Vietnam War Story II

MOVIE #1,697 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 06.05.24 D̷I̷R̷E̷C̷T̷O̷R̷ ̷F̷I̷L̷L̷-̷I̷N̷ ̷S̷E̷R̷I̷E̷S̷:̷ JACK SHOLDER I keep thinking I need to tweak my whole system for how I review movies on this site. I spend more time on it than I should, both in terms of not generating any interest/eyeballs (which I've long since stopped caring about) and the quality of the actual work (which I do care about). The biggest time sucks — like my in-depth Cage series — are worthwhile for what they are: I'm proud of them even if they definitely feel like work 50+ entries deep now. But I'll be the first to admit that with many of the lesser flicks I review, I'm 100% phoning that shit in. Enter: Vietnam War Story II, a 1988 film that was released direct-to-video consisting of three 30-minute segments, each filmed by a different director, based on the television series, Vietnam War Story (it's funny this is billed as a “part 2” because there really doesn't seem to be a part 1 — I guess they're referring to the TV series as a while but it's still weird).

So what do I make of this? I'm here because of Sholder, who directed the third and last installment of the anthology. This whole movie is fine for what it is — Wesley Snipes features in the first episode, and classic THAT GUY Tate Donovan plays the lead in the middle short, and Sholder’s “The Fragging” is the most realistic, or at least the most prototypical ‘Nam MOVIE like’ in that classic, nihilistic way — but part of me feels like watching it and then spending time on a review of it is a gigantic waste of time (I've still never seen Seven Samurai!).

I feel like Thomas Haden Church's character in Sideways when he says, "You don't understand my plight” in terms of justifying these ‘critiques’. Sometimes I want to give up on my entire, extremely rigid watching and posting regiment, which I stick to at the detriment of other projects (and you know, work and life too…). Then I think I just need to find a gimmick or a consistent style/voice, or I should restart the podcast and say screw it to writing about every single one of these films. Right before I ended the audio portion of this website, I debuted a new squirrel character (me) and it was so stupid it nearly broke me and I shuddered the “show” part of the URL above indefinitely soon after.

So as I sit here writing this on my phone as I watch the T-Wolves go on a 27-2 run in the first quarter of their game 6 NBA playoff game against Denver, I’m once again at a crossroads. So let it be stated here and now that I plan on doing this without stopping from now until I leave this mortal coil. I’m just gonna write whatever the hell I want and not worry about it: typos, voice, quality control, you name it. In the immortal words of Miley Cyrus…

It's MY MOVIE WEBSITE, I can do what I want
It's MY MOVIE WEBSITE, I can say what I want
It's MY MOVIE WEBSITE, I can love who I want
I can kiss (like a movie?) who I want
I can screw (hate a movie??) who I want

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,696 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,698 ⫸

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Vietnam War Story II is a 1988 film that was released direct-to-video. The film consists of three 30 minute segments, each filmed by a different director. The first segment stars Wesley Snipes as a young soldier in the Vietnam War. The film was based on the television series, Vietnam War Story. The films directors are David Burton Morris, Jack Sholder and Michael Toshiyuki Uno. It was released on Aug 3, 1988.