BYE BYE VIETNAM (1989)
DIRECTOR:
Gianfranco Clerici
CAST:
Christopher Alan, Antonio Sabato, Duria Harris, Graham Scott, Jr. Hofigan, Wim Brown, Robert Santos Pocheco, Ski Zawaski, Thomas Irving.
REVIEW:
An utterly bad Vietnam action movie from Fabrizio de Angelis, with no plot, bad acting (by some really bad actors) and some lame attempts at a dramatic anti-war sentiment.
During the height of the Vietnam War, a "platoon" of American GIs is about to go home. But when an American pilot is shot down, they must rescue him. The bulk of the movie has this ragtag band wandering around the jungle blowing away numerous NVA and, almost as often, eachother.
The no-name cast is made up actors I've never seen in any movie before - several names are pseudonyms I can't find on any site or one-film appearances - besides Antonio Sabato. He's a decent actor and it's a wonder he got conned into this mess. The characters are overdone stereotypes: the baby faced kid (who ironically is shaking and crying one moment, and stands up and blows away some VC the next); the long-haired killer; the black, reefer-smoking jive dude; and some cannon-fodder types. The characters are so bland and familiar that you won't care (or really notice) when one gets killed. They basically wander around swearing every other word and shooting off guns for any number of reasons so it's hard to differentiate from man to man.
The movie was shot on an extra-low budget, which is quite evident in the costumes, props, sets and action sequences. The men don't look organized - they all wear uniforms of different units (some airborne, some infantry, some Cavalry) and wear WWII style helmets. The Viet Cong and NVA wear Khakis and tan baseball caps (!) None carry accurate weapons; instead, they tote hunting shotguns, Tommy guns and Uzis. The sets are pretty bare-bones; a few empty tents in a small clearing is supposed to pass for a huge battalion encampment. White-painted civilian helicopters are supposed to pass for Hueys.
The action scenes are typically bad and unconvincing. Filled with slow-motion, computer-generated explosions; Viet Cong who stand still while getting shot; good guys who never run out of ammo and very bland photography. It's all a big, predictable bore. One long, drawn out "suspense" scene involving a booby-trapped VC peasant is so predictable that I was yelling at the TV - seriously - "Get this scene over with and move on with the movie, why don't you?"
Finally, the movie shifts from action to anti-war whenever somebody is killed. This gets really annoying, because you don't care that anyone dies in the first place, and the men take out their frustration by simply swearing at the sky as mournful music plays in the ground, while blood flows profusely from open wounds. Ever see an exploitation film denounce it's own graphic nature in the same shot? Well...
"Bye Bye Vietnam" is a totally trashy, unacceptable Vietnam action flick. It's got no plot, bad acting, bland action scenes and absolutely no budget whatsoever. Shot for about 5 dollars in what looks like South America, I strongly recommend that you don't even waste your time with this movie unless you need to see a truly crappy movie.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING:
1 Bullet
