I wasn't sure why this film didn't work as well for me as with other films with and by Sammo Hung. It's a Hong Kong version of The Dirty Dozen, collect a group of criminals and send them on a suicide mission in Vietnam. There's a reason why The Dirty Dozen is 2h 30min long, it spends half of its time introducing each of the characters and make you actually care about them when it's time for the actual mission. This film throws us right into the mission with a quick introduction of each character with a freeze frame and a letters printing out their name and the crime they're in prison for. You can also tell that this film is much more serious than Sammo's other films, still, there's a really strange kind of comedy throughout the film, one with a stuttering prisoner that made me cringe a bit and also the Lucky Star actor Charlie Chin, constantly flirting with the ladies.

But what we lose in plot, we get back in the action. The usage of firearms reminds me more of films like Rambo: First Blood Part II or Commando, loads of shooting, very macho and big guns in each arm while they kept on killing enemies. I couldn't say I cared too much how much firepower was used during the film, it somehow felt wrong to see Sammo shoot his enemies with guns. But we also get lots of martial art in the film and when Yuen Biao joins the gang as a local vietnamese who happens to be just as amazing at fighting as Sammo. The Killing Fields' Haing S. Ngor have a small role in the film as well, but I felt like the film didn't know how to use him, so his role was sadly forgotten in the end for what could've brought some more depth to it.

If you could rate different acts of the film alone, the third act is what would get 10 out of 10 stars from me, introducing late in the film the Giggling General (yes, he's named that here on imdb too) played by Wah Yuen, an actor I usually relate to comedies like Kung Fu Hustle, but here he's really creepy, and that giggling starts as something silly and funny soon turns into something very scary and dangerous. The extended fight scene between him and Yuen and Sammo gave me goosebumps, it was amazingly choreographed and the part where you could see Sammo's directing pay off the most.

Sadly the first acts drags the films rating down for me, but watch it for the final fight, it's well worth it. And like pretty much all other 80's HK action films, this one is just over 90 minutes long so it's a quick watch.

This Hong Kong action film is set shortly after the end of the Vietnam War. The American forces have left behind large stockpiles of weapons and want them destroyed before the Vietcong get their hands on them. To this end an entirely deniable group of convicts of Chinese ancestry is recruited and parachuted into Vietnam where they meet with a trio of female Cambodian guerrillas and two Vietnamese men they have been asked to rescue. As they head towards the target they encounter several groups of Vietcong. It will be a tough mission for them and not all of them will survive.

This might not be the best film concerned with the Vietnam War but it is still rather fun. There are plenty of nods to other films; the plot is clearly inspired by 'The Dirty Dozen' and one scene is from 'The Deer Hunter'... this isn't a problem though. There is plenty of action; this includes shooting, explosions and lots of impressive martial arts. There is also a degree of humour, although this doesn't get in the way of the drama. The acting is solid; most obviously from Sammo Hung, who also directed. Other notable performances come from Haing S. Ngor as mad uncle Lung Yeung and Joyce Godenzi as the leader of the Cambodian guerrillas. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of martial arts action and war films.

These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

This movie is described as a cross between the Dirty Dozen, the Deer Hunter, with a James Bond ending. I have not seen the Deer Hunter at the time of writing so I am not too sure what that is about except that it deals with mates going off to the Vietnam War together. This movie is like the Dirty Dozen as it involves a group of criminals being dropped into Vietnam to find a cache of American weapons and to destroy it. True to the Dirty Dozen fashion, the crims drop like flies (pardon the cliché) and only a handful make it out alive. While they are travelling across Vietnam, they must also rescue the general's brother who is a captive and they are also being pursued by a very large number of Viet-Cong.

This movie would fall into the category of a "did we win this time" film. Being made in the late 80's it appeared at a time when numerous Vietnam movies were being made in the United States, and this is Hong Kong showing the United States how a real action film should be made. This is a movie where they try to rewrite the ending of the Vietnam war so that the United States does come out victorious, rather that slinking out like they did.

Eastern Condors is not a political movie: Hong Kong movies tend not to follow that line. Nor is it a movie questioning morality or exploring characters: rather it is an action movie. It is a heaps good action movie, but an action movie nonetheless. When you come to watch this movie, you generally don't look for deep themes as there are none. Rather it is showing American Cinema what action movies really are like and how they really should be made.