Attack Force Z

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Better than average Aussie "B" feature, where the producers have certainly gained maximum bang for their buck in more ways than one. Let's be clear from the outset. This is a fictional story, supposedly based on the real life exploits of the Z force. The high body count pretty much attests to that. But high body counts do mean there is action and I have to admit some surprise as to how well director Tim Burstall, not really known for action films, choreographs the action sequences in this movie, bearing in mind that the budget he was working with was minimal. Still he cleverly manages to include realistically; a submarine, an exploding plane, fire - fights, martial arts and a climactic battle (of sorts). Attack Force Z may be many things, but it can't be accused of being dull. Burstall even manages to throw in a couple of unexpected twists. One of the supporting cast members who was (and arguably still is) a very well-known Australian actor of the 70's and 80's, plays a character who barely has 5 minutes of screen time before suffering a probable unforeseen fate. A bonus of course is we get to see both Mel Gibson (complete with Aussie accent) and Sam Neill playing together in pre-Hollywood fame roles. Gibson is the mission leader and Neill is effectively his trusty sidekick. I have to also say John Phillip Law plays the (token) American-Dutch, mandarin-speaking (LOL) character very competently. The story itself too is quite interesting with its variation on the war against the Japanese in the Pacific, by this time, strongly highlighting the involvement of the ethnic Chinese. I was pleasantly surprised with this film, as I'm sure others will be too.

Attack Force Z is a strange one. Based on fact, regarding an elite squad of soldiers on a mission to rescue an important man, believed to be a plane that's crashed, this is a group that takes no prisoners, and are frighteningly unrelenting Gibson had done this the same time as Gallipoli and is strong, in his role, as the head honcho, with great support from Neil, Haywood, and sadly a short lived Waters. The other, John Phillip Law, who played a character I really liked is more a lover than a fighter, and I was grateful, the screen time I had with this guy, one near 20 minute duration, before we cross back to Mel and squad. Yes, this film has great action, but I found the film, sloppy in bits + some cheesy moments. Yes, good research has gone into it, but this is just a forgettable film. Great music score, one the film's assets, above not many years. Definitely worth a view, for the actors, in their young, talented prime.

When the Japanese invaded the area of the Western Pacific in 1941-42, their occupation was a harsh one. The people native to the areas were brutally treated and often killed for minor transgressions. Due to the wide area occupied by the Japanese and the difficulty of mounting large scale amphibious operations, the Allied forces formed a set of small commando teams that would engage in quick strikes against high value targets. This overall unit was called Z Special Unit and was primarily made up from Australian and New Zealand volunteers. During the war, small teams from this unit engaged in some very successful raids, particularly against Japanese shipping docked at Singapore harbor. The rate of survivability of the members of a mission was very low, it was not unreasonable to consider them suicide missions. This movie features a team of five members of the Z Special Unit going ashore from a submarine in order to find what may be survivors of the crash of an Allied airplane. Only the commander knows all of what they are there for and there is a significant Japanese presence on the land. After some fighting and with assistance from the non-Japanese locals, the team discovers that there were survivors of the crash and the viewer learns why they are considered so valuable. While there are some incredulous moments in the action, it is generally realistic. By this, the end results are a questionable outcome with deaths among the members of the Z Special Unit. The Japanese are depicted as being brutal in pursuit of their goals. There are no super soldier moments, they are all depicted as no more than well trained soldiers. It is a good movie and while a work of fiction, it could and likely did happen.

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order I come to Attack Force Z from 1981. Plot In A Paragraph: A group of commandos go on a secret mission to check for survivors of a plane crash. By the numbers, cliché ridden, dull, flat and instantly forgettable. There are some good individual performances, but the film, though produced with efficiency and what looks like a decent budget, is tough to say great things about this movie. It probably wasn't helped by my DVD having a poor transfer. I'd go so far as to say if Mel Gibson and Sam Neil weren't in this movie it probably would have even had a DVD released.

Watched this movie at 11yrs old, and for a youngster who ran around in the woods of southeast Alabama playing "WAR" it was one of my favorites. Typical mission orientated film, starting off well until "MURPHY'S LAW" takes effect. Then it's on like donkey Kong to not only try and complete the mission, but to also survive in the process. It was good enough that my father joined me the second time I watched it and that made it even more special to me. As young as I was, it never occurred to me that Mel Gibson and Sam Neil starred in this movie until many many years later. My father was a US ARMY veteran and our discussions on the suppressed "grease guns" and other weapons and tactics were rememberable and hold a place in my heart. Can't say that it had any affect whatsoever to me becoming a US MARINE seven years later but I have always remembered this movie, simply because of the time spent with my father watching it. The "contact" scenes were entertaining, although lacking the special effects of other movies of this time and future followers. What can one expect at that time frame and for what appeared to be a mediocre budget. I can say this though; from this point on, in my future rolls of special forces war games in our local woods, my weapon of choice was a Volkswagen beetle car jack, which if anyone knows what these are, it closely resembles the "grease gun" style weapons used by the men of Attack Force Z, and I was the only one that had one...lol...I would own this movie if I could figure out how, so that I could watch it many more times, with my two sons. I also believe it would be entertaining for anyone in that similar situation... of course, there was no "CALL OF DUTY", "PLAYSTATION", "X-BOX" in those days, we did all of that in our little stretch of woods, with real camo and real friends that we talked to without headsets sitting in a chair... so, yes, I give it 7 out of 10, and we watched it, again and again because we had imagination and a spirit of play that has long left children of these days. SEMPER FI!

