Raw Force (1982)

As Good As It Gets

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

RAW FORCE was way more fun than I expected. It's darn campy, featuring ninja zombies, piranhas, cannibalistic monks and jade-dealing Nazis. This movie is also sometimes known as KUNG FU CANNIBALS ... which should tell you everything!The plot is "simple": A group of kung fu aficionados is on a journey to a haunted island where the spirits of forsaken martial arts fighters are said to live. On their journey, the cruise is intercepted by a Hitleresque crime lord and his fellows. The nazi gang trades prostitutes for jade with the flesh-eating monks of the island, and neither monks nor Nazis wants their scheme to be tampered with by some kung-fu-loving tourists...This short plot summary should say it all. You're not watching RAW FORCE for hoity-toity drama and high quality cinematography and plot development, but for its nonstop action and camp. What I really liked about the movie is that in contrast to some other B-movies, its pace never lets you down. The action is nonstop but not in a way that gets you bored. And you care for the characters just enough to watch this movie till the end. Definitely one of the more fun B-movies, although the gore factor could be amped up. Overall quite enjoyable, especially when with friends.

A group of martial arts students decides that they will visit the Asian island home of martial artists who have lost their honour. Well, not only will they have a nefarious jade dealer & white slave trader to deal with, but the resident mad monks as well."Raw Force" is short on sense and long on nonsense. If one is not partial to the charms of the silly side of B cinema, then stay away! Otherwise, this is great fun that writer / director Edward Murphy is wise to play tongue in cheek. You have to hand it to him for including so many exploitable elements in this wild and crazy flick: cannibalism, zombies, karate, etc. The dialogue and performances are often quite ridiculous, and while the actors stop short of winking at the camera, Murphy does keep that tone alive.The special effects are lousy, the zombies are a rather sad lot sporting less than stellar grey makeup, the T & A quotient is high (at one point, a hero and villain have a fight in a room where a naked woman is tied up), and the gore is plentiful.Ubiquitous Cameron Mitchell has the leading role of intrepid pleasure ship captain Harry Dodds. Co-starring are his real-life girlfriend Hope Holiday as Hazel, Geoffrey Binney ("Hot Potato") as Mike, Jillian Kesner ("Firecracker") as Cookie, John Dresden ("Not of This Earth" '88) as John, and Filipino icon Vic Diaz, rarely to be seen without a smile on his face, as one of the monks. Exploitation fanatics will dig the appearances by Camille Keaton ("I Spit on Your Grave" '78) and Jewel Shepard ("The Return of the Living Dead"). Ralph Lombardi hams it up, egregious accent and all, as the Hitler lookalike villain.We even get a couple stock shots from the New World production "Piranha" '78 before this is over. "Raw Force" is unmistakably gutter trash, but is done with enough humour and spirit to make it engaging entertainment.Eight out of 10.

This late-comer into the multitude of American/Fillipino range of exploitation actioners falls into a category of the horror/kung- fu/adventure sub-genres prevalent at the time. It tells the story of a group of passengers on a ship heading to Warriors Island. A place where ancient, disgraced Asian martial artists have gone to meet their makers. An island where the ornamental stone, Jade is mined and sold onto Western interests. The majority of the film consists of various boat- party scenes, where 'weird' people inhabit, and the breast quoter is met easily, with the plenitude of naked, gyrating females paraded in front of camera for no apparent reason. These are intercut with random 'man- fights'; also filling a quoter for 'kung-fu' action. Two of the pre- requisites for exploitationers world-wide.One of the boat parties is interrupted by a band of all-killing village people-a-likes; pirate and guerrilla in their approach. They invade the ship and kill anyone that gets in their way. This happens why? Well, we will never know. Eventually the ship catches fire, and the survivors set off in a dingy. They do reach their ultimate destination of Warrior Island, but want to leave immediately. Did they want to go there in the first place? And if so, what for? They certainly have no interest whilst they are there!Well, once they have been given the option for escape from the island, they are given the chance, with a proposition of battle. The dead warriors are risen from eternal sleep. These beautifully blue-faced zombie Ninja/Samurai Warrior/Shaolin Monk forgotten combatants are set on the marooned gang. Not 100% sure what this film is trying to be. It is at once an Indiana jones-like adventure picture; a zombie infested nightmare; a kung-fu actioner. Well, it fails in being either an adventure, or a martial arts 'effort'. It even fails to create any scares in the horror department; the only frightening element being the ending threat title of: 'To be continued'. It does however, contain some brief moments of verbal joy. There are moments of dialogue that simply gives giggly pleasure. Momentary, forgettable, but a little bit of frivolous nonsense.

i was kinda interested in this movie as a trashy cannibal flick. i was thoroughly disappointed. it was the same kind of disappointment i felt watching 'friday the 13th: jason takes manhattan'. so much potential wasted!the opening scene is a decent attention grabber. then it grinds to a halt. copious breasts and egregious 80s fashion cannot help this movie. the only things eating near this island of cannibal monks are the piranha! i'm not asking for 'cannibal holocaust' level of gore, but i was looking for cheap over-the-top exploitative gore. i got none of that.i found a couple parts of the fight scenes somewhat intriguing, hence the 2 stars. i don't think its really worth the time it takes to watch it, though. i could see showing it at a party where nobody cares about what is going on and you just want something on in the background. but i would not tell anyone, "oh, dude, you GOTTA see this movie." it is neither good enough nor bad enough to warrant much attention.