Verraten in Vietnam

I'm kind of surprised no IMDb user has posted a user comment on this movie before me. Guess it's up to me to get the ball rolling. Anyway, the copyright in the end credits for this movie attributes the owners of the movie to be the "Santa Fe Pension Plan and Trust". I wonder how the investors of this movie reacted when they saw what their retirement dollars made. This is an often strange Vietnam exploitation movie. There's a good amount of sex and nudity (a trademark of prolific Filipino movie producer Cirio Santiago), but there's far less action than you might think. There are long stretches where there's no action at all. And when there is action, there is often a surreal feeling to it, from the inappropriate music to the odd direction. Adding to the surreal feeling are some glaring gaps where some key explanation to what's happening is needed but never comes. The production values aren't bad for a cheapo Filipino B movie, but the fairly good look and the sexual material don't make up for a story that is more often than not slow and passionless. If you must see an entry in the EYE OF THE EAGLE series, I recommend you look for part 3, which has a good amount of flaws but redeems itself with some expertly made action sequences.

My review was written in June 1989 after watching the movie on MGM/UA video cassette.

The followup, alternatively titled "Killed in Action (K. I. A.)", has little relationship to its direct-to-video ancestor save both are Filipino-lensed Vietnamese War movies.

Several crew members and one G. I. (Mike Monty encore in a minor tale of a private (William Field), cast for his resemblance to Charlie Sheen) who befriends a lovely Vietnamese girl (Shirley Tesoro) with dire consequences.

She's turned into a drug addict and forced into prostitution by Field's commanding officer, evil Major Sorenson (Andy Wood in a bland portrayal). When Field tries to spill the beans, instead of the promised court martial all he gets is a coverup by Sorenson. Pic ends up with lots of chasing around and a thoroughly unsatisfying finale.

Actor-turned-director Carl Franklin displays the requisite technical skill but had better find better scripts. Cast is okay but unchallenged by this material.