ATTACK FORCE Z is the only Aussie war movie I've seen yet besides RETURN FROM THE RIVER KWAI. It's fast-paced, fun, cheesy and plenty entertaining. Jon Phillip Law (DEATH RIDES A HORSE) stars as an Allied commando who leads 4 international commandos to rescue a Japanese defector from a Japanese-infested island in the Pacific. The movie features a lot of familiar plot elements, and strongly resembles the earlier American features AMBUSH BAY and BEACHHEAD. Only here, the movie is based on fact; a similar mission involving the "Z" Special Forces team was actually undertaken in the Pacific. The cast features a lot of young actors who were unknown at the time, including Mel Gibson (WE WERE SOLDIERS) as the team leader and Sam Neill as the radio operator. The movie is obviously pretty low budget, as the action scenes involve few extras and are mostly skirmishes between the 5 commandos and Japanese patrols. There's some great martial arts action as a Chinese commando judo-chops dozens of Japanese soldiers to their deaths. The final battle scene, in which a handful of Chinese resistance fighters hold off at least a few dozen Japanese soldiers with shotguns is corny, as the Japanese always charge right into oncoming fire and never attempt a flanking movement. One resistance fighter stands in the alley blasting away with a shotgun, only dying once he's taken 6+ direct hits and grenade fragments. The Japanese soldiers look and act like idiots and use American machineguns, and the Aussies have M3 machine-pistols with silencers that never run out of ammo and never miss -- but what the heck, it's pretty entertaining and logic-free entertainment. The musical score is great patriotic stuff by Eric Jupp, and the cinematography is pretty stunning. The Taiwanese crew does a great job with the little budget they had. The version shown on TNT and TBS once in a very great while is of good quality. Unfortunately, there were some scenes in Japanese and others in Chinese which lacked subtitles. The closed captions weren't much help either as they read, "Speaking in Oriental Language". I haven't seen the NTSC video yet because it's far too expensive for my taste. All in all, this really isn't the best war film out there. The action scenes bring the worst excesses to WINDTALKERS to mind as they're excellently photographed by defy all logic known to man. Still, the pace is fast, the characters good and the scenery is stunning. I give this a 6/10.

It's the war from Oz, the Australian View of the war against Japan, filled with violence and action, but ultimately rather ordinary and unimpressive. The only thing memorable about it is the casting of one secondary star and two future stars: Mel Gibson, John Phillip Law and Sam Neill. The John Waters that is billed is not the cult American director, but a well-known Australian actor. The rest of the ensemble are mainly Asian, including a bunch of adorable children who are obviously horrified by the war surrounding them. It's allegedly based on a real mission in the Dutch East Indies where this group of Australian soldiers go to search for survivors of a plane crash and end up hiding out from the Japanese who have taken over the island. They are helped by Asian locales in hiding, willing to kill the Japanese to help the allies prevail. It's rather dull even though some of the elements of violence a rather shocking such as the threat on one of the Asian children's lives to get information. Rather cheaply made, it's not aided by its poor photography which lacks any real depth of perception. That makes it nearly unwatchable. But it is realistic as far as the brutality is concerned, especially when it shows how people are willing to sacrifice their lives so freedom fighters can fight on.

I was just a kid when this film came out but even then watching the trailers for it, I knew it was a turkey. For whatever reason I never watched the film itself until last night simply because it starts with an "A" and was therefore the first in a list of films. This low budget film is known now for having Sam Neil and Mel Gibson, 2 rising stars who would star in some very big movies. I doubt that if those 2 weren't in it that this movie would still be spoken about today. It starts promising. It has a note from the Z Force Association stating that the film takes an unflinching look at Z Force operations. Hmmmm ok let's see.... Z Force was a real life Australian Special Forces unit which operated in WW2, they performed behind the lines, risky missions. All sounds great. The acting is pretty average, standard Aussie fare. I often wonder how people like Sam Neil and Mel Gibson started acting differently in American films. There are some Taiwanese actors in the film, in fact they outnumber the Aussie ones, there is some karate scenes which made me laugh as they looked a bit out of place and like they were thrown in because karate films were still big in 1981 and the Taiwanese actor seems to know how to do it. The action scenes are pretty small, it makes sense that these guys wouldn't fight pitch battles against huge armies they are not Rambo's but even so they are no where near as stealthy as you would think they should be. Overall the film is entertaining but I found myself feeling like I knew nothing more about the "Z Men" and that what I just watched was a fabrication. And a poor one at that.

ATTACK FORCE Z is a little-known low budget war film from Australia, featuring an all-star cast of familiar faces. The film was shot in Taiwan and also features a wealth of talent from a Chinese cast, including former Shaw Brothers star Jimmy Wang Yu who is completely unrecognisable playing a Japanese official. This film follows the usual men-on-a-mission format with Mel Gibson, John Phillip Law, and Sam Neill teaming up rescue the survivors of a plane crash who are hiding out from local Japanese forces. The low budget nature of the production actually works in the film's favour, giving it a grittily realistic look, and I loved the small scale nature of the action scenes which zing with excitement. None of the cast are at their best here, but Gibson, Law, and Neill are all reliably good and, most importantly, likable.