Jungle Heat (1985)- * *1\2
Directed by: Jobic Wong
Starring: Sam Jones and Mei Sheng Fan
In the waning days of the Vietnam war (presumably around 1975 or so but it's never said specifically) the American forces evidently need truck drivers for supply runs. Maybe it's because of all the previous casualties, but they can't find any drivers. So a ragtag team is assembled and quickly trained. The head of the New Truck Driver Training Unit, which is presumably what this endeavor is called, is Gordon (Jones). After some training, which is brief by Army standards but lengthy by movie-viewing standards, the guys are sent off into the deadly jungles of 'Nam. Many obstacles are thrown in their way, but none are more challenging than the head baddie (played by Mei Sheng Fan of Story of Ricky and Attrition fame), a sadistic torturer. Some kidnappings, shootings, blow-ups, truck chases, and other exploding-hut-esque activities follow, and it's all capped off by a bizarre motorbike competition to see who can skid under a logging truck. Maybe the JUNGLE HEAT is getting to us all...
When the first shot of any film is a framed picture of Richard Nixon on the wall, which then zooms out so the dialogue and and action can begin, you know you're in for a good time. Well, some of the time. Not this time. But still, it was a wacky start and there are some noteworthy things about the largely lackluster Jungle Heat.
It helps if you're a Sam Jones fan. He brings some interest and life to the proceedings, his classic spiky brush cut towering over the other, smaller-in-stature and less-stylishly-coiffed cast. Unfortunately, his voice is dubbed just like everyone else in the film, and if you know Sam Jones's voice, as we all do, the overdubbed voice he was given seems to not be a fit. Those loud, no-subtlety, nattering voices that seemed all the rage at this time are punishing on the ears. They make the explosions and gunfire sound like Barry White by comparison.
Jones was also a truck driver in Driving Force (1989), so he was familiar with plots involving...truck driving. It may not be the most thrilling way to kick off an action film, but it's all in the execution. Sadly, Jungle Heat doesn't focus on execution (unless you count some unlucky POW's). The film just lazily goes from incident to incident, winding and babbling like the Mekong river itself. This lax and basically structureless approach to plotting is similar to Karate Warrior 6 (1993): something happens, then something else happens, then maybe something else, but there's no continuity or "glue" holding it all together. Maybe this flies in some countries, but to our American eyes it just seems boneless and blobby.
Adding to the negatives column, there are huge swathes of time where Sam Jones is absent. However, as indicated earlier, it's not a total loss: There's a classic silly barfight to watch out for, and some of the violence is pretty wicked, including a standout gore moment that was appreciated, but seems tonally out of whack with the rest of the goings-on. We always mention "PT", or Prerequisite Torture, which, in a post-Rambo world, was, well, prerequisite for these lower-budgeted productions. They needed an inexpensive way to stand out and that was how they chose to do it. Jungle Heat takes it a bit far, with more torture than its Mercs-box-set/When-The-Vietnam-War-Raged-In-The-Philippines competitors, even making its main baddie not simply a baddie, but a huge torture fan.
Also of note is that the bald guy on the good guys (?) team was apparently named Mazo, but all we heard was "Matzoh". The idea that an East Asian warrior man would be named Matzoh is so unbelievably absurd that you just have to laugh. Or maybe not. I hear he's a big hit at Passover Seders.
There is a rare movie that, as of this writing, we're looking for: Jungle Heat (AKA Rapid Fire) from 1988. It has Cynthia Rothrock, George Chung, Leo Fong, Chuck Jeffreys, and Richard Norton. Based on the cast alone, it's probably better than this film of the same name from '85. There are also other movies called Jungle Heat out there: one dates all the way back to 1927, another from 1957, and one from 1983, which is also called Dance of the Dwarfs and stars Peter Fonda and Deborah Raffin. Just to avoid any confusion, the one under discussion today was directed by Jobic Wong (which sounds more like an argument over a pen: "That ain't Jobic, that's my Bic!").
In the end, if you like movies like War Camp or maybe even Dog Tags, you may be able to wring some entertainment value out of the rag that is Jungle Heat. Sam Jones has done better, and there are far more explosive and entertaining entries in the Exploding Hut genre, such as Mannigan's Force or Commander. Maybe go with those instead, unless you're on a quest to see every Jungle film of all time.
Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty
