Attack Force Z

It is ANZAC Day in Australia. A day where we celebrate, not war, but the brave Men and Women who have served our Country. We rise early for service, we march, we raise a glass in rememberance of the fallen, we flip a coin on the only day of the year when it is legal, we munch on biscuits and then we settle in for what is always a epic game of Footy. And if you are like me...you watch an Aussie themed war film or two 😅 First on our ANZAC Day double header is Attack Force Z. More like Attack Force Zzzz 😴 A fictionalised account of the real life covert Z Special Unit a group of Aussie, Kiwi and Pommy soldiers who undertook Solid Snake style stealth missions in WWII. Starring an impossibly young group of Strayan icons including Mel Gibson, Sam Neill, John Waters (the Aussie actor...not the Pink Flamingoes fella) and Chris Haywood. The crew infiltrate a Japanese occupied Chinese village where they must recover the mystery inhabitants of a downed aircraft. Yank blow-in (It would seem I tend to revert to Australian colloquialisms when reviewing on ANZAC day) John Phillip Law plays Veitch, a Dutch soldier aligned with the crew, and finds himself falling in love with brave local Chien Hua (Sylvia Chang) who is really the most sympathetic character in the movie. I kind of fell in love with her too. But...sadly Sylvia is the only thing to love about this movie. Attack Force Z does very little attacking and a lot of stealthily manoeuvring in and out of basements. The romantic subplot is lukewarm (despite Sylvia's best efforts), the score is a woeful pantomime-esque piece of patriotic jingoism that calls attention to itself way too often (it even uses a fucking gong whenever the Chinese characters are on screen 🙄) and the action scenes are pedestrian, staged with nary a hint of camera movement and endless cutting back and forth between oppossing sides firing guns. Rinse and repeat. Oh but at least we do get some brief moments of Kung Fu (also pedestrian). The opening sequence has a scene of cold blooded savagery that is so out of synch with the concept of mateship, which is made even worse by immediately cutting to a jaunty tune as the crew traipse through the jungle seemingly with zero reflection or recognition of the events having just occurred. There are later attempts to make some commentary on the cost of civillians who aided allies in the war effort, only to be deserted at the completion of a mission, but it feels tacked on and is not particularly successfull. Interestingly Phillip Noyce had originally been lined up to direct but fell out with producers, leaving Tim Burstall as a last minute replacement. Mel Gibson later called the film "pretty woeful... it's so bad, it's funny." If only that were true Mel, unfortunately it is hard to rouse even ironic enjoyment out of this one.