This movie begins in Saigon right before the Tet Offensive with a young prostitute lying naked on a bed when suddenly the man she just slept with pulls out a gun and shoots her in the head. As it turns out that the only evidence found at the scene points to an American army officer which in turn results in two C.I.D. agents named "Buck McGriff" (Willem Dafoe) and "Albaby Perkins" (Gregory Hines) being sent to investigate. Unfortunately, they soon realize that the person behind these killings is very well connected and anybody who gets too close gets eliminated before they can disclose anything. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie started off real well and I especially liked the depiction of the Saigon night life during this particular time. However, the film got more than a little far-fetched about two-thirds of the way in which caused it to lose a great deal of credibility from there on out. Although I still don't consider this film to be bad necessarily, it could have been much better without some of the ridiculous scenarios towards the end and with that in mind I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

Tough Sgt. Buck McGriff (the always excellent Willem Dafoe) and his equally hard-nosed partner Sgt. Albaby Perkins (a sound and convincing performance by Gregory Hines) find themselves in tremendous jeopardy as they investigate a series of vicious Vietnamese prostitute murders in 1968 Saigon. Director Christopher Crowe, who also co-wrote the coarse and engrossing script with Jack Tibeau, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, creates and maintains an uncompromisingly harsh and gritty tone, builds a good deal of tension, and stages the rousing action set pieces with real crackling aplomb. The strong chemistry between Dafoe and Hines really keeps the picture humming; they receive sturdy support from Amanda Pays as streetwise nun Nicole, Fred Ward as their easygoing superior Dix, Scott Glenn as the fearsome and unhinged Colonel Dexter Armstrong, Keith David as surly uncooperative witness Maurice, David Alan Grier as the helpful Rogers, Kay Tong Lim as meddlesome Vietnamese cop Lime Green, and Raymond O'Connor as the paranoid Elgin Flowers. The seedy exotic location, unsparingly profane dialogue, sordid subject matter, startling outbursts of raw brutal violence, and a sizable smattering of nudity give this movie an extra tart'n'tangy kick. David Gribble's glittery cinematography and James Newton Howard's pulsating score are both up to par. A most worthwhile film.

In the first 20 minutes we find out what the crime is and who did it.After finding a witness to a murder the detectives know the killer is an officer. The witness is then killed in their hiding spot. Very likely only one officer could have known where he was. They then find there were previous killings and that all record of them have been wiped out. Again the suspect officer would have had to of known of these killings but acts as though he never has. But our star detectives are completely befuddled.The next 70 minutes is anti-climatic to all except the characters in the film and the screenwriters. Even Inspector Clouseau would have found and arrested the guilty party in the first 20 minutes of this film.

From early on in this film, you got the feeling that this was destined to fall into the love story between Willem Dafoe and the cute nun.Colourful indeed!Dafoe and his partner Gregory Hinds are investigating murders of prostitutes in Saigon, who have all been killed by an American GI. It's their job to find which one.Competently scripted, reasonably directed and acted, this is another in the line of harmless enough Vietnam films of the time, that are neither particularly good nor particularly bad.