Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Leofwine_draca SKELETON COAST is a very low rent action/war film, made in South Africa and shot in the Namibian desert. If you're going to watch it, it's going to be for the various ageing actors who have been coerced into appearing, because otherwise it's a film with no value. The action is cheap and repetitive, and the 'mission' plot feels meandering and lacking in plot.Ernest Borgnine headlines the piece as a mercenary who must break into a fortress to rescue his kidnapped son, but what plays out is cheap and lacklustre. Watch out for a gruff Oliver Reed cameo, a sheepish Robert Vaughn as the baddie, and Herbert Lom in an early part. Arnold Vosloo's here too, years before HARD TARGET and THE MUMMY, and he has a full head of hair! It says something that this is the most remarkable thing about the movie.

Tweekums When Michael Smith, a CIA agent, is captured by government forces in Angola his father, retired US Marine Colonel Bill Smith sets out to rescue him. He flies into South West Africa and learns that his son is being interrogated by an East German officer in an Angolan fort. He hires a group of mercenaries and heads through the Skeleton Coast desert towards the border. Things go wrong when they cross paths with Captain Simpson; a cruel man who is employed by the diamond mines to hunt down smugglers. This leaves them a man down and more importantly their vehicles are destroyed. He leaves Smith and his people to die in the desert but they find a new way to Angola. Once there they run into the rebel leader Smith's son had been working with then head to the fort to attempt a rescue.This is a distinctly average film; the plot is fairly basic and much of the action is fairly laughable. That said it isn't terrible; it just could have been much better. Ernest Borgnine is solid enough as Col. Smith and Oliver Reid was suitably menacing as Captain Simpson; it was a pity that his character didn't play a larger role. Robert Vaughn was okay as East German intelligence officer Maj. Schneider; he played the role fairly straight when some over-the-top hamminess might have suited the film more! The direction isn't the greatest; if it wasn't for the fact that it was a bit violent in places one could be forgiven for thinking it was made for television. Overall I'd say that this isn't worth going out of your way to find… it was just about worth the 50p I paid for it.

Bezenby It's yet another late eighties adventure/action film featuring such greats as Ernest Borgnine, Herbert Lom, Oliver Reed, Robert Vaughn and…Daniel Greene (from Atomic Cyborg and many, many Italian action films – maybe he got lost on his way to some Fabrizia De Angelis production?). This one has a kind of Dirty Dozen type deal going on which I'll explain….now: Over in some African country I never bothered remembering the name of, Borgnine's son gets kidnapped by the government (or the rebels, something like that), and Ernest goes to Africa to get him back, employing the help of Herbet Lom, then gathering together a rag tag group of mercenaries (Daniel Greene, token chick, token martial artist, old man, religious nut etc) and heads off into the desert with loads of guns to get him back. You know, the usual crap.It's fun watching Borgnine and his crew blowing the crap out of stuff, and facing off first against Oliver Reed's security forces (you've got to love the way the film makes you think that Reed will come back for another battle, but vanishes from the film instead) then Robert Vaughan's nazi-style forces. Things blow up, people fire machines guns at each other, and is it just me or did Borgnine and his crew just flat out murder those smugglers in order to get that plane? Why are action films from this era so appealing? I'm not sure. There's no barrage of over-stylised shots, no self-parody, no Tarantinoisms, and no modern film would end with such a cheesy freeze frame like this one does. That all helps. Plus, who doesn't like Ernest Borgnine? He was Mermaid Man!

shawhore This film is one of the greatest illusions I have ever witnessed - It managed to make my interest disappear right before my very eyes. Astounding! The acting made my hair stand on end (without any wires) and at one point I must have been hypnotised, because to this day I still haven't been able to recall anything redeeming about this film. There was some discreet mind-misdirecting going on during the act, I mean film, because my mind didn't just begin to wander, it took a bus halfway through the film and didn't turn up until the next morning. Conjuring Oliver Reed up in this film was a pretty clever gimmick as well. The penultimate showpiece was a "sleight of hand" trick: where I gave 36p of my money (via Amazon) for this DVD and never saw the cash again - simply amazing! All these of were mere parlour tricks though, compared to the final, and best trick of all... the one where I sawed the disc in half!