1968 Tunnel Rats (2008) User Reviews (74)

Boll has finally done it

[UberNoodle · 4/10 · 4 March 2009]

It is very easy to hate on anything that Uwe Boll does, and it is clear that most people here are taking this path of least resistance and jumping that same wagon. However, it takes a greater person to admit when they were wrong and give credit when it is due, and it most certainly due. If one really wanted to, they could pick apart the historical accuracy of the film, or the tactics, or the costuming, or the geography; I am sure that such people could easily find some justification for condemning this film.

On the other hand, what would follow would be a trite listing of errors and complaints, tarted up with clever comments and sealed with some witty remark. Is that what proper film critique is about? It doesn't take much in the way of intelligence to attack and destroy what you see before you. That is why people do it so easily and without thought. In a way, this film touches on that very human failing. So many film goers and critics (professional and armchair) are going to dismiss this film as if it is some plague carrier, and only because of the name that goes with it. I feel sorry for those people because they will miss out on a great many interesting and even inspiring film experiences in their life time.

Tunnel Rats is one such experience. It is a small production and done very succinctly and without much extraneous posturing. From the first scene, the film gets right down to business and doesn't really let up until the gripping and downright mortifying ending. Perhaps it is the small size of the production that has kept Boll honest somewhat. I can imagine that when contracted to make Hollywood films, there is a lot of pressure to appeal to the attention deficit audiences out there, often the very ones that hate him, and therefore he aims too far above his mark.

In this film he hits the mark very confidently and professionally. It is worth seeing this film, and doing so without preconception or judgment. Boll is just the director and a film is a sum of its parts, even though Boll directed this film, there were dozens of earnest and hardworking actors and crew members putting in their all to make this film. It is the hight of arrogance to laugh at their efforts and belittle what they made when truly there is nothing really wrong with it.

I hope that enough people are see this film so that Boll can keep doing what he enjoys and sharing it with people. Every film, when made earnestly, has something worthwhile to show us. Stay free of the popularist hate for Uwe Boll and see films for what they are.

Only good underground

[QinetiQ · 5/10 · 3 February 2009]

Tunnel Rats is about clearing out the VC tunnels and it is clear this movie dedicates to that. The fights in the tunnels are good and refreshing, movie-wise. There are a lot of Vietnam movies around, this one separates itself from those because of the main theme.

Now, the fights and..well,everything besídes the tunnels is just poorly done. Nothing is right, from uniforms to weapons, to action scenes, all is badly done. Apparently these tunnel rats work independantly (?) and just have a hippie-gathering somewhere in the jungle. They have it all set up, showers etc, all is there. What they forgot to make is a perimeter of some kind. To everyone's surprise they get attacked (wich can only BE a surprise since they had no line of sight at all around the camp).

So the VC's storms the camp, and while they are in a (badly acted) fight,explosions everywhere, there are still soldiers walking out their tent like it is a sundaymorning.I cant believe any director would let scenes like that be in their movie.

With the well-done tunnel scenes and all the innovations shown within them, I was sadly disappointed by the rest of this movie. Which is a shame, since it had a fresh look on things. A 7 for the tunnelscenes, a 3 for the jungle-scenes, is a 5.

The First Boll Movie out of Three i found actually GOOD!

[sennenhund · 6/10 · 24 March 2009]

First of all, I am no Boll-Fan nor Boll-Basher but some year back I heard about him and his awful movie adaptions of Videogames. I saw "Alone In The Dark" (first Boll Flick for me) and after it was finished i thought the movie could have been better, the worst thing is that the way the movie was cut together was just bad, in all Actionscenes i thought "What the Hell". Sometimes I couldn't even tell what was going on or what the director tried to say with his scene. Second one I saw was "Postal" much better than "Alone In The Dark" better cut together and even some good laughs, but still, Postal is a bit strange too.

Then yesterday I watched "Tunnel Rats". I always thought that Vietnam was the most interesting war for warmovies and I loved the PC-Game "Vietcong" with the Underground-Tunnel Levels. If I would have to go in such a narrow tunnel with traps, I would probably die of Fear. The Scenes in the Tunnels are mostly Dark, which I hate about Movies, but in this one I was okay with these many dark scenes. The hole time i feared with the soldiers in the Tunnels. Some Actionscenes above Ground are still a bit strange cut and don't look to good but i absolutely loved the moments in the Tunnels, and the most time they are in the Tunnels. I NEVER would have thought it but Uwe made a Movie i really liked. The Tunnels Scenes are suspense, full with terror and very brutal but realistic. I would really like to shake your hand Herr Boll and I hope you will improve even more!

I Bet if this movie would have been a Secret Project and no one would know if it was a Boll Movie, much more Cinemas would have played it and the Rating would bet at least 5.5-6.0 Stars! 65% of the Ratings given to Boll Movies are from Bashers and Fools who just rate 1 because they "know" the movies must be bad! I saw two Boll movies and agreed: Bad Director not the right feeling for Cuts etc. but I gave him another chance, and so should you. THIS MOVIE IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE 4.2 STARS SHOWN.

