Jungle Assault

I have watched a very large amount of the movies made by David A. Prior. `Jungle Assault' would be my last one to watch made by him under AIP Studios (though I still have four more of his films outside of that company to see), and it seems fitting that this was the last one as it is almost an embodiment of many of Prior's other AIP films. It has most of the same elements, like Vietnam vets, hokey shoot-em-up scenes, William Smith, and the forests of Alabama posing as a steamy jungle. At the same time, this movie takes some of Prior's better elements and mixes them in with some of his worst elements, resulting in a film neither good nor bad. Just there.

William Zipp and Ted Prior are the film's protagonists, two Vietnam vets that have been drifters since the war days, going from town to town, drinking as much liquor as they can and wandering away when they get bored. After getting in a barroom brawl with some local tough guys (which was actually a pretty good B-level fight scene), they are contacted by their former commanding officer, played by William Smith. Smith, now a retired general, asks his old friends to do him a big favor by going into a foreign country and bringing back his daughter. Said daughter is a political activist that has joined up with some terrorists that she thinks are freedom fighters, and Smith wants her away from them before she is killed. A few odd things I found here: This is supposed to be a South American country. Unless I heard wrong, it was a communist country, of which there aren't any in the Americas except for Cuba. It also wasn't clear why the terrorists bothered to keep Smith's daughter around. She seemed to be giving them some exposure, but they didn't seem to need it. Oh well, I guess it doesn't much matter, for all that matters is that terrorist leader Rosa is bad and needs to be stopped. So the boys infiltrate the country because they have nothing better to do. Now here is where all the good elements stop. Before this point, it was all fun and games with Zipp and Prior. I was liking their goofy characters and looking forward to more. There was that good fight scene and of course Smith. I thought Smith's scenes and dialogue were all good, but once we go from the streets of Alabama to the woods of Alabama, all the bad elements come into play. Zipp and Prior immediately run into some drug runners, guys dressed so hilariously you won't believe it when you see them. Our heroes are rescued by a British soldier that tells them he is an operative that will help them out. Zipp and Prior trust him (despite a warning by Smith to trust no one) and the result is their immediate capture. The operative is actually Rosa's right hand man, a mercenary played by David `Mr. Armageddon' Marriott. From here on out the good guys spend the movie escaping from the bad guys and picking off the rebel army one by one in what comes off as a conglomeration of David Prior's `Deadly Prey' and `Operation Warzone,' two really poor films. While `Operation Warzone' came a year later, there is little denying the similarities in the shooting scenes. Gunplay onscreen has always been David Prior's weakest aspect, and it really shows.

I don't hate this movie like I do `Deadly Prey' and `Operation Warzone.' It could be that I actually liked the goofy song played over the end credits, or that I liked the beginning third of the movie. Or maybe it was just that I was all done with Prior's AIP collection. What a joyous thing! Zantara's score: 5 out of 10.

William Smith's daughter is kidnapped in a overseas land, so he asked William Zipp and ted Prior (director's brother) to rescue her from a British villian David Marriot. The film is another Mobile, AL action film made by Action Internation Pictures, and the film is pretty poor looking. Smith only appears once, but there is a photo in back of the box that wasn't in the film, so he might have been cut out at the end scene. Lots of cheap prop shack blown up and one helicopter explosition. The end credit song "Freedom" is funny!

All of David Prior's movies are terrible on all counts: bad writing, bad acting, bad cinematography, no budget (the director's brother is usually cast as the male lead). But they all have incredible entertainment value because of their unintentional hilarity. The plot of almost every David Prior "film" (as I like to refer to them) is basically the same. Manly all-American commandos team up to blow up Communist baddies. But unlike other Cold War-era garbage such as Red Dawn, Prior's movies are actually funny because of their over-the-top premises and acting. The best part of Jungle Assault is the scene in which Becker (or was is the other dude?) is being summoned by General Mitchell for a top-secret mission in South America. The funniest line in the movie is then delivered, something to the effect of "this is my roommate, I trained him well". WHAT. You trained your roommate? And apparently this is going to be their solution to avoiding eviction.

If you can find these gems on video used anywhere, BUY THEM. They are all funny and even funnier after a few beers. Watch them with a group of your friends for a true MST3K-style experience. So far my friends and I have managed to get a hold of Night Wars and Aerobicide aka "Killer Workout". But the one I recommend the most over them all is Final Sanction, with the freakish-looking Robert Z'dar.

My review was written in September 1989 after watching the movie on AIP video cassette.

Nicely made actioner "Jungle Assault" has prolific made-for-video helmer David Prior switching his sights from war in the Far East to skirmishes in Latin America.

William Smith toplines as a retired U. S. Army general who organizes a small force to go south of the border for his daughter (Joannie Moore), who has been duped and is helping the anti-American forces down there.

There are effective battle scenes here, but the best element is a feisty rebel leader, played to the hilt by Maria Rosado, who's both sexy and sinister.

Imagine the worst A-team episode Add even more bad taste Remove humor and you might get an idea of how despicable this movie is ! Looks like a teenager stole Daddy's Camcorder and filmed the explosion of his little sister Barbie model house. Pathetic.