Ambush (2023)

 

      “Ambush” is a film by Mark Burman.  He is a producer of B-movies like “Piranha Sharks”. He directed and co-wrote the movie with three others. That’s right, it took four writers.  The movie is set in South Vietnam in 1966. It tells the tale of a special forces team that has to go into a Viet Cong tunnel system to acquire valuable intelligence that will win the war.  It made $26,000 at the box office. The movie probably still made a profit.

General Drummond (Alan Eckhart) in Da Nang is upset because a binder containing the names of all the secret agents has been stolen. A Green Beret team is tasked with getting it back. They bring the binder back, but the V.C. launch an attack on the base camp to try to get it back. The VC apparently do not know that fire can burn a binder. And Drummond does not realize he could simply put the binder in a helicopter and fly it to safety. Lucky for the base unit, they have fortified the camp, including a moat!  Unfortunately, the water and crocodiles have not been added yet. The attack is combat porn at its most comical. There is chaos and explosions. Men run around on fire. Just a few enemy get in, but they manage to get the binder from where it is hidden!  Since Burman still has film left, he assigns the bad-ass Miller (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) as a tracker. He is a Lt. Colonel!  He locates the tunnel, but does not go in. He sends the green Lt. Ackerman (Connor Paolo) with seven men who have never been in a tunnel. Guess whether they all come back.  Meanwhile, Miller wanders around mapping the area. What the hell is this guy doing?

“Ambush” is a typical third tier Vietnam War movie. You can not expect quality cinema. You should prepare yourself for mindless combat, terrible dialogue, and bad acting, even though the movie has Eckhart and Rhys-Meyers. Neither puts much effort into their characters. The movie has only a toe in the reality lake. The plot is brain-dead.  The tunnel is like a cave. No crouching by our heroes. You can comfortably walk around. The cinematography is hand-held which would have been impressive if it was an authentic VC tunnel. The tunnel is like a haunted house. It is a maze with some large rooms. One grunt dies from a scorpion bite. Another is killed because these dudes have no noise discipline. A third falls on the obligatory punji stakes. One of them finds a flame-thrower and uses it until the tank is hit by a bullet. It’s maelstrom of bad acting and ridiculous combat. Who will survive? Who cares?  None of the characters are developed to the point that you care about them. The plot developments are so ludicrous that by the end of the movie I was in tears from laughing.

“Ambush” pompously dedicates itself to the 58,000 names on the Vietnam Memorial. Wow, what a great honor to have piece of crap commemorating your sacrifice. I’m sure the dead tunnel rats at least got a good laugh out of it in Heaven. By the way, the title has nothing to do with the movie. There is not a single ambush in the film. Not that reality was a factor in the screenplay. There are a lot of good Vietnam War movies. Don’t watch this movie until you finish with the good ones. And the mediocre ones.

GRADE  =  D