Worst Nam movie ever made

[denryter18919 · 1/10 · 24 September 2009]

As a Nam vet and former combat infantry squad leader I can tell you this movie was 80% BS. As commented on by others we don't build permanent camps in the middle of the jungle. Camps are built in areas where clear fields of fire can be created so that daylight surprise attacks like the one depicted in the movie cannot happen. There also were no jeeps riding down two tracks in the jungle, for the same obvious reason. There are so many factual errors in this flick like uni's, incorrect armaments, a unit insignia that I've never seen before, etc, etc, etc. The director obviously had no knowledge of what went on in Vietnam and he didn't bother to find out by bringing in a knowledgeable technical consultant. This movie is without question the worst Vietnam era movie ever made and one of the worst war movies of all time. The shame of it is that there is a truly gripping story to be told about guys who volunteered to be tunnel rats in the Nam and this flick failed miserably to tell that story. What's worse is from what I see on this website, far too many of you think this was some kind of representative and half way decent movie. Nothing could be further from the truth. And FYI, there were no 6 foot and 6 foot plus tunnel rats as depicted in the movie. Tunnel rats by necessity were the shortest guys who more approximated the size of the people who built and used the tunnels.

Claustrophobic

[relars1 · 5/10 · 15 September 2013]

A movie about American soldiers in the Vietnam conflict. Besieged by enemy soldiers conducting hit-and-run sorties against the Americans, the G.I.'s make the decision to go down into the tunnels, after their enemies.

What follows, is a gritty, grim and gruesome depiction of individual combat scenes in terribly small underground tunnels. American soldiers must ignore the personal danger, and enter into this cramped, nightmare world loaded with booby-traps, Punji stakes, water traps and the fanatical resistance of North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers and irregulars.

Generally armed only with .45 pistols and flashlights, the Americans must find and kill their enemies at arms' length range, then find a way to get around the dead bodies in the tunnels.

The directors of this movie deliberately emphasized the smallness of the tunnels - the claustrophobic surroundings are pushed into the viewers' faces relentlessly, and virtually take over the entire story. As each individual soldier belly-crawls through the tunnels, the personal nature of this battle, and the seeming hopelessness of any chance of surviving this experience - is designed to give the viewer bad dreams.

Story? Not much of one. Character development? None. Plot twists/unexpected developments? Nope. Instead of actually being a movie, this devolves into a carnival of slaughter. Unless you just like grimness and hopeless situations, you're not going to get much out of this movie. While the face-to-face encounters in the tunnels seem to be fairly accurate depictions, the rest of the battle scenes and any special effects are quite cheesy. Repeated viewings, either for entertainment's sake, or to look for things not seen in the first viewing? - you'd have to have something wrong with you.

A piece of c*#%

[dmuel · 1/10 · 21 June 2010]

Uwe Boll, previously a purveyor of "torture porn", has suddenly decided to try his hand at a war movie. This one's titled 1968 Tunnel Rats, presumably because his viewing fans, (of which there are several in these pages), would then have some idea of when the Vietnam war occurred. The "story", such as it is, revolves around a platoon of American soldiers who are on a search and destroy mission. They uncover some Viet Cong underground tunnels in the jungle and, in the process of reconnoitering, many die horrible deaths. This is where Mr. Boll's previous film experience comes in handy, and thus the description of some viewers here as "intense". Actually it's simply poorly staged screen violence, the main attraction of Boll's previous film efforts, and there's little else that adds interest to the movie. One of the worst Vietnam war movies ever made.

to war we go!

[tomprobert666 · 7/10 · 31 August 2009]

People thought he could never do.. but he did and this is the best film he has made so far.

Uwe Boll the German director who has be come known for the creation of some of the worst films in history. And most of them were video game adaptations.

But maybe Postal was the beginning of a transformation. it wasn't a very good film but at least it had some very good bits. Far cry was better but still not great.

Tunnel Rats is good. though its not that great and still some visible cracks but at least its the cracks are not so wide. the dialogue is still full of problems but the plot is rather good. the action is intense and meaningful.

the film was even very moving at times. I wanted to find problems with the movie but found more good points rather than bad points. which is rare in a Uwe Boll film. many of the characters were still 2 Dimensional but the music,action,plot made up for many of the mistakes.

Some war films about Vietnam show the power of the American army, but this film at least shows the Americans being kicked about which I have only seen in Platoon.

Uwe Boll has made a film and it is not a bad film.

Way too many Techinical errors!

[MsGt_G_GoRdOn · 2/10 · 21 November 2008]

Apart from being a terrible film with a bad script, bad acting and a bad storyline, this film had far too many errors.

In the credits at the end of the movie it lists a Maarten Coatzee as the films Technical Adviser. Now the big question is, what exactly did he advise? The film had so many technical errors i felt like i was watching another amateur made Youtube movie!

