Bob I recommend watching this with friends while drinking, partly because although it's supposed to have *some* comic relief, all the funniest elements are unintentional, including bizarrely out-of-place dubbed accents and the villain's ridiculous laugh. (In other words, watch the english dub rather than the original subbed.) The action is great and there's a lot of it, in the final act there's literally something exploding or being machine gunned, or both, on screen at all times. Rounding things off is better-than-it-needed-to-be music which drips 80's action film aesthetic, it sounds a bit like Vangelis at points.

Don Bendell "This movie is kind of an amalgamation of The Dirty Dozen and Rambo, with Lam Ching-Ying bringing a group of convicts (Sammo being the leader amongst them) into Vietnam to complete a dangerous mission. Even though there are some attempts at emotion and symbolism sprinkled throughout the movie, the emphasis here is on action. There is just enough exposition to get the the next action sequence, then a bit more story, some more action, and so on. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I would much rather watch an action movie just be a straight-forward adrenalin fest than yet another Killer wannabe. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the non-action bits. I found the characters quite engaging and enjoyed getting to know more about them, especially Max Mok as the resident wise ass, Wu Ma as the crusty old-timer, and Joyce Godenzi (Sammo's wife) as a Cambodian mercenary. There are also some genuinely moving dramatic parts as well, most notably a Deer Hunter-style game of Russian roulette that involves children.But, as I said before, the emphasis in Eastern Condors is on the action, and it delivers it in spades. This is one of those rare movies where it's hard to pick out your favorite sequence because they're all so good. Sammo and Yuen Biao do the majority of the fighting (as well as doing some amazing stunts), but most of the cast gets in a few licks during the movie. It was really cool seeing guys like Corey Yuen and Yuen Woo-Ping showing their stuff on screen, versus the behind-the-scenes work they do now. Of course, most of the guys get killed off until a final confrontation between the remainder of the force and the Vietnamese bosses, which is a stunning fight, and like the rest of this movie, should not be missed by any martial arts/action fan. Eastern Condors is definitely one of Sammo's best films and comes highly recommended."

winner55 This is the original "balls-to-the-wall" Hong Kong action film. really, once the ex-con commandos parachute into Vietnam to dispose of a hidden arsenal the US left behind during the pull-out, the action never stops. Shootings, stabbing, explosions, and wild kung fu - with almost no discernible wire-works - the film is virtually one violent confrontation after another.which of course is the weakness of the film. Although Sammo Hung became known as a director thanks largely to an exquisite sense of the comedic, the comic touches here get swamped by the action. also, we never get to know any of these fighters very well - character development reduces to a selection of whatever cliché would fit a character if the character had a personality. None of them do. And finally I have to remark that what little drama there really is in the film, is all pretty grim.Still, this film is not, in the last analysis, about drama, character, or humor; it sets out to be THE action film of its decade. Whether it succeeds or not is debatable; but it certainly makes the right effort for it.

Unicorn-9 A gang of convicts are offered a choice: stay in jail, or take their chances on a dangerous mission into enemy territory, and win their freedom if they survive. Sound familiar? Of course it does, 'Eastern Condors' is 'The Dirty Dozen', remade Hong Kong style.Technically, by Western standards it's not the best of movies, with some bad cuts, color matching problems, step-printed slow motion, and my Chinese DVD has some pretty awful compression artifacts in places. Other things that might offend Western audiences are the (typical for HK) politically incorrect treatment of women, and a certain amount of anti-Amercanism, though that's entirely redeemed by the last few lines in the movie.If you can look beyond all that it has some great visual direction by Sammo Hung, plenty of comedy, great martial arts and acrobatics, cute guerrilla girls (and I've always regarded the M60 machinegun as the ultimate female fashion accessory 8-)), interesting and unusual characters, impressive stunts and all the imaginative action scenes you'd expect from Hong Kong; in particular, the brilliant final martial arts showdown with the Laughing Vietnamese General, one of the most memorable characters in the movie.So if you're an action movie fan with a sense of humor and don't mind the subtitles or the technical limitations which go with a relatively low budget (I'd guess the movie cost about the same as Titanic's catering) it's well worth a look; one thing they definitely didn't skimp on is bullets and explosives!