Attack Force Z; A movie saved from obscurity solely because it provided early rolls to Mel Gibson and Sam Neill. Throw parallels to The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) and you got yourself an Australian knock-off of early tough-soldier- man American bravado.A group of Australian special forces is deployed during WWII to recover the passengers of a downed plane in Japanese occupied Dutch East Indies. There they kick the proverbial hornets nest and try to stay alive thanks to the help of an underground resistance movement.It was hard to get into this one largely due to its constant clichés. I guess I have seen the dramatic self-sacrifice of a noble comrade and stealth gone awry because a twig snapped way too many times. The characters themselves aren't incredibly developed and any attempt to flesh them out feels jerky and unnatural. At one point it just gets absurd as one character stays behind to protect the love interest he had shared a room with only a few cuts ago. Granted she prevented him from being discovered but besides a common enemy they had little to really bond over.Another major problem I had was the elongated scenes involving other languages like Japanese and Cantonese. Perhaps it was just the version I saw but with no subtitles provided, I was forced to guess what they were saying and only later confirm what was going on. Plus if I'm not mistaken, they speak Malay in Indonesia not Cantonese.

I don't know enough about Aussie involvement in WWII to say if this has actually happened, but I understand that there are definitely some things that don't ring true, accuracy-wise. The plot is fine, though I can't claim that this ever gripped me. Not even a firm handshake. The pacing is reasonable enough, and the battles and such have their moments. Acting is mixed, none of it got me that engaged in this. Was Gibson not a name yet? Mad Max was out, as was its first sequel. Did he not get recognition before Lethal Weapon? I am not sufficiently familiar with his career, and I frankly don't care to be. Neill, come on, he's got talent, had that not been realized at this point? Did he need a paycheck? That badly? Seriously? While I suppose I may have just watched a half-heartedly put together copy of this, I gotta say... there were a lot of speeches in, I guess Mandarin, that seemed to be important and like they should affect the audience, in spite of the fact that they were not subbed. What gives? I did follow the story, however, if the words were meant to evoke emotion, they failed. Still, this is not useless, or it doesn't have to be. If so inclined, you can make drinking games for it. How about every time a gun fires without making a sound? Each time the piece of music playing in this is one that belongs in a film at least one or two decades prior to the release of this. And of course, whenever you spot a tired action flick cliché. Make sure to stock up. I recommend this to the biggest fans of war movies. 5/10

I presume that this movie was meant to be a tribute for the Australasian special forces operating in WW2. Now, I've no doubt that they were totally professional and highly trained individuals, I just don't think this movie did them too many favours. They made so many tactical errors and decisions based on emotion that I'm quite sure in real life, thy wouldn't have made. Individuals leaving their unit as they'd fallen for a girl! Sorry, but it just wouldn't have happened with so much at stake. On the positive side, this had a great cast and terrific authentic locations. The action sequences were well done and the torture scenes particularly harrowing. But at the end of the movie, I just sat there thinking, what were they really fighting for and was it all necessary? So many lives taken without a second thought and for what? Not a classic, but thought provoking which in my book, is never bad.

War films formed the basis of many a childhood, mine included, and this film is a firm favourite of mine, my brother and my cousin.Made by the Australian film industry it is one of two films about the Australian Special Task Force Z during the Second World War. It shows that the war in the Pacific was not won solely by the Americans and that the Japanese occupation of China was brutal to anyone who would oppose them. Having seen photos of what the Japanese did to Chinese relatives of mine and to the population of China in general this film goes someway to highlight a rather forgotten piece of history.Having said that, taking the film as an action/ war drama it is well paced and fairly realistic with but one feat of fantasy. As cinematic trivia it is noteworthy for the performances of Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and singer/actress Sylvia Chang pre-stardom. The star that never was, John Phillip Law takes centre stage for the most part but is beaten for intensity by Gibson as the young officer. The effects are a bit ropey, the blood has the red paint quality of war films of the late 60's - early 70's, but this adds to the charm.If you like "men on a mission" films you should enjoy this. NB- For more films on the Z Special Forces see "Heroes" 1 and 2 (made for tv). "Heroes 2" follows the same failed real-life mission as the second of the two Australian films whose title escapes me.