Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

An action-packed slog

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

"Attack Force Z" depicts a fictitious operation by a five-man team from Z Special Unit, a predominantly Australian special operations unit in World War II, who are assigned to infiltrate a Japanese-occupied island in (presumably) the Dutch East Indies to rescue the aircrew of a downed Allied aircraft. The team is plagued by recurring bad luck (which quickly alerts the Japanese to their presence) and by friction between the inexperienced team leader, Captain Paul Kelly (Gibson), and his more experienced but erratic subordinate, a Dutch lieutenant named Jan Veitch (Law), the team's most fluent Chinese speaker. When the team manages to enlist the aid of the local resistance, further friction develops between Kelly and the local cell leader, Lin Chan-Lang (Ko), who resents Kelly's holding back information about the plane's occupants. About halfway in, however, we do discover why Kelly is under strict orders to keep clam.For a (relatively) low-budget war movie, "Attack Force Z" is pretty good. The costumes and weapons are about as historically accurate as feasible, and the filming location--Taiwan--is convincing enough as an island at the other end of the South China Sea. Particularly enjoyable is the fact that Asian characters speak their respective languages on screen, rather than accented English. This, however, does lead me to the film's main problem, at least to me, which is that it's a mess ethnographically and consequently linguistically. Because it was shot in Taiwan with a mostly Taiwanese (or otherwise ethnically Chinese) cast, the island's population appears to be entirely ethnically Chinese without a single speaker of Malay (as it was then called) in evidence, the occasional pitji cap-wearing extra notwithstanding. This also results in the somewhat unlikely situation of Veitch being fluent in Chinese rather than Malay.Veitch is the most problematic character in the film. The original director, Phillip Noyce, left the project at least partly because he disagreed with the producers over the choice of John Phillip Law to play Veitch, and bluntly, he was right: Law simply doesn't pull off anything resembling a credible Dutchman. It's not entirely his fault, though, because the writer and producers don't seem to have ever so much as met a Dutch person, as is apparent from the fact that Veitch isn't even a Dutch name (insofar as I can make out, it's Scottish). Admittedly, I am myself Dutch and my paternal grandmother's family lived in the East Indies so this is a niggle that maybe affects me more than the typical viewer but it's emblematic of what's wrong with an otherwise perfectly enjoyable film. Enough so that I can almost overlook how all the team members manage to stay clean shaven despite not having time to shave.

I don't know enough about Aussie involvement in WWII to say if this has actually happened, but I understand that there are definitely some things that don't ring true, accuracy-wise. The plot is fine, though I can't claim that this ever gripped me. Not even a firm handshake. The pacing is reasonable enough, and the battles and such have their moments. Acting is mixed, none of it got me that engaged in this. Was Gibson not a name yet? Mad Max was out, as was its first sequel. Did he not get recognition before Lethal Weapon? I am not sufficiently familiar with his career, and I frankly don't care to be. Neill, come on, he's got talent, had that not been realized at this point? Did he need a paycheck? That badly? Seriously? While I suppose I may have just watched a half-heartedly put together copy of this, I gotta say... there were a lot of speeches in, I guess Mandarin, that seemed to be important and like they should affect the audience, in spite of the fact that they were not subbed. What gives? I did follow the story, however, if the words were meant to evoke emotion, they failed. Still, this is not useless, or it doesn't have to be. If so inclined, you can make drinking games for it. How about every time a gun fires without making a sound? Each time the piece of music playing in this is one that belongs in a film at least one or two decades prior to the release of this. And of course, whenever you spot a tired action flick cliché. Make sure to stock up. I recommend this to the biggest fans of war movies. 5/10

War films formed the basis of many a childhood, mine included, and this film is a firm favourite of mine, my brother and my cousin.Made by the Australian film industry it is one of two films about the Australian Special Task Force Z during the Second World War. It shows that the war in the Pacific was not won solely by the Americans and that the Japanese occupation of China was brutal to anyone who would oppose them. Having seen photos of what the Japanese did to Chinese relatives of mine and to the population of China in general this film goes someway to highlight a rather forgotten piece of history.Having said that, taking the film as an action/ war drama it is well paced and fairly realistic with but one feat of fantasy. As cinematic trivia it is noteworthy for the performances of Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and singer/actress Sylvia Chang pre-stardom. The star that never was, John Phillip Law takes centre stage for the most part but is beaten for intensity by Gibson as the young officer. The effects are a bit ropey, the blood has the red paint quality of war films of the late 60's - early 70's, but this adds to the charm.If you like "men on a mission" films you should enjoy this. NB- For more films on the Z Special Forces see "Heroes" 1 and 2 (made for tv). "Heroes 2" follows the same failed real-life mission as the second of the two Australian films whose title escapes me.

Sam Neill is such a hottie. And I love that Mr. Box! And my favorite scene in the whole thing was the one where the trees were talking to each other with the subtitles. Brilliant filmmaking!