it doesn't work. The plot, a journalist taking a group of Marines back to Viet Nam to re-live a tragic event, is almost wish fulfillment for some of us.

It is a movie about the soldiers, not the war. It is a deeper look than I expected at the cost of surviving when so many didn't. The war scenes were believable, although light by some standards. The present day scenes were well done and believable, with some very powerful moments.

It's well worth the time to watch.