Now I've seen my share of bad Vietnam films, but this takes the cake!! M16-a2 and m655 carbine rifles being used by U.S soldiers, Woodland Cameo helmet covers, WW2 era uniforms, post Vietnam web gear, VC using Norinco Type 84S rifles instead of Ak-47s, VC soldiers with hairstyles like they just walked off the set of Tokyo drift, and to top it off, a military outpost built deep into the jungle with no perimeter wire, no field of fire, or guard tower to be seen. Its no wonder why they where over-run so easily.

If you want to see a good story of Tunnel warfare in Nam, Watch the second episode of Tour of Duty titled "Notes from the Underground". For a TV show made 21 years ago, it sure does put this rubbish to shame.

It really is sad that the Tunnel Rats of Cu Chi didn't get a better film. They sure deserve it.

Like the tunnels in the film, the film is an ambush on the audience in the sense Boll takes us all by surprise.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 7 April 2009]

What am I supposed to say about a war film made by Uwe Boll? I know the man by reputation alone and this is my first venture into his film-making domain. It seems he's brought about quite an aura for horrifically bad films, and yet there I was watching Tunnel Rats and genuinely thinking it was a good effort. Am I supposed to sit here and say it's a horrid, pointless mess of fast edits and nonsensical action running on a paper thin script complete with horrid acting? Should that sort of summary be synonymous with a Uwe Boll war film? Well surprise, surprise Tunnel Rats is actually a damn fine effort and it proves people are willing to jump on certain critical bandwagons just as easily as people are willing to jump on positive bandwagons.

The film succeeds in the sense it captures the madness of war as well as delivering scenes of strong, bloody violence that repulses more than it does excite as these various action set-pieces and scenarios play out. Hey, this is more than what the recent Rambo film offered when all we got was a plethora of gore and disembowelment as 'justified' warfare was played out between those poor, poor Christians and those evil, evil Burmese soldiers. The primary content and the 'tunnel rats' of the title refers to soldiers whom engage in activity you feel you'd have to be mad to partake in; an activity that is not about capturing or defending terrain; or searching out an individual alá Apocalypse Now or Saving Private Ryan, but about clearing Vietcong tunnels located beneath the battlefields.

The Tunnel Rats of the title are three jeep loads of soldiers assigned to the Củ Chi tunnel complex, Vietnam, in 1968. Their task is to clear out the tunnels surrounding their base camp – traps, enemies and all. The platoon are made up of all sorts; these are not just faceless characters called in to spawn some bloody violence/action as they 'blow some stuff up real good' for the benefit of a passive audience. Some are white, some are black; some are younger than others; some are innocent, naive and soft-bodied whereas some others feel the need to stamp authority within the group. Some even share certain religious beliefs that others do not subscribe to.

There are some points in which you want the characters whom are down in those tunnels out and 'safe' as soon as possible, then there are others during which you want them down there and 'safe' as potential danger approaches on the surface. Other times, soldiers survive the ordeal of the tunnels only to emerge and face new horrors. Boll toys with the audience in this regard, using each respective 'space' as both a safe haven and a potential death trap at various times to really good effect.

The team assigned to deal with this tunnel network share some thoughts and memories from childhood the night before they ship out to begin work. We know the tunnels are a dingy and claustrophobic space on top of a dangerous locale thanks to the opening scene. Further talk of the tunnels being death traps plays out with some characters speculating the dangers through past stories and rumour as well as how the Vietcong can 'smell' you. This makes the scenes later on when a character lights up a cigarette down there even more harrowing. The talk of the tunnels further prolongs anxiety, as the brief but memorable opening scene floats in and around our memory. The tunnels, however, remain off screen and we know what awaits the group, giving us a position of power – a position of power that is further emphasised when we witness entire scenes dedicated to the Vietcong, the American's enemy, one occurrence of which sees the camera crane directly below a Tunnel Rat to reveal a makeshift Vietcong war room.

Initially, the first tunnel is a bit of a disaster. It is a dead end and while eliminating two of the enemy, they loose three guys. The sense of failure and frustration at such a cost for so little is clearly evident, very briefly creating a helpless and desperate atmosphere in the film and in our own minds about the situation. Boll captures the horror and the cramped conditions of the tunnels perfectly. Shooting in low light and keeping his camera rock steady as his subject scurries and struggles about erratically, we feel frightened when people venture into the unknown and horrified when altercation with the enemy arises.

Boll even finds room to develop scenarios within the already established conventions by including the character of Vo Mai (Jane Le) as this frightened Vietnamese woman who lives within the tunnels with her two young children. The award winning Jane Le does a great job in portraying the fear and madness of it all. The final thirty minutes or so are pure, gripping, impressive war genre cinema. I didn't notice it beforehand, but there is a certain electronic pulsating sound effect/musical number that plays on a loop during this time, which really captures the horror and the suspense you're witnessing as people scrap for their lives – it's fascinating to watch.

