Platoon Leader (1988)

i was there. plain and simple, this movie gives a very accurate account of the times during the Viet War... you would have had to be there to appreciate that fact.i (or any other vet) hardly expects the great unwashed masses that's never been to a hell hole like that or never been fired at or never picked up a weapon to do battle against a merciless foe to understand it. so naturally bad comments like, Worst Movie Ever, etc, etc...are to be expected. those sorts want only pure ENTERTAINMENT---and any historical value or memorial value or 'happened like REAL LIFE' value means NOTHING to them. :-( MD did a good, solid, very realistic job of portraying a young, green, Platoon Leader barely hanging onto his job AND his life (and that of his platoon's)in a VERY frightening (read impossible) situation...so good in fact that he reminds me of several of my own "Lutes" that i fought with (most of them died, sadly.) no, the film isn't perfect, but it's good solid fare for people REALLY interested in how it was in 'Nam. the rest of you clueless cats can eat it and die...who cares anyway what "YOU" think. you weren't there so you don't know jack-C--P about REAL war! btw...the 'grenade' comment is again obviously from somebody that has never fired a gun (or thrown a grenade) in anger. we only saw a FEW guys toss grenades in the film. quite possibly they were 'other' soldiers out of eyeshot ALSO tossing grenades! ---or possibly there were unseen explosives that the exploding grenades set off? d'oh! give this movie a break. and give it a look, cause it ain't bad at all for Hollywood combat. like the other fellow said...cause the Vets say it...and cause "I" say it! :-)

This is an above average war film, that's intense and well made, with an excellent lead performance from Dudikoff!. It's got lots of great war action, and all the characters were great, plus i really enjoyed the musical score!. It did take a little while to get going, and some of the dialog was bad, however Dudikoff is quite intense as the lead, flick, however it is quite entertaining, and even exciting at times, plus the ending was cool and very emotional. The character development wasn't too bad, and the story is pretty interesting, plus it had it's shocking moments. This is an above average war film, that's at times intense, and well made, with an excellent lead performance from as he carried the film, it also helped that the rest of the supporting cast was solid as well!. Granted it's your typical low budget War Dudikoff!. The Direction is good. Aaron Norris does a good job here, with good camera work, during the war scenes, good angles, and keeping the film at an interesting pace!. There is a bit of blood. We get lots of very gory wounds, and some gunshot wounds. The Acting is very good. Michael Dudikoff is FANTASTIC as always, and is fantastic here, he is extremely likable and intense, had good chemistry with Robert F. Lyons, and was just tons of fun to watch! (Dudikoff Rules!). Robert F. Lyons is great here, as the Sarge, he is very likable, and had good chemistry with Dudikoff i liked him lots. Michael DeLorenzo is good as the weasel. Rest of the cast do fine. Overall well worth a watch!. *** out of 5

Michael Dudikoff stars as Lt Jeff Knight a new commander in charge of the platoon who fight in Vietnam in this really bad and very tedious drama. The problem with Platoon Leader is that nothing happens, the drama is poorly done and Michael Dudikoff isn't the best guy to go with in this type of movie. Platoon Leader is a poorly written, wooden and witless bore.

We,of Road Kill Productions really like this movie. The effects are very good and the acting is good as well. This movie was made two years after Platoon was made and we must admit this movie is very dramatic and very striking in some scenes. We still think Platoon is better if course, but if you are a fan of platoon or any other War related flick. Odds are you might enjoy this movie.