This was a film that surprised the hell out of me. Sometime in 2009 I started reading reviews of this film that were praising it as a really good war film. That in and of itself is no surprise, it was the fact that the director Uwe Boll, a hack director of some ability but poor film choice, had managed to pull it all together and make a good film. I kind of thought the reviewers were mad, until I saw the film and realized that this was, on its own terms, a really good war film and one of the best independantly produced war films in some time.
This is the story of a bunch of US "tunnel rats", the guys who went into enemy tunnels alone and barely armed, over the course of a couple of days during the Viet Nam war. The plot has a bunch of replacement guys arriving at their new station in the jungle. The film follows them as they interact with the men already there and it then follows them as they go out on a mission, which unfortunately coincides with an enemy attack.
Tight, dark and claustrophobic this is a film that really knows how to ratchet up the suspense. You watch the film because, like the men in the tunnel you don't know what is coming next. People die horribly in traps and the fierce fighting. You wonder if anyone will get out of the situations they are put in to.
I really liked this film a great deal and can not understand how the director, the infamous Uwe Boll, can't make more films like it. I need to stress that whether Boll had directed it or not this is a very good film. I almost wish that Boll had used a different name when he made it since I doubt the film will ever get the attention it deserves because of who he is.
One of the genuine surprise of the year film wise, this is a wonderful little film thats light years better than many other recent low budget war films. If you like war films I highly recommend it
Currently out on DVD
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