Whereas Michael Bay can just fetishise action and gunfire with copious amounts of explosions and slow motion towards the end of Transformers as that becomes even more empty headed; vacuous and nonsensical than it already was, and Stallone can offer nothing bar mere break-neck action as the baddies get their comeuppance toward the conclusion of Rambo IV, Boll shows us that war is, in fact, Hell and war-zones are places you really don't ever want to be. The two respective films have high IMDb ratings close to '7'; Tunnel Rats has something bordering on '4' – looks like that Boll-hate bandwagon is in full runaway mode, whereas the Stallone/Bay-love bandwagon is on an equally slick streak. How sad.

Extremely Disappointing in a Number of Ways

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 24 December 2020]

One of the more unique aspects of the Vietnam War was the manner in which the Viet Cong had built a series of long tunnels in certain areas of the country with the most famous being in the Cu-Chi district just outside of Saigon. So when I saw a film that was based on this feature of the war I was instantly drawn to it. Unfortunately, I really shouldn't have bothered as this film was extremely disappointing in a number of ways. For starters, the size of the soldiers featured in this movie is all wrong as none of them fit the parameters necessary to be a tunnel rat. The fact was that the normal Viet Cong soldier was typically short and thin and the tunnels were deliberately made to barely accommodate them. So in order to be a tunnel rat one generally had to be-short and thin. Another strange scene involved the manner in which the base camp was set right in the middle of the jungle with no clearing, concertina wire, machine gun posts, claymore mines or anybody apparently guarding the perimeter. Again, that isn't how the American Army operated. Speaking of machine guns, in one particular scene one of the soldiers is firing an M60 from his hip while standing in the open. Well, maybe that's how Rambo might have done it but generally the first thing an American soldier is trained to do is to immediately find cover or concealment when under attack and the M60 machine gun is typically fired from the prone position. That's why it has a bipod. Be that as it may, there are plenty of other errors within this film but the main thing I didn't care for was the overall story itself as it didn't seem to have a point. Yes, war is hell. But it wasn't necessary to use 96 minutes to convey that message. At least, I didn't think so and for the reasons just mentioned I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

Incredibly intense

[DistantJ · 9/10 · 31 May 2009]

Another unfortunate film meeting "we hate the director because the internet told us to" preconceptions, 1968 Tunnel Rats is a complete success in what it sets out to do - create an overwhelming sense of fear and claustrophobia.

There are war movies, and there are horror movies. This is both. Yet, there is no Predator creature jumping around, no crazy virus, no hallucinations, no. The war is scary enough itself.

There's no patriotic propaganda here, neither is there any political anti-war message, the movie just shows us how scary life as a soldier could be. This is the kind of fear which is felt by real people, every day.

A highly recommended film if you like tension and suspense. More accessible than SEED, more mature than Alone in the Dark.

A blunt, brutal and uncompromising film about the horrors of the Vietnam War.

[JJohnny_Cool · 7/10 · 9 June 2009]

When controversial German director Uwe Boll (HOUSE OF THE DEAD) first announced that he wanted to shoot an absolutely uncompromising, blunt and brutal movie about the cruelties of the Vietnam War, not just a few critics shook their heads in disbelief and predicted a major failure on all levels as they just couldn't imagine that infamous filmmaker, who once knocked out four internet bashers in a boxing challenge, to tackle such a serious subject with the needed amount of tactfulness and sincerity. And I gotta admit that even though I'm quite a huge fan of Uwe Boll's work, I personally wasn't 100% sure either what to expect from a project like this...

But now that I finally got my hands on a DVD of said film and ultimately got to see TUNNEL RATS (I missed the flick's short theatrical run here in Germany), I can say with a clear conscience that all those badmouths were once again a bit too fast with their criticism and concerns, cause apparently TUNNEL RATS turned out to be a pretty neat and well-done war movie, whose intensity and brutality will not leave you cold.

The film, which is set in the jungle of Cu Chi in 1968, tells the tragic story of a group of young American soldiers lead by the hard-boiled Sgt. Hollowborn (Michael Pare) who get orders to explore and secure a complex tunnel system which the Vietcong use to move through the jungle without being heard or seen. As soon the GIs step down into the dark and narrow corridors, however, they gotta learn the hard way that their enemy is way more accustomed to the unusual surroundings and skilled in the antics of guerrilla warfare than they are and hence it doesn't take long until one GI after the other has to face a merciless death and the defeat of the whole platoon seems almost inevitable… In an early interview, Uwe Boll once said that one of his main intents for TUNNEL RATS was to show the absurdity and senselessness of war.

