BA_Harrison
Just one of the many Italian-made Vietnam war titles to proliferate the video shelves in the '80s, director Ferdinando Baldi's War Bus is light on plot, but heavy on the action, making it a mindlessly entertaining way to pass the time.The film opens as the North Vietnamese attack a jungle mission, the outpost's occupants narrowly escaping on a school bus. Soon after, the missionaries encounter three U.S. marines who commandeer the vehicle. What follows is an arduous trek through hostile territory, with the odds for survival stacked against them.Although the movie's characters are clichéd and the dialogue predictably dumb, it matters not, Baldi delivering precisely what fans of this kind of flick demand: almost non-stop action, with lots and lots of machine gun fire and great big explosions. Pyrotechnically speaking, the film is a blast (pun intended), with huts and vehicles erupting in fireballs throughout, a vast portion of the budget clearly spent on TNT.The finalé is particularly fun, as the NVA launch a final attack just as help is on the way, with a massive battle in which the hitherto unscathed heroes finally suffer some casualties (although it's not all that hard to guess who survives and who buys the farm).
dbborroughs
Fleeing a Christian mission under Viet Cong attack some soldiers and missionaries make their way into the jungle in a school bus. The bus is stopped and commandeered by some other soldiers on a mission and in desperate need of transport. Ridding the bus of the VC agent driver they take the bus on their mission putting everyone in danger.Solid action film isn't anything special other than it moves along at a good clip and keeps things moving in such away that things never have a chance to get dull or boring. The action scenes are suitably explosion filled and the non-combat stuff is just different enough that you don't feel like you're getting bogged down in cliché. Never aspiring to be more that the action filled exploitation film that it is, the film manages to provide enough entertainment that you don't feel you've wasted your time. Its perfect for curling up on a couch and watching on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
HaemovoreRex
This is a surprisingly solid, low budget Vietnam flick that boasts some excellent battle scenes and a plethora of big and beautiful pyrotechnic displays throughout.The plot concerns a small group of people who are forced to flee from their base (which happens to be a Mission) in an old school bus when the VC launch a vicious assault upon it. Along the way they are joined by a group of three battle hardened American Special Forces soldiers and together they desperately fight to make it to safety.Whilst admittedly not particularly ambitious plot wise, it's the action that counts here and as previously stated, the film really delivers the goods in this department. It's especially great also to see the actors doing their own stunts including some stylish tumbling moves.If war flicks are your cup of tea then you would be well advised to check this little known gem out.
Bezenby
On the surface Warbus appears to be a standard boring Italian Vietnam war flick, but in actual fact, and to my surprise, it turned out to be hilarious.It seems that the director realised that in these war flicks the between-battle scenes can get draggy and boring, so rather than have faceless characters standing around doing nothing, he inserts all manner of quirkiness to keep the viewer glued to the screen.Ever watched an action movie where the heroine ignores the hero and cops off with a middle aged man? Or a movie where the hero has to use reading glasses to operate a radio? How about a main character who suffers from epilepsy for no reason at all? Warbus has it all, to the extent that the action scenes get in the way of the quirks.It's relatively well directed too, and the dubbing is competent for a late-era Italian genre movie. The action scenes seem to have more extras than your average Nam flicks, although no effort has been made to conceal the obviously Phillipino actors.I paid 75pence for this. It was worth every penny.
AD
