1/5 Stay away from this hellish DVD!
  by Dominic Cristinzio (Philadelphia, PA)
I seen this DVD available a week early at my local FYE for $[...] and I was eager to pick it up since I am a fan of the original cult hit The Inglorious Bastards and am looking forward to Quentin Tarintino's upcoming remake. I admit to being suspicious of this product at first, because it looked like a cheap DVD and I figured it might just be a cheap cash in on the upcoming remake, but seeing as it came packed with 3 other war films for a decent price I took the plunge...and now I regret it.

The DVD is a doubled sided disc with Apocalypse Mercenaries and Warbus 2 on Side A and IB2: Hell Heroes and Bridge To Hell on Side B. The 2 films on side A feature irremovable Asian subtitles and have pretty lousy audio and video. The Side B films have no subtitles but are equally as bad in the A/V department. Inglorious Bastards 2 seems to really be a late 80's Vietnam War film titled Hell's Heroes and has no connection to the first film other than Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson appearing in both movies. The aspect ratio on Hell's Heroes is very odd...there is a thin black bar at the top of the screen and then a small box of the film on top of a massive black bar that fills up the rest of the screen. Even if you mess around with your TV menu to fit the image to fill the screen, it is still a horrible transfer.

I'm not sure how rare any of these films are, but I was never aware of a 'sequel' to Inglorious Bastards and this looks like the only way to get it on DVD. I rarely write reviews on Amazon, but I felt compelled to warn others about this poorly done DVD before they consider purchasing this. For those looking forward to the new Inglorious Basterds, I suggest checking out the original from 1978 which is a far superior DVD than this ca$h in and is now also available on Blu-Ray.

Edit: I have to admit I didn't bother watching any of the films in their entirety due to the horrible transfers, so I can't really comment on the merits of the films themselves other than they all appear to be B grade war films. I love B movies and Exploitation cinema (especially from the 80's) but I can't stand Dollar Store quality DVD's.


4/5 More exploitation action films that you'll probably see nowhere else from Video Asia
  by Stephen M. Kopian (GLEN HEAD, NY USA)
This is yet another Video Asia release which means that if you know what you're getting- VHS sourced movies on DVD for a small amount of money- you'll be fine with it. If you're going in expecting a major studio release with fancy picture and sound you'll be disappointed. You have to understand that in many cases the company is the only one releasing the films in English or anywhere, the choice is these less than perfect prints or nothing. Most of what Video Asia releases are low budget exploitation films that were made fast and cheap for a buck and which no other company would put money into releasing because the profit margin is so small (so small for get about restoration). I don't mind it having purchased many of the company's other releases (The Grindhouse Experience series of example)

The source for these films are clearly video tape since you can see tape wear in a couple of films. For the most part even owing to the source tapes limitations things aren't that bad. The one real problem with a picture is Hell's Heroes (aka Inglorious Bastards 2) since it appears to have had the image cropped in an odd letterbox. I'm guessing that its the result of a non-USA source pre-anamorphic tape that had subtitles at the bottom of the screen (some Asian countries would have letterbox prints with the picture at the top of the screen and subtitles in the black space below.) Its a minor thing even if the picture doesn't quite work with the widescreen TV.

The films themselves are good Euro-war films of decidedly B level action and budget level.

Hells Heroes (Inglorious 2) is about a break out of prisoners in Viet Nam and how they try to get to freedom before they are retaken by the American army. Its a good looking film with a bit too much talking.

Bridge to Hell concerns POWs escaping from the Nazi's in Yugoslavia and ending up fighting with the partisans. Its a good little film that is mindless entertainment. (its uses some footage from another bigger budget film for some of the action scenes.)

Apocalypse Mercenaries is about a team of soldier who are put together to fight Nazi's in Yugoslavia. Its a fast moving action film that doesn't have tome to let you think about the silliness of it all. This too has inserted sequences from another war film. Its not always perfect but if you go with it you'll enjoy it.

Warbus 2 is an in name only sequel to a better film called Warbus (thats on Video Asia's Grind House Experience Merc collection). the on screen title is actually Afghanistan:The Last Warbus. Its a just okay war film about a green beret going into Afghanistan to get documents hidden on a bus. No it makes no sense and if you let it not make sense its a watchable little film. Personally I'd rather see the first film again, but I didn't hate this.

Are the films great? no they are all films for a rainy Sunday on the couch. Did I mind paying for the videotape sourced films? considering I paid about 6 dollars for the DVD which works out to a buck fifty each, no I didn't. Frankly I got four films for what was little more than the price of a rental at Blockbuster (and I know I'll probably watch all but Warbus 2 again). Honestly had this disc not come out I probably would not have seen the films. I like the films and accepted the presentation for what it was. If you want high quality movies in a high quality release look for some other titles. Of you want low budget exploitation films that you'll probably not see any other way and don't mind the bargain basement presentation give it a shot

1/5 Worst DVD I Have Ever Bought!
  by Daniel E. Lee
I was skeptical at first on buying this one but I said what the hell and I bought it. Well after taking it home and popping this one in I was extremely pissed when I started to watch Inglorious Bastards 2 I realized that the company took the widescreen version and chopped off over 25% of the picture and trust me, it is very noticeable! This is seriously the worst dvd purchase I have ever done! Save yourself money and avoid this dvd at all costs!

4/5 Fair Enough
  by Andrew Paul (Borneo)
Thanks a lot to Video Asia for this releasing. Though it's true that the picture quality is not up to DVD Standard but to me it is fair enough in regard to the selling price. I'm proud to own the DVD by the way.
Anyway, in the near future, I hope Video Asia would consider releasing some other rare war movies such as 1) Strike Commando 2) The Walking dead 3) Platoon Leader 4) Field of Fire 5) Crossbone Territory 6) The Devastator