Those guys who fight for their country with guns in their hands are all young, vital and full of hopes, dreams and ambitions. They got their whole lives ahead of them, but earlier than they've bargained for, they have to realize that in a game like this there's only losers but no winners. And when they're left to die all on their own a thousand miles away from home, they don't feel like heroes at all and pride and glory are about the last things that they think of…

The whole pointlessness of war is a constant and reoccurring theme in TUNNEL RATS and just like war itself ain't exactly fun and enjoyment, this film is also far from being your typical good time bubblegum blockbuster… TUNNEL RATS is very slow-paced, very raw, very dirty, very brutal, very pessimistic… and very honest. It surely lacks the epic proportions of "big" war movies such as PLATOON, APOCALYPSE NOW and FULL METAL JACKET, but it makes up for this with sheer intensity and a great dose of suspense; the latter being mainly the product of Uwe Boll making really good use of the perilous environment throughout the whole course of the movie. No matter whether the GIs are marching through the thick green hell of the jungle or crawling through the claustrophobic constriction of the tunnels, you can't help but feel a constant uneasiness and uncomfortableness, which ultimately finds its climax in a devastating and truly shattering finale that you won't soon forget.

Being more of light-hearted kind of guy, I have to say that I personally didn't enjoy TUNNEL RATS as much as I enjoyed Uwe Boll's action-packed, over-the-top no-brainers such as HOUSE OF THE DEAD, BLOODRAYNE and IN THE NAME OF THE KING, but this doesn't change the fact at all that TUNNEL RATS is still one of Uwe's most atmospheric and coherent films so far and definitely worth watching for all fans of unsparing war movies such as JOHN RAMBO and Co.

Featuring the most inept squad in military history

[abark · 5/10 · 14 August 2009]

I never went through boot camp. I've never been in the military. I've certainly never been sent overseas into a war zone.

However, throughout this movie I found myself constantly wondering 'Why are they doing that?' For example: Though it makes for better lighting for the actor-- While crawling around in a tunnel, full of hidden enemies, it doesn't seem like it would take much training to know that shining your flashlight in your face instead of down the tunnel, just doesn't seem very smart.

Not to mention using a flashlight without a red filter(to preserve night vision) seems doubly not that smart.

Or soldiers who have fought tooth and nail to survive, only to stand like they are watching fireworks while bombs land on their heads.

The only movie I can think of that features such inept soldiers is the last Hills Have Eyes 2 remake, but they were just in training, which is where this unit should have been left.

Don't bother

[fivekc · 1/10 · 24 July 2011]

Make no bones about it, this film is TERRIBLE. Everything about the making and production of this film has been shockingly misjudged.

For the first 30 minutes of this Boll tries to make you fell empathy for the character's bleak situation for what lies ahead, but instead it just irritates you as the characters are all paper-thin and the dialogue is terrible. As the film progresses it becomes more and more silly, and is riddled with historical and tactical inaccuracies, which really make you think he should have read a bit more into the background of the actual tunnel rat units in Vietnam. At some point it almost borders on insult towards Americans in its ridiculous and unsentimental portrayal of its fighting men.

If like me, you watched this film hoping for insight into this fascinating aspect of fighting in the Vietnam war, I suggest instead you read Mangold & Penycate's Tunnels of CuChi, its what Boll should have done.

Autistic and insufferable

[richkiel · 1/10 · 10 August 2021]

Uwe Boll always makes films that are poorly written, directed, and edited. So you know what to expect. This film is everything you expected. If you like films that lack any artistic value and deliver only brutal (though poorly directed) action, check this out. At the end of the day, the film is just an excuse to construct a bunch of rather sadistic scenes that mean absolutely nothing. Storytelling here is less than inept and frankly, there is no story here. If you like this, chances are you have mental issues. That being said, there is stuff out there that is far more sadistic, and Boll is on the 'tame' side of that spectrum.

Going back to the stupidity of the film... According to Uwe Boll, pretty much anyone who ever had the job of a tunnel rat died within 30 minutes, and if the death toll of American troops was anywhere close to what we see in the film, there would be about 80 million casualties of war at the end. Of course, these soldiers do not know what the chain of command means, they have no combat skills, and none of them has ever heard of something called 'cover'. These guys just stand upright and shoot billions of bullets until they get hit. This is Rambo school of combat, only with poor direction. Also, the limited budget really shows during battle scenes, because I am pretty sure he only had two or three Asians (I don't believe they are even Vietnamese), and these are in all combat scenes. They get shot, and in the next scene they are back, supposedly as a different soldier. It's pretty ridiculous. Of course, Boll doesn't waste this opportunity to insert all his favourite tropes about the war, including a silly scene where the commander of the unit calls in an air strike on his own position. What is funny about it is that he first calls in support, and then three seconds later changes his mind, and sort of gives up, telling them to forget support and just blow everyone up, including his own surviving men. The film is a bizarre blend of incredible cruelty and incredible stupidity, all created by a mind that seemingly hasn't progressed beyond 6th grade.

Not a Great Film by any Means

[collioure_bee · 2/10 · 23 November 2008]

This film was based on true events and if the US soldiers were as badly trained and stupid as this outfit are portrayed, then it's a wonder they didn't lose the war sooner.

