SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Bodo RAW FORCE was way more fun than I expected. It's darn campy, featuring ninja zombies, piranhas, cannibalistic monks and jade-dealing Nazis. This movie is also sometimes known as KUNG FU CANNIBALS ... which should tell you everything!The plot is "simple": A group of kung fu aficionados is on a journey to a haunted island where the spirits of forsaken martial arts fighters are said to live. On their journey, the cruise is intercepted by a Hitleresque crime lord and his fellows. The nazi gang trades prostitutes for jade with the flesh-eating monks of the island, and neither monks nor Nazis wants their scheme to be tampered with by some kung-fu-loving tourists...This short plot summary should say it all. You're not watching RAW FORCE for hoity-toity drama and high quality cinematography and plot development, but for its nonstop action and camp. What I really liked about the movie is that in contrast to some other B-movies, its pace never lets you down. The action is nonstop but not in a way that gets you bored. And you care for the characters just enough to watch this movie till the end. Definitely one of the more fun B-movies, although the gore factor could be amped up. Overall quite enjoyable, especially when with friends.

Scott LeBrun A group of martial arts students decides that they will visit the Asian island home of martial artists who have lost their honour. Well, not only will they have a nefarious jade dealer & white slave trader to deal with, but the resident mad monks as well."Raw Force" is short on sense and long on nonsense. If one is not partial to the charms of the silly side of B cinema, then stay away! Otherwise, this is great fun that writer / director Edward Murphy is wise to play tongue in cheek. You have to hand it to him for including so many exploitable elements in this wild and crazy flick: cannibalism, zombies, karate, etc. The dialogue and performances are often quite ridiculous, and while the actors stop short of winking at the camera, Murphy does keep that tone alive.The special effects are lousy, the zombies are a rather sad lot sporting less than stellar grey makeup, the T & A quotient is high (at one point, a hero and villain have a fight in a room where a naked woman is tied up), and the gore is plentiful.Ubiquitous Cameron Mitchell has the leading role of intrepid pleasure ship captain Harry Dodds. Co-starring are his real-life girlfriend Hope Holiday as Hazel, Geoffrey Binney ("Hot Potato") as Mike, Jillian Kesner ("Firecracker") as Cookie, John Dresden ("Not of This Earth" '88) as John, and Filipino icon Vic Diaz, rarely to be seen without a smile on his face, as one of the monks. Exploitation fanatics will dig the appearances by Camille Keaton ("I Spit on Your Grave" '78) and Jewel Shepard ("The Return of the Living Dead"). Ralph Lombardi hams it up, egregious accent and all, as the Hitler lookalike villain.We even get a couple stock shots from the New World production "Piranha" '78 before this is over. "Raw Force" is unmistakably gutter trash, but is done with enough humour and spirit to make it engaging entertainment.Eight out of 10.

HumanoidOfFlesh Very ludicrous grindhouse exploitation trash with plenty of sleaze and tons of odd moments that ooze hilarity.The plot is completely nonsensical:it has something to do with drugs and something called Jasper Jade and an island where one can be found.There are zombies under the influence of the cult of diabolical monks,naked women in bamboo cages,low-rent karate fights and plenty of sleaze.The odd assortment of goofy characters will stupefy even the most die hard exploitation fans.There is even Hitler-moustached villain Speer.The blood flows freely in this wonderful exploitation flick.The acting and the dialogue are so bad it hurts,but "Raw Force" is an perfect example of exploitation brilliance.A must-see for fans of "Deadly Prey" and "Cannibal Ferox".8 out of 10.

lemon_magic Actually, I mean that in a good way. This film is cheap, toxic and putrid in a way that Troma Productions ("Toxic Avenger", etc) can only aspire to. The film is an absolute classic of its type - it throws in almost every exploitation movie gimmick you could hope for, and serves it up in a wonderful mess that will leave you scratching your head (and checking your pubic hair for lice that may have spontaneously generated while you were watching the movie). After a pretty repulsive start, "Raw Sewage", er, "Raw Force" quickly turns into a typical Filipino trash fest, featuring some karate-kicking meat heads who proceed to punch and kick pretty much everything and everyone else - but mostly pirates, slavers, and zombies. No movie in which pirates, slavers and zombies get kicked in the face is ever a complete waste of time. The fights (which break out seemingly ever two or three minutes) are actually fairly well done, even if the camera work and editing are lacking. The Asian guy is especially decent - he's trying too hard to channel Bruce Lee, but his moves are more "Shaw Brothers" than the rest, which makes for a welcome contrast. Cameron Mitchell is in here, which should tell you a lot. Cameron is usually the best actor in a bad movie, but he just plain sucks in this one, which is unusual. On the other hand, the lead "hero", this Binney guy, is actually kind of cool. He can't really act either, but he's fairly relaxed and understated (in a way that reminds me of Edward Norton, of all people) and the character he plays is likable and admirable.What else? Well, at one point the karate guys are putting on an "exhibition" for an audience on their cruise ship and one of the guys has a power lifting belt as part of his uniform. At another point, the 2nd assistant pirate/slaver points a prop carbine at the heroes and pulls the trigger and waves it around, and the Foley artist supplies the sounds of automatic weapon fire,but the prop doesn't have any blanks in it, so you get the same effect as if he were waving a toy - "B-dow! B-Dow! I got you!!" In fact, this happens TWICE. You want more? This movie GIVES you more. The "zombies" are all painted blue, and instead of having them actually shamble or stumble or drag their feet or anything, the camera just switches to jerky slow motion whenever they are on the move. (Ooooh, spooky!!) At one point a party breaks out on the cruise ship, and it's like watching a John Waters film only with less sentimental and heartfelt emotion. (That's a joke.) After about 5 minutes of that party, I was actually eager for the pirates to come on board and kill everyone. And when the one of the pirates throws the match to ignite the gasoline they've splashed all over the cruise ship, the director superimposes a matte shot of a flaming explosion on the screen because apparently they couldn't afford the special effects for an actual explosion. Did I mention that the main bad guy has a white suit, a Hitler mustache, a comb-over, Coke bottle-bottom glasses and speaks with a thick "Cherman" accent? That the only speaking part for the corrupt cannibalistic monks who eat the flesh of young women to raise disgraced martial artists from the dead belongs to Victor Diaz? That at one point the monks brush a half naked young woman with a giant BBQ brush covered in sauce? And that the movie ends with a piranha attack? Trust me...if you only see one exploitation film in your lifetime, this is the one to see. It's got everything, and its cheap and sloppy and half-baked and the makers don't care who knows it.