It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

To the Shores of Hell has two things going for it: an astonishing assortment of military hardware (most of it presumably purloined from stock footage) and tons of explosive sound effects. Tanks, landing craft, fighters, helicopters...they're all here, sandwiched in between boring sequences featuring Hollywood legend Richard Arlen as order-spouting Brigadier General Ramsgate. An added highlight is the presence of lunatic former Congressman 'B-1 Bob' Dornan, here playing prisoner of war Gary Donahue, whom brother Greg (Daktari's Marshall Thompson) is attempting to rescue ala Rambo. Most of the film plays like a war game, and there's next to no effort to develop characters. Nonetheless, To the Shores of Hell represents one of the earliest efforts to portray the Vietnam War on film, and even though it's not very good, it's compulsively watchable. Originally shot in Techniscope, the film is sadly only available on a long out of print pan and scan VHS tape.

Probably no one will read this, as it is a very obscure, hard to find film. The action sequences are pretty good, and of course, Marshall Thompson is more than competent. With a fairly short running time, the film moves right along.I discovered this film as a result of working with Richard Jordahl who plays Father Bourget in this film. We were coworkers from the 1980's through the 1990's. After he retired from the company (not film) we worked for, he moved to Beaumont, California. Beaumont is near Palm Springs. I lost track of him after that. Richard also did community theater, and he had a great sense of humor. For instance, he told me that his performance in this film set Catholicism back 50 years! The film Richard starred in, "Capture That Capsule", was sneaked at a small independent theater in Inglewood in 1960. I was there, and so was Richard although we didn't meet at that time. Small world.If you can locate a copy of this film, most likely VHS, it is worth a viewing.