For example,we see two soldiers standing over a hole while comrades are below and these two soldiers see the VC coming. Do they find cover from which to fight behind? Nope one stands up swinging a big machine gun one handed arnie style shouting at them. They have a camp in the middle of the jungle and the VC attack, right from the first tent. How on earth would they have gotten that close to a base camp? No fences or guards on duty that day? Please. Then the CO calls for immediate air support as they are being over-run, been over-run would have been more like it. The immediate air support didn't turn up until later when everybody had gone home, had they flown all the way from America? You felt absolutely no sympathy with the characters, we had just about every clichéd character you could think of except the chirpy cockney and the scouse scallywag. They tried to build backgrounds and personalities to the characters but failed miserably, maybe because it was done very lazily, ie having two actors discuss all the characters for our benefit while they eat. The conversation just doesn't seem real.

It is a shame because the film started well and the scene in the tunnels involving the mother and kids was genuinely tense but it seemed so out of place with the rest of the film which was, badly acted to say the least. I seem to remember the excellent Tour of Duty TV series covering this subject in one episode and they managed to fit in more tension and understanding of these terrifying tunnels in a fifty minute programme than this film managed.

I just kept thinking that 1968 Tunnel Rats was like a bad horror film where the goodies (in this case the tunnel rats)were being picked off one by one by the evil monster (the VC) in different and more nasty ways and the only mystery was who is the one that is going to survive? Is it the guy that believes God will protect him? The CO that is nasty to his men as a way of protecting them and preparing them for the nasties of war etc?

Uwe throws a new spin on Viet Nam with a low budget but a fun plot vehicle

[dilbertsuperman · 6/10 · 8 July 2009]

I've seen a lot of 'Nam flicks but I can't really remember one that covered the tunnel rats so well and in such detail. The acting is a bit uneven and the budget is obviously very low, however if you overlook this and simply enjoy a new twist on a Viet Nam tale this winds up coming out OK and watchable. I enjoyed the tunnel scenes the most, the feeling of claustrophobia and some interesting booby traps. With a bigger budget you could really flesh this movie out but instead we get the bare bones and those aren't bad either. Not anywhere on the same level as Platoon or Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket, but it can be fun watch if you are in the mood for something different with the occasional decent gore scene. Some of the actors need to be slapped for calling themselves actors in this movie, but overall there were several decent moments.

PLOT: the underground maze of tunnels in Viet Nam is the monster in this movie.. our boys are trying to beat it.. but the tunnels are hungry.. down they go, but do they get to make it back up to the daylight and get back home? Several perils await as the men get split up and picked off by the Viet Cong.

If War is Hell, Boll is Satan

[K2nsl3r · 3/10 · 16 February 2009]

This movie is a squandered opportunity.

Uwe Boll apparently thought the best way to make a statement about the pointlessness of war was by making a pointlessly long, wound-inducing, brutally ugly and disturbingly unoriginal genre film.

Here, the director had a chance to redeem himself after a series of flops and turds. In Postal, at least, he showed some promise of not taking himself too seriously, and while the end result there wasn't exactly a good film, at least it was entertaining.

But don't believe the hype.

In Tunnel Rats, Boll is aiming for a serious, realistic movie. The film is marketed as being "for the fans of Apocalypse Now and Platoon", which by itself is a patently ridiculous and preposterous thing to say, coming from a film maker who has built his career on lowering the bar on genre films, from horror (Seed) and action (Bloodrayne) to comedy (Postal). By making a "war film", Boll has proved himself yet again as a completely derivative and wannabe director who is not concerned with either originality, artistic impact or entertainment value. What is good in this movie is stolen from other directors. What is bad in this movie is the result of bad imitation or skewed interpretation of the masters, combined with a lot of self-indulgent, amateurish drivel. To compare his works to those of Oliver Stone or Francis Coppola is an insult to the craft.

Nor am I trying to be unduly harsh on the man. I don't care that he is a popular subject of internet ridicule. I only care about the fact that he makes bad movies, with the sort of inane persistence that is mind boggling. And to stay true to his vision, the last 50 minutes of this film are some of his worst yet. Bravo, Herr Boll: job well done.

But let's start at the beginning. The movie opens up with some nice open angle shots, followed by scenes at and around the camp. The characters are introduced, some chatter is spewed back and forth, the setting is laid out in order to be upset by events to come. The characters are clichés, the dialogue is completely unoriginal. There are at least four or five variations of the theme of "I want to go home but we can't 'cos we're stuck here and war is hell." The movie is ridiculously excessive in its repetition of the message of "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto". Emotions are shown without preparation or care, and we are left without any means of relating to these cardboard figures - shadows, as they are, of American stereotypes.

From the first action scene on, and all the way through the laborious tunnel sequences throughout the film to the final scene, the movie shows signs of some of the worst pacing and cohesion in recent memory. The movie is about as chaotic as war, but that is not cinema verité: Uwe Boll simply happens to be the cinematic equivalent of a shell shock treatment. Maybe that's why this movie is seen by some to be authentic in its demented convolutions, because they think that Boll has created some postmodern masterpiece here. But what they mistake for craft is simply Boll's inability to make a coherent narrative last more than 10 minutes. And because war is all about brutal ugliness, Uwe Boll just naturally happens to have the inherent lack of vision, honesty and skills to drive that point home involuntarily. Boll IS war.

Uwe Boll is the worst enemy to his own movies. He is like the Viet Cong digging tunnels underneath the movie crew's feet, or more like a saboteur within. After he is done, little remains of a salvageable movie. He snips out all developments, abandons all his characters, fails to release tension that he builds up unnecessarily, meanders like a schizophrenic tunnel rat in a maze, throws random scenes at the viewer in a barrage of images that might as well have been edited together using an aleatory computer program or an astrological chart... and finally, he repeats and repeats and repeats the same stupid mistakes of his earlier movies as if self-criticism and self-learning were signs of weakness. The latter half of the movie is an irredeemable catastrophe, as if even the editor gave up on this movie after the midpoint. There is such a lack of love here that one wonders if it's not done on purpose in some cruel, twisted joke.

This is certainly not Uwe Boll's worst movie. At least Seed, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead are even more disturbingly amateurish. But what makes Tunnel Rats perhaps more distressing than those previous stinkers is its subject matter: war. The film is so dark, gray, boring, claustrophobic and ugly that it's perhaps his least entertaining movie yet. And it certainly fails as a message movie, because it has no intellectual honesty or artistic merit to speak of. So who is it for? What's the point? I really don't know... The film is a completely dishonest hack job, a failure in its own terms, and a complete humour failure to boot.

This movie is ugly, meandering, brutal, pointless and painfully long.

Yes, in that regard, it is an apt representation of Vietnam.

Thank god we're not in Vietnam anymore, Toto.

" Take a weapon into the dark and it might be used against you "

[thinker1691 · 6/10 · 18 December 2009]

There are many occupations one might chose while in the Military, being a Tunnel Rat in Viet-Nam is not one of the favorites. Having served in Viet-Nam, I will say, blunt admiration went out from the members of our platoon and little disrespect was ever shown to those who survived. This film is called " Tunnel Rats " and brings to the fore, the thankless but courageous job these men did. I suspect the director's intent was to show the dramatic, dangerous and often suicidal missions these specialist were sent to accomplish. Filming both sides of the conflict, the camera also offered the Vietnamese' struggles against the Americans. From what there is to see, the soldiers on both sides engage in brutal and terrifying face to face combat with split-second reactions at every meeting. Michael Pare is supposedly a Lt. but listed as a Sargent in the film and with his men is dropped into the jungles with a search and destroy mission. Once inside the black maze-like underground environment, life takes on a nightmarish and hellish life of its own. Only the actual combat soldier who survives the encounters could ever reveal what it's like to be scared every second beneath the natural cemetery. A good film, but difficult to follow as most of the action is filmed in the dark. Despite it being a bit inaccurate, its worthwhile watching. ***

war is futile, just like this horrible movie.

[bdaubney · 1/10 · 29 July 2010]

I've always been a fan of war movies, Vietnam in particular. I like how film directors work hard to try their best to re-create the horror and brutality of war. It is very frustrating to me when you find a movie like 'Tunnel Rats', that seems to lack any real focus or originality. Basically, to me, this movie is awful. Terrible acting, plot less storyline--even the costumes were bad. I don't understand, with all the brilliant war movies out there, not to mention thousands of books about Vietnam War for references, how the director didn't put any effort into the realism of the story. It's over-the-top gore in places just seemed unnecessary,like it was trying to compensate for the rest of this wasted movie. If you like Vietnam films, avoid this turkey and just watch one of the classics instead.

Rats, No Cheese

[Jonny_Numb · 8/10 · 5 February 2010]

If you're looking for an intricate plot, look elsewhere. If you're looking for feel-good, shoot-em-up action, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the latest sugar-pill rom-com with Sandra Bullock, why are you even reading this? In Uwe Boll's stunning "Tunnel Rats," the increasingly interesting (but still no less maligned) German director has made what essentially amounts to a chronicle of the madness of war told in a confined, claustrophobic, and frighteningly intimate way. The concept and plot (a platoon of American soldiers uncovering underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong to stage ambushes) are one and the same; and the metaphors paralleling confined spaces to the erosion of sanity are strong--hysteria is very viscerally believable here. While the character introductions and subsequent dialogs may strike notes of familiarity to the seasoned connoisseur of cinematic warfare, it's the unfamiliarity of the cast (with Boll regular Michael Pare being the only 'name' actor present) that makes it all stick; the lack of name actors only heightens the suspense, especially after they've earned our sympathy. To see these young men trapped in confined, booby-trapped spaces (with nothing but a revolver and a flashlight) is the stuff of nightmares, even more so than "The Descent" a few years back. The film maintains a bleak, free-form nihilism throughout, its plot (much like the war it's invoking) a jagged sequence of events rather than a simple matter of connect-the-dots conflict resolution. Tough, hypnotic, and refreshingly free of contrived stylistic symbolism, "Tunnel Rats" could very well be Uwe Boll's masterpiece.

7.5 out of 10

Uwe Boll's war - an underground hell of a B-movie, taut, raw, spectacular, no characterization

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 2 August 2010]

Uwe Boll, what's with you making good movies all of a sudden? Perhaps Postal got him out of the stupor of churning out celluloid crap-shoots and now, more or less in his career, he's actually trying. This doesn't mean he's always a filmmaker that people should rush out to see. There's a reason, for example, that he won't have a movie play in theaters again the way he had with his video-game bullshit in the mainstream. But under the radar, he's able to do a little more than before, with a little ambition going a ways in a B-movie set up. Tunnel Rats is such a B-movie that there aren't any really recognizable actors (not even the somewhat recognizable star of Rampage). In that sense it reminds one of those old-school war movies of the 50's and 60's (Merill's Marauder's anyone) where the lack of recognizable faces lends further authenticity to the situations.

There isn't really a firm plot for the film, but this is not too much of a problem. What's basic to lay out is that there are a lot of intricate tunnels under the surface in Vietnam, and they've been dug by the Vietcong as their own kind of maze. We get to know the characters, more or less, though to keep track of names might be fruitless; we know these people more by type or by personality (one very pleasant touch is that one of the real walking clichés in war movies- the guy who prattles on and just can't wait to get home to his mama or wife or whatever- not only doesn't get slaughtered the first chance it should happen, but he becomes a momentary bad-ass in hand-to-hand combat right in the s*** of things.

The lack of characterization could be a much bigger flaw to contend with if it were a firm character piece. But aside from some early getting- to-know-you chit-chat (and one other cliché, describing what it was like back home, is a little more intolerable), when the troops start to move out and go into the tunnels, it becomes a non-stop action film. And as part of Boll's ambition to twist the much done Vietnam-War film - a particular kind of war film sub-genre in some respects - most of the runtime is spent underground as the Americans and the Vietcong square off, in the dark, sometimes not knowing who is going to come upon the other. For two points of reference, think of the opening sequence of Casualties of War, only extended to the claustrophobic, horror film extremes of The Descent (albeit Boll is not as strong or inventive a filmmaker as De Palma or Marshall, save for the touches of claustrophobia and the ultra-grisly violence).

Boll doesn't turn away from the more gruesome bits, and we shouldn't either. We're in combat that is massive, all over the place, super- bloody, and it works to ratchet up the tension. We are also given a little of the "other" side, which is just as primitive in their reaction to the US and the US is to them (the "three of them raped a woman, I must kill them all" line is all we get for rationale, whatever). But in an odd way a woman with two kids ends up getting some complexity, if only towards the end during a very intense scene where she's confronted by another US soldier during a bombing raid. Boll could bleed (no pun intended) this over into melodrama, but doesn't too much. If he's guilty of things it's lack of characterization and a very strong story, which should be big cinematic crimes. However, he also has a fantastic sense of pacing action, knows well where to put the camera, and gives some of the soldiers a chance to shine on screen. When it keeps its focus narrow and strong, it's something of a triumph... and then one has to remember it's Uwe Boll. Once again, who knew?

One of the worst Vietnam War movies ever!

[krzysztof-pajaczkowski · 1/10 · 29 May 2010]

This movie is really, really bad. I don't understand who gave the money to make it. It's real hard to point out the mistakes as there are everywhere uniforms, field gear, weapons it's all wrong. Viet Cong wearing steel helmets, 5.56mm mags in their weapons, most of the US gear is from the 80's... I could go on and on and on. I can't find any part of the movie worth watching, it's unwatchable even after a 0,5l of vodka. A real disaster. I must say, I have some knowledge about Vietnam War and read some/watch some of the literature/movies about this period. Anyway, I couldn't find one thing right in this movie. Not a single one...

Awful bad movie

[Chainring · 1/10 · 1 January 2009]

This has got to be one of the worst movies ever made. I'm not being prejudiced against the director. this movie just plain sucks. I know some of you like it because it has a lot of blood and gore and mangled bodies and lots of stuff gets blown up. If that's your cup of tea, go for it. But in this movie, this is what is missing: any kind of acting, any possible directing, anything resembling realistic jungle battle, intelligent dialog, story line and plot without holes galore, intelligent soldiers, and I could go on and on. This is not how war is. This is not how it was in Vietnam. This does not show any side of humanity. It's a jumbled up mess. A complete waste of time and money. Do not see this film. Time for the director to retire.

Not even close

[biker-30 · 1/10 · 17 February 2009]

This is probably one of the worst films on Nam I've ever seen. So unorganized and unprofessional that is the guys I served with acted that way none of us would have came home.

I like Michael Pare's acting but not in this movie. The writer should have gotten his facts straight or at least talked to some real tunnel rats. Even a unit in the Army that served in Nam didn't act that way in Nam. Not that I ever saw, but my time was in the Marines and not a chance did a Marine unit ever act like this movie portrayed.

zadziks from Antarctica gave it a 10, he has no clue or is getting royalties from the DVD sells.

Pure waste of time.